Which set-up has the best light??

[Mike McCarty]

Should I set the camera on the aperture priority setting and at what aperture? I have a Canon Rebel and the lowest it will go is 4.0.

April,

There are reasonable strategies for each of the settings. I mostly operate in the "P," or, program mode. I then monitor my exposure (mostly my shutter speed) in the view finder. If you are unsure at this point I would use either the "program" or the "portrait" mode and don't concern yourself so much with this number. When I operate in the "portrait" mode my camera wants to pop the flash up when it thinks the light is to low. This is aggravating to me so I lean toward the "program" mode.

Aperature (shutter speed is how long, aperature is how wide, and exposure is the result of the combined two) is mostly a function of "depth of field." The lower the number the less dof you will have. If you want to bring into focus your subjects and the mountain behind them you should use an 11+, or "landscape" mode. If you want to focus on the eyes and blur behind the head you should use as low an aperature as you can, or, place your camera in portrait mode. These so called descriptive modes understand that your intention is a specific dof and work toward an exposure to achieve this end. Focal length can also have an impact on dof.

What is the best ISO?

The following was taken from a thread way back in June of '04. These digital cameras were still a little fresh to most of us just a few short years ago. This thread is titled "ISO Eperiment" and is here:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&highlight=iso

I wonder why it chose these settings on such a bright sunny day?

Jean,

Thank you for that question.

Given the lighting conditions you describe, the camera made a perfectly reasonable choice.

If you had taken the time to switch your ISO setting to 200 or 400, then taken a photograph of the same scene with the same light, you would not be able to tell the difference one little bit. The only difference would be that the camera would have chosen a progressively higher shutter speed.

And, if you had returned to that same scene in the late evening with much less available light, with your camera in auto ISO mode, it no doubt would have selected a much higher ISO.

When you, or your camera, select a higher ISO, it

[April Phillips]

Mike,

Thanks for being so generous with our time and knowledge. I learned a lot.

April