THE CAMERA NOTES

Camera settings,
made clear.

Short guides to the settings you use most, with experiments to try as you read.

Exposure made simple: light, time and brightness

Three controls can brighten an image. Learn what each one actually changes—and why the same brightness can hide different trade-offs.

Make sense of f-numbers, see why f/8 gathers less light than f/4, and learn why aperture is only part of the background-blur story.

Compare 1/50 and 1/100 second, understand motion blur, and use the 180-degree guideline with intention.

Learn when ISO helps, what it does to output brightness, and why adding actual light is a different decision.

See the difference between wider and tighter framing, understand perspective, and discover why this zoom lens changes its widest aperture.

Separate capture, playback and exposure duration. See how 50 FPS can give real-time motion or half-speed playback.