A Beginner's Guide to Camera Exposure Settings

The exposure triangle refers to the three parameters that control the exposure of your photographs: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Each affects your photos in a different way, and as such, it is very important that you master them both to shoot technically apt images and to ensure you can bring your creative visions to fruition. This great video will introduce you to the exposure triangle and how to use it for your own work.

Coming to you from Tony and Chelsea Northrup, this great video will introduce you to the exposure triangle. If you are new to photography, these are the concepts you should learn before anything else, as they will not only enable you to take correctly exposed images, but also to begin to take creative control of your work. Personally, I recommend taking your camera out of automatic mode and using one of the semi-automatic modes at first, such as aperture priority. This will allow you to see how one of the three exposure parameters changes your images without having to control all three at once. Once you feel comfortable with that, try moving to full manual mode. Check out the video above for the full rundown.

If you want to read more about the exposure triangle, be sure to check out this article.

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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10 Comments

I was going to share this with my significant other, but...

Northrups, not even once.

Why, Edward? And why comment this instead of continuing on with your life?

You're not quite important or significant enough to maintain a database of all the cringeworthy posts you have made; but, if you are really interested, I know there are no shortage of punters around here and on DPR who have long and precise memories.

Also, "why comment this instead of continuing on with your life?"

Well if you happen to remember something that upset you I'm happy to discuss it. We're not perfect but we do our best.

And what exactly have you done that actually contributes to Fstoppers? Unsubstantiated criticism of others who actually do contribute to the knowledge baes is not a benefit to anyone.

Two of the greats are "ISO is fake" and "micro four thirds is dead". However, the list is long.

Now, go away before I critique your images .

Well at least I'm confident enough to actually post a few images.

And Tony, you and Chelsea keep up the good work. Now I'm done.

Oh, I had images posted; however, the moment you enter into a conversation such as this the other person will often weaponise the rating system; I also like the part where people rate down images in the critique the community. I have also seen talented and successful photographers driven out by a bunch of talentless hacks.

However, most directly, my personality is combative and my wife has control of my social media and marketing (with respect to photography) for very good reason.

There are many successful and extremely talented photographers who feel no need to display in here - understand, no photographer's market is other photographers. Just because you are a beginner, doesn't mean I am; it would behoove you not to assume.

Back to the point, the Northrups post content which is clearly untrue, such as "ISO is fake"; the only purpose of which is to generate clicks. I have no time for that garbage.

In any case, you have found a hobby you enjoy, and that's cool.

I know it's 'cool' for some reason to be critical and demeaning to Tony and Chelsea since Fstoppers is really aimed at experienced photographers, but in my opinion the only way you get more people interested in real photography is to teach them the basics. Todays cameras are complex and somewhat confusing to beginners or to people who are only used to point and shoot devises like smart phones so anything that will help clarify the operation of a real camera, especially the basics, is welcome as far as I am concerned. You can't be a 'creative' (damn I hate that word) until you master or at least understand the technical side, and for that I applaud the Northrups.

I forwarded a link to this tutorial to a couple of friends who are interested in developing their skills and I believe it will help them immensely

Nice visuals and simple explanations. I could have used this back in 2012. :D