Easy Way To Understand ISO and shutter speed In Photography

As you know, there are many modes and features available on every DSLR camera, and not everyone knows every feature.

But what if you know your DSLR camera’s most important and needed features?

ISO and shutter speed are basically used to capture sharper and more beautiful photographs without doing many things.

When I was learning photography I didn’t know how to shoot with manual mode.

I just used ISO, shutter speed, rule of thirds, and aperture with different modes to capture photographs, but 8 out of 10 times, I can’t get the expected result.

Do you know why ??

That’s because I didn’t know the manual guide of “how to use a DSLR camera…”, then to learn some basic features or modes of my DSLR?

Theories are always boring, I don’t like theories and I know you also don’t like theories.

Like me, you’re looking for some practical knowledge related to ISO and shutter speed.

Both these parameters matter a lot to capture the best photographs that we know.

So in this article, I am sharing some important tips and will answer your questions like how to understand iso aperture and shutter speed.

If you are one of those who don’t like theories or want some real practical knowledge related to ISO and shutter speed then this article is for you.

You just need to understand some basic points and you are good to go.

After reading this article you can deal with ISO and shutter speed very easily and you will also be able to capture photographs in almost any situation.

Easy Way To Understand ISO and shutter speed

Now the first question you are asking me right now is…..

What is ISO In Photography ??

Now if you love theory then the definition of ISO is down below for you.

ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light.

Didn’t get it ?? that’s fine, let me tell you this definition in a simpler language.

Basically, ISO means when your DSLR captures something at that time the sensor of your DSLR gets some light.

So if your ISO is too high then the sensor gets a very good amount of lights in.

But when you decrease ISO then the sensor gets fewer amount of lights.

Normally in every entry-level DSLR camera, the maximum ISO is around 3200 and the minimum ISO is 0.

When the sensor senses too much then your photograph contains more brightness.

And if the sensor senses too little then your photograph contains more darkness.

Now if I ask you that when you’re capturing images at night then you should increase your ISO or decrease ??.

Yeah, you are right you need to increase your ISO because at that time your camera sensors need to sense too much.

And if there is more light then you need to decrease the ISO.

An important tip while playing with ISO

800 ISO is the default and best option to capture sharper images.

Why ISO is so important to ME ??

When I didn’t know anything about ISO at that time I set my ISO to Auto and my camera wasn’t able to sense when I captured photographs at night so I couldn’t get a good quality of photographs.

So after understanding ISO, I was able to capture sharper and better images in any situation.

Important tips while you use ISO

Increasing the ISO also reduces the quality of your images.

When ISO is too high !!

It makes your photographs more grainy and that’s not good.

When to use ISO In Photography?

If the sky is overcast or it is evening time, then use an ISO within the range of 400 to 800.
At night use ISO 1600 or more than 1600.

That’s all about ISO.

If practice enough then you can capture really sharp images with your DSLR camera, and no matter if it’s day or night you can capture images without any problem.

Now let’s talk about shutter speed.

So the first question that comes to mind is…

What is shutter speed in Photography?

Again if you want the pure theoretical definition of shutter speed then here it is.

The shutter allows light to shine onto the image sensor when you turn on the shutter.

Understood ?? no ?? haha, so the basic meaning or definition of shutter speed is here.

What is a shutter ???: When you click any photograph at that time the shutter turns on and off in frames seconds, that’s called the shutter.

Now if your shutter speed is too high then the process of shutter on-off is done too quickly, that’s why we are able to capture any fast-moving object using shutter speed.

You can use any mode to capture long exposures kind of images, sometimes I use manual mode but I am also a big fan of shutter-priority.

When you turn on this mode and let’s assume you select a shutter of 8 seconds then your camera shutter is open for 8 seconds to expose light to the camera sensor.

That means what happens in the next 8 seconds in front of your DSLR camera that senses by your DSLR camera.

Then it captures that 8-second moment in one single image.

See this example to understand what I explained.

shutter-speed: 16 sec

I hope now you know the true meaning of shutter speed.

If you buy an entry-level DSLR camera like Canon 1300D or Nikon D3300 then you get a Maximum shutter speed up to 30 sec and then bulb.

What is the bulb ?? Using a bulb you can extend the time limit to more than 30 sec to capture great exposure photographs but for this, you just need to keep that capture button pressed, so you can use a remote for that thing?

I hope you assume like ISO, shutter speed works the same but don’t confuse between ISO and shutter speed.

While you use shutter speed just remember about “shutter”.

The more seconds your camera senses the more light is gathered, and it gives you much brighter images.

ISO and shutter speed matter a lot, you know why ??

That’s because by using these two features you are able to capture awesome images no matter what situation you face.

No matter the day or night using ISO and shutter speed you can help you capture interesting images.

If your shutter speed is too high like 1/4000 then your camera captures the image in 1/4000 sec.

So you can capture any fast object like a car, plane, etc and also capture some interesting photographs of lights with low shutter speeds.

shutter speed: 1/4000 sec

You already saw that example which is captured using a low shutter speed.

Conclusion

If you want to learn manual mode then these two features ISO and shutter speed are the most important ones for you.

For more control over your DSLR camera’s manual mode, you can learn or understand the exposure triangle.

The exposure triangle is basically the combination of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.

As you know in this article I am sharing the most important and WHY types of points of ISO and shutter speed so I am not going deeper with this exposure triangle.

If you know a little bit about exposure then I can say that the exposure triangle is used to decide how to adjust exposure, and in the end, get better photographs.

If you want to dive deeper and don’t know anything about the exposure/exposure triangle then you can read all about the exposure triangle here.

learn Exposure Triangle in Depth

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Thanks for reading this article on ‘ISO and shutter speed’ hope you enjoy this article and learn something new, thank you.

About Author

Manthan

Hi, I'm Manthan I'm a professional photographer and founder of photographywith.com. this site hosts all of my writing on photography stuff like blogs, reviews, editing, and much more. whatever I learn new, I publish here as a blog with some good and easy examples. Cheers, Manthan

photographywithdc@gmail.com

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