Understand the 3 Parts Of The Exposure Triangle With This Photography Cheat Sheet!

Let me help you learn about the expo­sure tri­an­gle with this pho­tog­ra­phy cheat sheet! Are you con­fused about the expo­sure tri­an­gle? Does the thought of ISO, Aper­ture and Shut­ter Speed make you want to put down your cam­era and give up? Wor­ry no longer…I am here to help you learn about the expo­sure tri­an­gle with this pho­tog­ra­phy cheat sheet…but first let me help you under­stand a lit­tle bit about each aspect.

ISO

ISO is a set­ting that will make your pho­to brighter or dark­er, and your cam­era has a “base” ISO. The base ISO is the low­est ISO your cam­era can go and is usu­al­ly ISO100 on most cam­eras. This base ISO is where you can get the high­est qual­i­ty image with the least amount of noise. If you increase your ISO, the sen­si­tiv­i­ty to light in your cam­era increas­es, result­ing in a brighter pic­ture. With every bump up the ISO, you are dou­bling the bright­ness of your image.

The num­ber one way to make ISO work for you is to under­stand how much ISO you need. If there is plen­ty of light in your room or shoot­ing out­side, using a low ISO (100 or 200) is usu­al­ly pos­si­ble. Using this low­er ISO min­imis­es the risk of noise in your photos.

Even in some low light sit­u­a­tions, you can use a low­er ISO if you use a longer shut­ter speed with a tri­pod.

You should increase your ISO if there is not enough light to get your shot any oth­er way. If you are shoot­ing at a time of day when there isn’t a lot of light, at a con­cert, or a par­ty. It will bring in a bit of noise, but you should­n’t lose the image’s quality.

Aperture

Aper­ture is defined as “a hole or an open­ing through which light trav­els”. Under­stand­ing aper­ture is crit­i­cal in help­ing you take bet­ter pho­tographs and in under­stand­ing the expo­sure tri­an­gle. Under­stand­ing aper­ture will also help you get that fab­u­lous blur­ry back­ground that many pho­tog­ra­phers strive for or that crisp, or the clear land­scape shot you may be look­ing for. The pho­tog­ra­phy cheat sheet will help you under­stand even more but if you begin to think about your cam­era in terms of an eye, the aper­ture is like the pupil. 

Aper­ture is the hole in which light enters the cam­era. The lens will deter­mine the aper­ture range you can shoot, not your cam­era. Remem­ber, not every lens has the same capabilities. 

The low­er the num­ber, the big­ger the hole, the more light that comes in, result­ing in only a small por­tion of your pho­to being in focus. This helps you achieve those pic­tures with a blur­ry back­ground. Shoot­ing a larg­er aperture—F1.8–2.5 means more light will come into the cam­era, and there will be less focus in your photo. 

The high­er the num­ber, the small­er the hole, the less light that comes in, result­ing in a larg­er por­tion of your pho­tog being in focus. This helps you achieve a pho­to where the whole image is crisp and clear. Shoot­ing a low­er aper­ture-F16-22 means less light will come in and more focus. Low­er aper­tures are great for land­scape shots. 

Keep in mind that the small­er the num­ber, the big­ger the hole, and the larg­er the num­ber, the small­er the hole. It’s back­wards to what makes sense.

Shutter Speed

Your shut­ter speed is how long your shut­ter is open and is mea­sured in frac­tions of a second…1/5 results in the shut­ter being open for a frac­tion of a sec­ond and a faster speed being 1/500. It is one of the key fac­tors in get­ting sharp, in focus pho­tos and the pho­tog­ra­phy cheat sheet will help you under­stand it even better.

A slow shut­ter speed means that the shut­ter is open for a more extend­ed peri­od, allow­ing more light to come into the cam­era. But it is impor­tant to remem­ber that the longer the shut­ter is open, the more room for shake or move­ment, result­ing in a blur in your images and a soft, out of focus photo.

A fast shut­ter speed means that the shut­ter is open for a short­er length of time, allow­ing less light to come into the cam­era. Faster shut­ter speeds are used for sports, action shots or cap­tur­ing a mov­ing object.

I teach my stu­dents that a good rule of thumb is to try to use a shut­ter speed faster than the focal length of your lens. Exam­ple If you are using a 50mm lens, don’t go low­er than 1/50 shut­ter speed, a 100mm lens, don’t go low­er than 1/100, etc.

Now that you have a basic under­stand­ing the ele­ments of the expo­sure tri­an­gle, check out the pho­tog­ra­phy cheat sheet, print it and keep it handy so that you can refer back to it.

I hope this gives you a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the expo­sure tri­an­gle and if you want to learn to under­stand your cam­era and take amaz­ing pho­tos even faster, make sure to check out The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Program!