Imre Z. Balint, BSc, MPM, MBA

The topic of sensitivity in itself is quite simple to understand and demonstrate, but gets much more involved when tying it together with aperture and shutter speed to achieve the image you want. With a little practice though, it’s not that hard to master... or at the least, become proficient at getting the right settings. When I was editing my video , I wish I would have left a section in that discussed some ISO settings for varying lighting conditions and how I generally evaluate a scene when I take photos. So at the least here is the written version (although I may just make a video addendum to episode 3 later). General ISO Setting Guidelines In regard to setting the sensitivity of my camera, I usually base it on the amount of available light and use the smallest ISO value I can for that situation: ISO 100 – For lots of light, usually outdoor shooting on sunny days ISO 200 – For outdoor shooting on cloudy days ISO 400 – Bright indoor conditions ISO 800 and up – Dark indoo...

You guessed it! The next installment of my photography series - Episode 3: Sensitivity - has been uploaded to YouTube . Look below to view it now or visit my channel to watch it in HD. This was a shorter episode as it quickly discusses what the sensitivity of a camera is (those ISO settings), and what affect it has on image quality when you turn the setting higher. As I'm pooped for the day, I shall write my supplemental blog post to accompany this video tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled! Till then, please rate my video (5 stars!) and remember to subscribe to keep up-to-date with my uploads.

Around 5:15pm yesterday I stepped outside to capture this female Merlin perched high atop a neighbor's tree. To get "close" enough, I grabbed one of my scopes and set it to about 1000mm (its focal length range is 650mm to 1300mm), which translates into about 2000mm as I'm using a four-thirds camera (Olympus E-3). As the sun had just set, there wasn't much available light, but I'm still pretty happy with the pics. Some of my camera settings were: ISO 800, shutter speed around 1/30-1/60, spot-metering, mirror lock-up set to 2 seconds; scope is manual focus. If you're new to photography or just enjoy it in general, then I recommend you check out my YouTube Channel , as I have created a photography series where I explain and demonstrate many of these topics.

As promised, here is the supplemental post to accompany my video on YouTube . One of the major topics I'd like to address here is the interplay between the aperture and shutter, as the two go very much hand in hand. But first, something that I didn't mention in my video is that shutter speed is measured in seconds or fractions of a second (for "usual" everyday type photography and not specialized work). For example, the majority of cameras (although this may depend on your specific model) will show a number like 60 to represent a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second. For long shutter speeds getting into whole seconds, this is usually shown as 2", which in this example means two seconds. If you watched episode 1 , then you learned that the aperture of a camera controls the amount of light that may pass through a lens by restricting it using an iris diaphragm. As for the shutter, it controls the duration of time that light may strike the sensor (or film). The co...

Well in record time I managed to finish episode two of my photography series and it has been uploaded to my YouTube Channel . I've embedded the video here, but if you'd like to see the more impressive HD version, then check out my channel directly. Since it's a bit late now, I'll be adding my supplemental post tomorrow morning. I have a bunch of interesting links and thoughts to share, including connecting the use of aperture together with the shutter. Enjoy, please rate (5 stars!), and subscribe!

Yeay! I finally finished my first webisode of a series I’ve always wanted to do about various topics in photography. The first subject I discuss is aperture, a very important aspect of taking great pictures. In my video I show what an iris diaphragm looks like, which is the mechanical part in a lens that controls the aperture that either restricts or permits additional light to penetrate the lens (thus light that hits the film or sensor). In a (tiny) nutshell, here’s a summary of aperture: The aperture of a lens controls the amount of light that can pass through it to the film or sensor Larger aperture = more light passing through, smaller aperture = less light passing through This sounds odd, but: larger aperture = smaller f-number, smaller aperture = larger f-numbers (inverse relationship) Depth-of-field (DOF) is how much of an image is in focus Large apertures (smaller f-numbers) means smaller DOF; small apertures (larger f-numbers) means larger DOF Different lenses behave ...