Decided to us the new camera...or try should i say.

**EmsTraumajunke** · 03-09-2006 07:57 AM

Let me know what you think good or bad...These were taken with an Olympus SP-500UZ and i was playing with the shutter speeds and ISO and just about everything i had no clue about. Still learning..So any comments or sugestion would be great

**taprice** · 03-09-2006 08:14 AM

THe first few are a bit grainy, due to a high ISO I think. I'd use a lower ISO and a tripod and you should be good. I hope thats right, there are many other camera guys to correct me if I'm not.

***Verdugo*** · 03-09-2006 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by taprice

THe first few are a bit grainy, due to a high ISO I think. I'd use a lower ISO and a tripod and you should be good. I hope thats right, there are many other camera guys to correct me if I'm not.

Yep you pretty much got it right.

**EmsTraumajunke** · 03-09-2006 09:25 AM

Thanks...ill give that a try tonight...Still new to all this camera stuff.

**chanwahyaoh** · 03-09-2006 10:50 AM

Easiest way to understand ISO, shutter speeds, & aperature is making an analogy with water.

you need X-amount of light to ensure a proper exposure.

ISO is the camera's (or film's, in the days of yore) sensitivity to light.
the higher your ISO number - the more sensitive it is, hence - the less light you need
(say for instance with ISO 100 you'd need 1 cup of water for a good exposure, whereas with ISO 1600, you'd only need 1/16th of a cup of water)

Shutter speed controls how long the shutter is open (how long you leave the faucet running).
all the shutter speed numbers are a denominator of 1, so the higher the number, the quicker the shutter speed. (How long do you have to leave the faucet running to get 1 cup of water?)

Aperature is the "iris" inside the lens. It controls how big the opening is that lets in light (how high do you turn on the faucet) You can see how these three controls tie in to control the exposure. The higher the Aperature setting (called "f/stop") the smaller the opening is. The f/stop numbers are confusing and seem to not make sense. But they refer to the ratio of the diameter of the aperature opening to the focal length of the lens (in mm)

There are different reasons why you'd want to make adjustments in these controls.

Shutter speed - higher speed stops action for you, and makes it easier to shoot with the camera hand-held, slower speed can get you motion blur, but also blur from camera shake if you handhold it (tripod required)

Aperature - controls depth of field (range of in-focus area). The higher the f/stop (the smaller the aperature opening) the more depth of field you have. The lower the number, the less depth of field you have (you'll notice backgrounds that are blurred out). Another thing to consider is that lenses have a "sweet spot" in the aperature where they capture the most detail possible. Most lenses tend to capture softer images when the aperature is wide open, and are at their sharpest stopped down a little (to wherever that particular lens' sweet spot is). it varies from lens to lens, so you'd have to experiment to find it.

ISO - this usually plays a secondary role to shutter speed and/or aperature. You would adjust this to compensate for how you want to shoot. In your example, you did not have a lot of light, and you did not have a tripod, so you needed to raise the ISO so you could hand-hold the camera and not get a blurry picture from camera shake. the drawback though of high ISO is graininess (or "noise" with digital cameras).

I hope this explains it a bit.

*****cliffnotes*****

ISO - changes the recipe. You'll need more water with lower ISO, less water with higher ISO

Shutter speed - controls how long you leave the faucet on

Aperature - controls how fast/open you turn on the faucet

**c00lbeans** · 03-10-2006 01:45 AM

Originally Posted by chanwahyaoh

Easiest way to understand ISO, shutter speeds, & aperature is making an analogy with water.

you need X-amount of light to ensure a proper exposure.

ISO is the camera's (or film's, in the days of yore) sensitivity to light.
the higher your ISO number - the more sensitive it is, hence - the less light you need
(say for instance with ISO 100 you'd need 1 cup of water for a good exposure, whereas with ISO 1600, you'd only need 1/16th of a cup of water)

Shutter speed controls how long the shutter is open (how long you leave the faucet running).
all the shutter speed numbers are a denominator of 1, so the higher the number, the quicker the shutter speed. (How long do you have to leave the faucet running to get 1 cup of water?)

Aperature is the "iris" inside the lens. It controls how big the opening is that lets in light (how high do you turn on the faucet) You can see how these three controls tie in to control the exposure. The higher the Aperature setting (called "f/stop") the smaller the opening is. The f/stop numbers are confusing and seem to not make sense. But they refer to the ratio of the diameter of the aperature opening to the focal length of the lens (in mm)

There are different reasons why you'd want to make adjustments in these controls.

Shutter speed - higher speed stops action for you, and makes it easier to shoot with the camera hand-held, slower speed can get you motion blur, but also blur from camera shake if you handhold it (tripod required)

Aperature - controls depth of field (range of in-focus area). The higher the f/stop (the smaller the aperature opening) the more depth of field you have. The lower the number, the less depth of field you have (you'll notice backgrounds that are blurred out). Another thing to consider is that lenses have a "sweet spot" in the aperature where they capture the most detail possible. Most lenses tend to capture softer images when the aperature is wide open, and are at their sharpest stopped down a little (to wherever that particular lens' sweet spot is). it varies from lens to lens, so you'd have to experiment to find it.

ISO - this usually plays a secondary role to shutter speed and/or aperature. You would adjust this to compensate for how you want to shoot. In your example, you did not have a lot of light, and you did not have a tripod, so you needed to raise the ISO so you could hand-hold the camera and not get a blurry picture from camera shake. the drawback though of high ISO is graininess (or "noise" with digital cameras).

I hope this explains it a bit.

*****cliffnotes*****

ISO - changes the recipe. You'll need more water with lower ISO, less water with higher ISO

Shutter speed - controls how long you leave the faucet on

Aperature - controls how fast/open you turn on the faucet

for shizzle