Lighting Digital Field Guide

Chapter 2. Camera Controls of Light

Your digital camera contains all the lighting controls, shooting modes, and metering modes you need to realize your creative vision and make stunning images. Today's cameras come equipped with an impressive array of microprocessors and sophisticated metering systems that evaluate the light and instantly choose the exposure settings for your images. As a creative photographer, you decide when to use the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings that give your images the power you want to convey to your viewers. You also decide which exposure and metering modes to use to get the best results for your intended subjects. This chapter helps you understand how your digital camera manages and interprets light in specific ways, which makes your images stand out from the rest.

I wanted to capture an active, dynamic image of my daughter jumping into a swimming pool to convey the fun of being a child in the summertime. I purposely chose a shutter speed that was slow enough to blur certain elements in the photo but still retain some sharpness in her body. Exposure: ISO 100, f/22, 1/13 second.

ISO

The ISO settings on your digital camera control light by changing the sensitivity of the sensor to the light reaching it, in much the same way that ISO had rated a film's sensitivity to light in the past. By raising the ISO number, you increase the sensor's sensitivity ...