I started shooting just over a year ago. I’ve had two classes and there’s a studio class coming up next month. I bought lots of things; flashes, lenses 2 bodies, backdrop and many other photo related things. I’m sure anyone who is in this hobby knows what I’m talking about. It can get endless.

I have good lenses so now it’s just learning how to utilize them best. Five of them are all 2.8 aperture and I have the Nifty Fifty which I need to start using more. I got caught up with the other focal lengths and forgot how great of a lens it is.

I’ve been shooting portraits with my 70-200 but I think I need to get the 50mm involved more after reading the things written here. It’s great having people who post informative and knowledgeable lessons learned for all of us to shoot by.

The comments are good too.

Thanks.

ISO (film speed or sensitivity) + shutter speed + f-stop (the size of the opening of the lens) = perfect lighting

The higher the ISO number the “faster” the sensor responds to light so the less light it needs But it will also will be more grainy because it isn’t using every bit of the surface of the sensor as effectively as a lower ISO.

The higher the number of the shutter speed the faster the shutter opens and closes and the less amount of light it lets in. Higher shutter speeds allow you to “stop” action while slower speed may need a tripod to keep them from becoming blurry due to hand shake. Shutter speeds are a measurement of time the higher speeds which usually read 250, 500, 1000… are actually fractions of a second. So, 250 is 1/250 of a second, which means the sensor only sees the image for 1/250 of a second and light only hits the sensor for 1/250 of a second.

(Side note: I was taught that you should avoid hand holding the camera when the lens is larger in mm than the time of the shutter speed you are using. If you are using a 250mm lens you should not hand hold the camera with a slower shutter speed than 250 because of hand shake blur. A 60mm lens can be hand held at a shutter speed of 60 or above and should still have a sharp image.) I don’t typically use a shutter speed below 45 without a tripod no matter the lens size because I just can’t hold that sill. Even at 45 I try to find a place to prop and shoot at the end of the exhale.

F-stop is a fraction measurement for the opening of the lens which confuses people very easily because the higher the f number the smaller the opening f16 would be 1/16, were f2 would be 1/2 which is a larger opening than 1/16. Now that I’ve said that, I can explain how the opening works. The very center of the lens is the most focused part of the lens when the lens is wide open (wide open means the f-stop is the lowest “f” number) then the edges of the lens are not going to be in as sharp of focus as the center (lenses are curved — think about how glasses work). If you use a f-stop that is higher, like f16 then you are blocking off the edges of the lens because you have closed down the aperture (opening) of the lens. This means that the image the sensor sees is limited to the center of the lens and the more focused area of the lens. It is not cropping your image it is only limiting the part of the lens you use to see the image. Because you are closing down the aperture, which increases focus but makes the hole smaller, you need to get more light to the sensor either by keeping the shutter open longer (which means slowing down the shutter speed) or increasing the ISO number (the sensor’s sensitivity to light).

Adding an additional external light source is necessary when you can’t balance the perfect lighting equation without it .

Hope that helps.