Exposure Triangle

First steps in 'real' photography - exposure triangle

I’ve always loved photography but can count on one hand how many years I’ve taken it more seriously. For me, the first step to being a ‘real’ photographer was to get myself a DSLR camera and learn the exposure triangle.

I finally decided to buy a DLSR in my early 40's whilst heavily pregnant. Planning to learn to use it and document our baby growing up. It remained in its box, gathering dust as we dealt with the chaos of being new parents and the brain fuzz it brings.

Fast forward a few years and I miraculously found time to take workshops to learn the traditional foundations of photography. The exposure triangle and shooting in manual mode was one of the first things I learnt.

Exposure triangle - 3 attributes used in combination to set the exposure of an image. When balanced, the image is ‘correctly exposed’. If not, the image will look too dark/bright, grainy, blurry. From a creativity perspective, you may want these ‘unbalanced exposure’ attributes. When you understand the exposure triangle you can control the 3 attributes as you wish.



Exposure triangle - shutter speed, aperture, ISO. 

• Shutter speed 1/125 for a sharp image if the subject is not moving. (1/250 to freeze a person walking)
• Aperture/F stop. Shallow eg F2.8. Everything in focus eg F9
• ISO. Sensitivity to light. Daytime 100. Dim lighting or night +1600