The exposure triangle is the most important consideration you will make when controlling your camera to shoot in manual. If you haven’t familiarized yourself with it yet, take a look at this great intro by Darren Rowse.
If you’re already there and a pro with the triangle or just starting out, let’s talk about it! Of the three settings for perfect exposure – aperture, ISO and shutter speed – what do you personally feel is the most essential and important one to you? When you start to dial in your settings, which do you always think of first?
I’d say for me, control of ISO is probably the most important first step in my exposure triangle. I hate shooting at high ISOs (I’m a pixel peeper) so the most important thing to me is keeping that as low as possible.
After that, I consider shutter speed. Because I mostly shoot kids – and kids move fast – I have to keep my shutter speed above 100.
And this leaves me with aperture. Unless I’m purposefully going for a certain look which requires me to pay special consideration to my aperture, this usually ends up being whatever it needs to be to complete a perfect exposure.
What about you? What order do you dial in your triangle?
Some Older Comments