Photography

Modern cameras have several features that help photographers control their results under widely varying conditions. Learn more about using aperture size and shutter speed to produce better images.

Anatomy of a camera

When you take a photograph, the film in your camera is exposed to light. The quality of your photograph depends on how much light reaches the film and how long the film is exposed to light. Two camera controls aperture size and shutter speed affect the exposure.

Lens aperture

The size of a camera’s aperture regulates how much light reaches the film. As you increase the aperture size, you increase the amount of light that can reach the film. Aperture size also determines a photograph’s depth of field that is how many object at varying distances remaining in focus. Smaller aperture size produces greater depth of field, more objects remain in focus.

Shutter speed

The camera’s shutter speed also controls exposure. A slow shutter speed allows more light to reach the film resulting to uneven effect of light to the photograph which is usually more exposed to light. An average shutter speed controls the light to reach the film resulting to a clear distribution of light to the photograph. Shutter speed also controls the appearance of moving objects in the photograph. Fast moving objects appear blurred in the photograph is taken with a slow shutter speed.

Exposure is determined by the combination of the aperture size and the shutter speed. The two controls act together to produce the final image.