how

cameras
work
A GUIDE TO TAKING FULL CONTROL OF YOUR CAMERA

photopracticum.com
 how
cameras
work
3 The dark box
5 ISO
8 Shutter speed
13 Aperture
15 Depth of field
26 The exposure triangle
28 What to pick?
29 What next?

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 the During your photographic
journey, you may encounter
many different types of cameras
dark but they all operate on the
same principle.
box The camera is essentially a dark
box. At the front of this box is an
aperture, or an opening, that
allows the light to come in, and at
the back of the box is a
photosensitive material that
captures the image formed by
this light.

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 To determine how much light we
need to let into the camera to
obtain the correct exposure we
first set the speed on the ISO dial.
The ISO dial is connected to the
camera’s light meter and it tells
the light meter how sensitive the
film is to light.
Once the light meter knows how
sensitive the film or digital sensor
is to light, it can give us the light
reading. The light reading is a
combination of aperture and
shutter speed we need to use to
obtain the correct exposure.
The iris diaphragm and shutter
are two separate mechanisms
that allow us to precisely control
the light entering the camera.
HOW CAMERAS WORK
The aperture refers to the size of
the opening of the diaphragm
which is built into the lens barrel.
Small apertures will let in less
light than large apertures.
The shutter speed dial controls
the amount of light getting into
the camera by varying the
amount of time the shutter
remains open for. The faster the
shutter speed, the less light gets
into the camera. The slower the
shutter speed, the more light gets
into the camera.
We could say that these three
controls- the aperture, shutter
speed, and ISO, are the most
important controls on the
camera, as they form what is
known as the exposure triangle.
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 ISO
The ISO number tells us how
sensitive the film or digital sensor
is to light. This is commonly
referred to as the ISO speed. A
film that needs lots of light to
form an image would be called a
slow film, whilst a film that needs
less light would be called a fast
film.

The ISO 100 is an example of a

slow speed. The ISO 1600 is an
example of a high speed.

Both slow and high ISOs have

their advantages and
disadvantages.

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 The advantage of a low ISO is
that it offers better image quality.
This means that the images shot
at low ISOs will have low grain or
noise, high colour saturation, and
high sharpness.
If we want to get the very best
image quality out of the camera,
we will set it to its base ISO
setting, which is usually ISO 100.
The disadvantage of low ISOs is
that they need lots of light, which
means that we may need to use a
tripod, or that the shutter speed
required to shoot at a slow ISO
may not be fast enough to freeze
a moving subject.
HIGH ISO
(lower quality)
HOW CAMERAS WORK
The main advantage of a high ISO
is that it does not need so much
light to form an image which
enables you to shoot in low light
conditions or use faster shutter
speeds to freeze subjects in
motion.
The main disadvantage is that
these gains are achieved at the
expense of image quality. High
ISO images can be grainy or
noisy, less saturated, suffer from
reduced dynamic range, and
appear less sharp.
LOW ISO
(higher quality)
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 ISO film speeds use the following scale:

100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, 25600, etc.

Notice that as we go from the left

to the right of the scale, the
numbers are doubling. If we move
from the right to the left, they are
halving.

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 shutter
speed
The shutter speed dial controls the amount of time the camera's
shutter remains open during the exposure. The faster the shutter
speed, the less light gets into the camera.

Looking at your camera's shutter speed dial you will notice that the
shutter speeds are written as whole numbers: 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, etc.

However, these actually represent fractions of a second so the

shutter speed scale looks like this:

1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, etc.

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 If we take 1 second as our starting point, the shutter speed scale
goes two ways- for exposures longer than 1 second we multiply by
the ratio of 2, for exposures shorter than 1 second, we divide by
two:

16, 8, 4, 2, 1 second, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128, etc.

and the fractions on the right are then rounded off to:

1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, etc.

The important thing to note is that both ISO and shutter speed
scale use the same common ratio, or in other words, as you move
up or down the scale, the numbers are either halving or doubling.

If you change the shutter speed from 1/4 to 1/2 second, the
shutter lets in twice as much light as it did at 1/4 second. If you go
from 1/2 to 1/4 second, half as much light is getting into the
camera.

Shutter speeds control the amount of light getting into the camera
but they also allow us to control the amount of motion blur we
record in our pictures. Let’s consider two shutter speeds at the
opposite ends of the shutter speed scale.

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 If we use a fast shutter speed like 1/4000 sec, we can completely
freeze the movement of water of this fountain.

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 If we use one-second exposure, the water of the fountain will be
rendered completely blurry.

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 The water is rendered blurry because it is in motion. The statue
remains sharp because it is not moving and the camera is
supported on a tripod.

If we try to use long shutter speeds whilst handholding the camera

we will end up with a blurry image. The above image was shot with
the camera handheld, with the shutter speed set to 1/4 a second.
In this instance, the image is blurry because our hands are not
steady enough. In photography, 1/4 a second is a long time.

As a rule of thumb, when shooting handheld, your shutter speed

should be set to 1/60 second or faster.

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 aperture

The aperture refers to the circular opening of the lens diaphragm

which allows us to control the amount of light coming into the
camera.

We said that the ISO numbers and shutter speeds always double
or halve, depending on which way along the scale you are moving.
Apertures work in the same way. Each time you move up or down
the aperture scale, the amount of light getting into the camera is
either doubled or halved.

This is the aperture scale found on modern cameras:

f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, etc.

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 This expression, f/1 or f/1.4 is a shorthand expression for saying
that the diameter of the aperture is equal to focal length, f, divided
by one, focal length divided by 1.4, 2, 2.8, and so on.

If we take a 50mm lens as an example, this would mean that our

apertures have the following diameters:

50mm / 1 = 50mm
50mm / 1.4 = 35.7mm
50mm / 2 = 25mm etc.

This tells us that the circle with a diameter of 35.7mm will have an
area half the size of the circle with a diameter of 50mm.
A diameter of 25mm will give us an area half the size of the circle
with a diameter of 35.7mm, and so forth.

Once again, the apertures are either halving or doubling in size,

thus, by varying the aperture size we are either halving or
doubling the amount of light that gets into the camera.

This halving or doubling of light in photography is commonly

referred to as a stop. If we change the lens aperture from f/2 to
f/2.8, we would say that we close the lens by one stop. If we
change the shutter speed from 1/60 sec to 1/250 sec we would
say that the shutter is two stops faster.

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 depth of field
By varying the size of the aperture we control the amount of light
getting into the camera, but this also affects the way our images
are rendered visually. The depth of field refers to the area of sharp
focus in an image. In other words, if you focus on a subject, how
much of the field in front and behind the subject is going to be
acceptably sharp.

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 A wide aperture, like f/4, will give us a shallow depth of field (see
example on the previous page). Shallow depth of field is often used
in portraiture to isolate the subject from the background.

A small aperture, like f/11, will give us a deep depth of field. Deep
depth of field is often used in landscape or architectural
photography to keep the entire scene in focus.

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 Let’s see what happens if we shoot the same scene using different
apertures.

f/2.8, 1/500, at ISO 100

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 f/4, 1/250, at ISO 100

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 f/5.6, 1/125, at ISO 100

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 As you can see, as we start using progressively smaller apertures,
the depth of field increases.

f/8, 1/60, at ISO 100

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 f/11, 1/30, at ISO 100

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 f/16, 1/15, at ISO 100

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 f/22, 1/8, at ISO 100

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 With the lens fully open, the background is blurry. As we close the
aperture, the background comes more and more into focus.

f/32, 1/4, at ISO 100

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 f/2.8, 1/500, at ISO 100 f/32, 1/4, at ISO 100

The amount of light the sensor receives for each image remains
the same because each time we change the aperture, we also
change the shutter speed.

When we move from f/2.8 to f/4 (one stop less light), we also
change our shutter speed from 1/1000 to 1/500 (one stop more
light). This way the total amount of light entering the camera
remains the same even though we are using a different
combination of aperture and shutter speed.

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 the exposure
triangle
We said that the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture form the
exposure triangle because they are interconnected.
One stop always amounts to the same amount of light.

The ISO, shutter speed, and aperture all use a progression of stops
where values are always either halving or doubling.

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 If we change the ISO by one stop from 100 to 200, the amount of
light that the camera gathers is doubled, if we go from 400 to 200
it is halved.

If we change the shutter speed by one stop from 1/15 to 1/30, the
amount of light getting into the camera is halved. If we go from
1/30 to 1/15, it is doubled.

If we change the aperture by one stop from f/5.6 to f/8, the

amount of light entering the camera is halved. If we go from f/8 to
5.6, the amount of light is doubled.

Because they add up to the same amount of light, these stops are
reciprocal- if you close your lens by two stops and make the
shutter speed two stops slower, the amount of light entering the
camera will be the same.

If we consider the previous example of the pictures of flowers, we

can see that these two exposures let in the same amount of light.
But because we are using different apertures, the two images have
different depths of field so they look different from one another.

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 what settings
to pick?
Now that we know how the camera works, how do we know which
aperture or shutter speed to pick as our starting point?

Well, we simply decide which one of these controls is the most

important for the image that we are trying to make.

For instance, if we are shooting a portrait and we want to have a

shallow depth of field, we may start with a wide aperture, like
f/2.8, and set the other controls to fit the aperture.

If we want to shoot a landscape or a cityscape and want to have

most of the frame in sharp focus then we may start with the
aperture of f/16.

If we want to freeze subjects in motion, then we may start with the

shutter speed of 1/250, and adjust the other controls according to
this.

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 what next?
Taking full control of your camera is not difficult once you
understand the three main controls- the ISO, aperture, and
shutter speed.

Developing this understanding will also open up creative

possibilities, help you figure out how other images have been
produced, and allow you to translate your ideas into photographs.

The ideas and examples in this book were taken from the first
chapter of the photopracticum.com photography course.

Photopracticum.com is an online photography school with an

emphasis on learning through practical exercises, research, and
personal project development.

Check out our video tutorials on this subject and gain free access
to an additional chapter. Chapter 2 looks at street portraits, how
they are used by different photographers, and sets you the first
practical assignment.

We hope to see you there,

photopracticum.com

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