Manual Exposure Cheatsheet –
Master manual photography with your digital SLR.
We figured it was only appropriate for our first post to give something back. This exposure cheatsheet covers the basics of mastering manual exposure with a SLR camera.
If you find it useful please drop a line in the comments we would love to hear your feedback!
Great source of information, exactly what I was looking for. Any way to get a hard copy of this?
Hi Michael, glad you like it! Unfortunately it’s only available electronically, but you are more than welcome to print your own.
What settings would you suggest for indoor basketball games?
Patrice, first I would set a shutter speed that stops the action / reduces unwanted motion blur of moving objects. I would start around 1/250th and increase as needed to reduce any motion blur. Next, I would open the aperture as wide as possible to allow as must light in as possible around f2.8. Finally, I would boost the ISO to bring everything into correct exposure this will probably be in the range of ISO 800-1600.
These aren’t exact numbers but that’s the general approach I would take. If there isn’t enough available light you may want to use a hotshoe flash and bounce that off of a wall or ceiling however in a large gym this might not help much.
Hope this helps!
I love how you made the visual examples. Being a visual learner myself, this really helps. I would love to purchase a hard copy of this for my classroom.
Such a clever cheat sheet! So straight forward and simple to fallow. Very happy to have it at my disposal. This was very helpful for resolving unwanted motion blurs for night photos, getting sharper photographs faster when I refer back to this chart as I’m more comfortable with this method. Though I like darker photographs, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone to get the right light for my outdoor object. What is your suggestion for shotting outdoors?
Hi glad you like it!
In regards to shooting outdoors. You may want to start with the sunny 16 rule. Basically, on a bright sunny day if you set your aperture to f16, your ISO to 100, and your shutter to 100 you should be pretty close to the correct exposure. If you are over or under exposed you can adjust your exposure accordingly after a couple of test shots.
Good luck!
Thank you thank you for this post. After many hours of searching over the years in addition to friend/family photogs attempting to break this info down to me I’ve remained confused and annoyed. I always end up back in Auto mode and disappointed. The informative yet simple breakdown is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thanks again! I’m a fan for life!
You are welcome! Glad it helped!
This maybe useful…
Hi
I have Nikon D3300 with SB700 flash (Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Lens) so I have been taking pictures Auto mode and trying to come out of it. So please advice what will be the best setting for manual when I take pictures inside the house please i.e IOS, Aperture and Shutter speed ?
Thanks
Gok
Brandon, may I copy this and use the visual on our high school web site for my students to use? Thank you tons!!
Hello Jay, sorry for the late reply. You are more than welcome to!
This is great and useful especially for beginners! Thank you!
thank you for this excellent visual aid! it makes it all a lot clearer!
You are most welcome! Glad it is useful!