 BetterPhoto Member |
Aperture vs Shutter Speed without a light meter I am fairly new to photography, (as a hobby) and am currentlt trying to learn to use my minolta dimage Z2 on manual mode rather than automatic, however I am not sure how to work out what the best combination of aperature and shutter speed to use for each photo, is there a rule or formula to setting these to the best match, cheers Luke, PS any constructive comments on my photos would be apreciated
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Samuel Smith |
hey luke, took a look at your gallery,nice pics,you cover a lot of stuff.today's cameras on auto do a really nice job of taking pictures,you didn't say what you wanted to change. ok,when you're taking pictures,keep a notebook and write down what the camera sets on auto.aperature and shutter speed.then if you want to blur the background more,have shallower depth of field,have silky water,you'll find that practice,and trial and error are a good learning experience.or go to school.there really isn't a best match,only what you want your pictures to look like.sound fair? welcome to bp. sam
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Christopher A. Vedros |
Okay Luke, I was about to explain that your camera does have a meter, it's the little scale in the viewfinder with the line that moves left or right of center to show if you will be underexposed or overexposed. Then I checked out the Z2 on dpreview and found that - GASP - it doesn't have one. Otherwise, it looks like a well-featured camera - 4MP, 10x optical zoom, f2.8 lens, even a live histogram. It just has a bizarre manual mode. With your camera, when you switch to full manual mode, the only indication you have of over or under exposure is that the preview image gets lighter or darker. Sounds pretty useless to me. I think you will have a much better time learning how to use the Aperture Priority (A) and Shutter Priority (S) modes. In A mode, you select the aperture, or f-stop, that you want to use, then the camera indicates the shutter speed for a correct exposure. In S mode, you select the shutter speed that you want, and the camera selects the correct aperture. For a complete discussion of when to use A mode or S mode, and how to choose the best aperture or shutter speed for a picture, read "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. I could give you a brief summary, but it's late, I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow.
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