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Exposure Controls—Why so many Choices?...
Many digital cameras let you set the shutter speed and aperture to a range of set-
tings. Since you only need one combination of these settings for a good exposure,
why are there choices? It’s because they give you creative control. By selecting the
right combination you can make the background in a portrait sharp or blurred or
freeze or blur motion.
A fast shutter speed
freezes a spinning
amusement park ride
(right) and a slow
shutter speed blurs it
(left).
A small aperture
increases depth of
field so foreground
and background are
sharp (top) and a large
aperture decreases
Aperture and Depth of Field
foreground and/or
background is soft
(bottom).
In this book and its
animations, apertures
are represented by
these realistic icons with
a small aperture (left)
and a large one (right).
In this book and its
animations, shutter
speeds are represented
by these symbolic icons
with a fast shutter
speed (left) and a slow
one (right). The cutout
“pie slice” indicates how
far an imaginary second
hand would sweep.
