CAMERA SETTINGS

SHUTTER SPEED

Simply put, the shutter speed of a camera is a number which represents the amount of time the shutter remains open to let the light through the lens for proper exposure, to stop the action ,or to create movement in it.

COMMON SHUTTER SPEEDS

            1/1000            1/500            1/250            1/100            1/60            1/30            1/15            1/8            1/4            1/2            1        B
            Shutter speeds are normally listed in your camera without the fraction and can far exceed the 1/1000 speed.  REMEMBER, the shutter speed is measured by a fraction of a SECOND. One (1) second is just that.  The B setting  allows the lens to remain open as long as we like (over 1 second) by using a cable release or remote and a sturdy tripod - good tool for night photography.
"Slower" shutter speeds as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15 lets more light in because the shutter is open for a longer length of time. "Slower" shutter speeds can also be used to create movement, such as in the angel hair/smoky looking water of a waterfall or rapid river.
"Faster" shutter speeds as 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250 stops the action of fast moving subjects as race car, cyclist and a runner because the picture is recorded quickly.

f  STOPS/APERTURE

        The size of the aperture, or opening of the camera lens, controls the amount of light entering the camera. F stops are located on a movable ring around the lens. One can see a series of numbers indicating these stops on the ring ranging from 1.4 to 22 - and sometimes as high as 32 or 64. REMEMBER, the lower the "f" number, the larger the lens opening. Point and shoot cameras often have their f stops pre-set in the factory or only have one or two f stops.

EXPOSURE

EXPOSURE is the amount of light needed to create the image.  Too much light causes overexposure, and too little light causes underexposure.  From the above, we know that shutter speed control the amount of time that light passes through the lens and that
 aperture or f stops control the amount of light by size of the lens opening.  These 2 factors are set automatically by modern cameras. 
It is important to go off "automatic" or "program" for those certain situations, which will also allow one to become more creative and
make less mistakes.  With the modern camera, many photographers no longer shoot in manual mode  which requires both f stop and
shutter speed to be set.  They either shoot in shutter priority or aperture priority.

Shutter Priority - is that mode which the camera's controls will pick out the proper f stop required when we set our own shutter speed.

Aperture Priority - is that mode which the camera's controls will pick out the proper shutter speed when you choose the f stop.

EXERCISE

USING SHUTTER PRIORITY - (ONLY SETTING YOU NEED TO MAKE)

                    SET SHUTTER SPEED "S"                                             SITUATION

                                              1/1000                                                                           Freeze or stop water flow

                                              
                                                1/100                                                                              Moon shots

                                                1/60                                                                                Neon lights

                                                1/2                                                                                   Flowing waterfalls

                                                B                                                                                     Lighting, Christmas lights at night

EXERCISE

USING APERTURE "F STOP" PRIORITY - "S" - (ONLY SETTING YOU NEED TO MAKE)

Excellent setting for "Depth of Field" which fades background

The smaller the aperture "f stop" (larger the number i.e. f 22) more background fades and foreground highlighted

Experiment with f 22, f 16, and f 11 for that right photograph using "depth-of-field"

SUNNY 16 RULE

This rule is an easy way to remember how to set the aperture and shutter speed in daylight. On a bright
and full sun day, set the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed to that of the ISO setting.  If the ISO
is 100, for example, set the shutter speed to 100 (1/125 for film ISO as it is closer to 100)

On the aperture table above, one can visualize the lens opening to allow the amount of light
needed and that f/16 requires little light on that full sun day.  White sand on the beach or snow
even requires even less light  or f/22.  Moving up the scale, f/11 would be for half sun, f/8 for open shade,
f/5.6 for darker shade, and f/4 for darkest shade. Each time one raises the aperture stops, they would accordingly
raise the shutter speed a stop - f/11 would the have a shutter speed of 1/250 for example.  Reference the
shutter speed chart above.