Basics of Manual Photography

When shooting manually, there are three main things you need to learn to the point they become instinctual in any given setting. All photos are the result of balancing each of these three technical aspects to achieve the photo you’re trying to capture:

1. Aperture

2. Film Speed/ISO

3. Shutter Speed

Here is a drawing that outlines the function of each:

Each of these functions affects the amount of light let into the camera, but by toggling any of these settings, you end up with different stylistic results, explained below:

Aperture

By adjusting the aperture, you’re determining how much light is let into the camera and the depth of field of your image. Depth of field means how much is in focus. For example, portrait mode on your phone camera is a very shallow depth of field, meaning your subject is in focus, and everything else is blurry. Aperture is adjusted on the actual lens with film cameras, on the aperture ring, and on the lens and/or within the dials on a digital camera. Aperture can be adjusted from photo to photo.

This image was shot at an f/1.8 aperture. Aperture is always denoted with an f/ in front of the number because “f stop” is another term for aperture. Why do we have so many terms for the same exact thing in photography? Because being exhausted allows us to eat more snacks, and we love snacks.

Shutter Speed

By adjusting the shutter speed, you’re changing how quickly the camera shoots based on how much movement you’re trying to capture. Do you want an action shot frozen in time, or do you want a blur that looks like a ghost of action in the past? Are you using a tripod, or shooting a still life? These are shutter speed relevant questions. Shutter speed is adjusted on a knob or dial on your camera.

This photo was taken with a 1.3 second shutter speed (using a tripod) to create a soft blur in the water. If, for example, you’re photographing wildlife and want to capture a bird in midair, perfectly in focus, a 1/200 or faster shutter speed would be ideal. That means one two hundredths of a second, so… pretty speedy.

Film Speed/ISO

By adjusting the film speed or ISO, you’re determining how sensitive your images and camera are to light based on how bright or dark your environment is. Beware though, a high film speed/ISO can create a noisy image. Noise is a speckled effect on your image that can sometimes make it difficult to make out the subject in extreme scenarios. Unlike grain, noise is usually not desirable, and in digital cameras, noise can be inconsistent with hot spots of purple, green, or yellow.

On a film camera, you choose your film speed when you purchase your film, and it cannot be adjusted once you’ve loaded your film into the camera. In other words, the whole roll has a set film speed, so choose your film speed based on what you anticipate shooting! If you know you’re going to a concert, choose 800 or 1000 ISO film. If you’re on a vacation and will be out and about, a 400 ISO film works great.

On a digital camera, you can adjust your film speed as needed. Usually this is through a button + dial combo, or a menu setting.

This photo was taken with a 1000 film speed. If shooting on actual film, your options are usually capped at 800 or 1000 speed film, and that’s usually a special order film these days. On modern digital cameras, film speeds can often go into the tens if not hundreds of thousands, but it’s generally advised against unless in desperate situations.

If you’re anything like me, you learn best in practice and with visuals. While it’s up to you to practice on your own, I can help with visuals. Here are some example scenarios, and how I might adjust my settings accordingly:

It’s a bright sunny day, you’re out getting action shots

It was a cloudless day, so I shot with an ISO of 80 since I could, but also knowing my photos could be more crisp. I knew I wanted to get action shots so I shot at a 1/640 shutter speed, and I knew I wanted to get a lot in focus from water droplets to other surfers’ expressions, but this was the least important aspect to me, so I settled for a middle ground at f/5.6 aperture knowing I’d get a lot in focus, with an emphasis in the middle range of the image (the main surfer).

It’s a dreary day and you’re out capturing wildlife

I know I can always head to one of a few surf spots to photograph the surfers, but there are no guarantees while out looking for wildlife, so I’m going to be more calculated with my shutter speed to make sure I don’t miss the shot. After that, I’ll make adjustments to ISO and aperture accordingly.

I set my shutter speed for 1/4000. Normally I wouldn’t feel the need to go quite as fast, but once I noticed this egret was hunting, I wanted to make sure I was ready when it struck dinner, especially considering the natural light wasn’t doing any favors. Next I set my ISO to 1250, which for this camera would give me a boost of light sensitivity without blowing out my photos with noise. From there I set my aperture to f/5.6, which was the widest aperture available with the telephoto lens I was using. If possible, I would have chosen a wider aperture, such as f/2.8, but that wasn’t an option. The raw photos were still a bit dark, but quality was not lost while editing afterwards to make them brighter.

It’s night with some ambient light

This is generally a dark scene no matter what. This camera had great low light capabilities, so I set my ISO to 3200. I used a f/4.5 aperture to let more light in while still retaining detail of the scenery/environment. From there I set my shutter speed to 1/10 since it was a low stakes environment just walking around with friends, and I was curious what balance of blur and crispness I could get: I was able to get some motion blur indicating action, while other elements were still in focus.

Photographing bands in inconsistent lighting

Since this scenario is usually unpredictable, I slammed the ISO up to 5000 which allowed me to have wiggle room for a 1/125 shutter speed to account for musicians moving a lot to make sure I got some clear shots.. This lens only allowed for a f/4.5 aperture. Having a slightly shallower depth of field to focus on the singer was also a nice effect. Because it was a show venue with haze, changing lighting, and a general grittiness to it, I was less concerned with noise from the high ISO, and figured it could either be edited out, or work well in this context.

Cloudy, yet bright day shooting a landscape scene with a tripod

Because I had a tripod, the shutter speed wasn’t a priority, but considering the subject, I knew a slower speed would have a nice smooth water effect, so I went with 1/5 shutter speed which was the slowest I could manage to achieve smooth water without completely overexposing my image. Since there’s multiple “layers” here, such as rocks and water in the foreground, the middle of the scene, and the waterfall in the back, it was important to capture everything clearly, so I set my aperture to f/22. This also helped reduce the amount of light let into the camera. Even though it was cloudy and I had a narrow aperture (letting less light in), the photo was still too bright so I set my ISO to 80 to compensate for the light and achieve a well balanced photo.

Food photography on a day with flat, dim, natural light

This was a medium to low light cloudy day, which is actually great for food photography when you want to use natural light. It’s ideal to avoid harsh shadows, and instead shoot with soft, ambient light.

I wanted to focus on the dish and get some crisp details, but still have a sense of depth since the lightning was a little flat. Since I was shooting from overhead, even with a wide aperture, the background details would still be recognizable because everything in the scene is on the same plane, so I used an aperture of f/1.8. Next I used an ISO of 3000 since it wasn’t the brightest day, and I knew the camera I was using could handle it without much noise - which I definitely don’t want while photographing food. My shutter speed was 1/2500 since I was using it handheld and dishes/drinks were being brought out quickly, one after the next. In hindsight I could have easily adjusted to an ISO of about 2000 and used a shutter speed of maybe 1/1000, but I air on the side of caution when things around me are moving quickly.