Why Camera Settings Don’t Matter
One of the most common questions and requests I get, is to share the camera settings I use in my photos. Although in my zines I do show this info, I personally don’t think sharing specific camera settings is actually beneficial… I would go as far as saying dialling in specific camera settings really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. What is beneficial, is a different way to look at camera settings, a more holistic high level view… by grouping them.
Why Specific Camera Settings Don’t Matter
Let me start with a disclaimer. If your style of photography involves setting up a tripod, taking your time, dialling everything in and taking a photo of a somewhat still subject, then by all means dial in the exact settings. This blog is for people who take photos as they are walking around a city with a camera in their hand or people who need to react quickly and might not have the luxury to dial in their camera. Also this blog is aimed at those who shoot in all modes apart from full auto. Finally this is just my approach and it is not the wrong approach or the right approach. It is simply what works for me and how I personally understand and look at camera settings in general. Personally I think sharing exact camera settings does not really help anyone for three reasons.
First one is that they don’t know my thinking process at the time of me taking a photo. Maybe I was shooting at 1000 ISO at midday to freeze a fast moving car at 1/1000 but still have good depth of field at f11. Secondly they don’t know how much editing has been done to the photo specifically around brightness and exposure adjustment. Maybe the photo was underexposed to protect the highlights and then the exposure was boosted in post. Finally you don’t know what the conditions were like in real life. Maybe this foggy morning scene was much darker in real like compared to the photo. So as you see simply looking at camera settings and a photo can actually mislead people entirely. However I feel there is a better way to approach camera settings. Both from the photographers and the viewers perspective. To do this, we need to place camera settings into groups.
ISO
Group 1 will be base ISO up to ISO1000. This group you will use when you have decent light and you know that any noise will be minimum to none. Whether you use ISO 800 or 600 does not matter whatsoever.
Group 2 will be ISO 1000 to 3200. This group will be for when the light is not great or when you need a faster shutter speed. Noise will increase but it will be manageable. The difference between ISO 2000 and 3200 will be minimal.
Final group is 3200 to 6400. This is for scenarios where it’s very dark and you accept that you will need to deal with noise later on. Worrying about choosing ISO 5000 or 6400 will not really be worth it. Now sure, if you zoom in to 5000%, push the exposure and examine every pixel you will see a difference between ISO 500 and ISO 800. But this video is aimed at the average hobby photographer. Not an overexcited pixel peeper or someone who does 10 foot fine art prints.
Shutter Speed
Now let’s look at shutter speed. Quick disclaimer this does vary a lot depending on the lens you use. The longer the lens the higher shutter speeds you need across the board and vice versa. For the purpose of this video let’s assume we are talking about a 35mm full frame lens.
Group 1 will be between 1/30 and 1/100. When you’re in this group, you need to make sure you’re doing everything possible to steady you and your camera. In this group you should also expect a degree of motion blur in most moving subjects.
Group 2 Is between 1/160 and 1/250. Here you have a bit more breathing space especially towards to upper end of this group. However you still need to exercise caution and slow down a little when taking a photo. Most things will not have motion blur however faster moving objects will have some motion blur.
Group 3 is 1/500 and above. Here you will have an identical image whether you shoot at 1/500 or 1/5000. Unless you’re into shooting F1 cars, wildlife or anything of that nature…. Pun slightly intended. For most of us doing street, travel, portrait and landscape photography it will not make a difference.
Aperture
First up we have have f1.4 till f2.8. Here you will have the most amount of background blur and the softest image. So if that’s what you’re going for, then sticking somewhere here will be ideal. Is there a huge difference between f1.4 and f2? Not really.
Second group is between f2.8 and f5.6. This is where I spend the most time and typically start at f4 on a sunny day and go from there. This is a nice midpoint that gives you a balanced compromise between depth of field, lens performance and amount of light coming in. Should you agonise over f4 vs f5.6… absolutely not.
The third group is f8 to f11. This is where I would be if I want to block even more light and ensure most of the scene is in focus. This is also where many lenses will perform at their best and many street and landscape photographers will spend their time. Should you worry if you you took a photo at f9 vs f8… not at all
Finally we have everything above f11. This area I avoid as it’s where lens performance goes downhill and from my own experience, I have only shot at f14 or f16 by mistake when the aperture dial accidentally turned in my bag and I didn’t pay attention before shooting.
Summary
So from now on when you think of camera settings, don’t stress over tiny differences between ISO 200 and 300 or f4 and f5.6 or 1/200 vs 1/250. Look at it as separate groups and select the group based on what you want to achieve. The exact setting within that group will rarely make a difference. Also use this method when you look at other people’s camera settings. It will help you try to understand what the photographer is doing and not just get fixated on a specific setting that might not have any real impact on the image. However despite everything I said, still take the settings you see on someone’s photo with a pinch of salt because you don’t have the full picture… because you wasn’t there and didn’t see what the conditions were like… or what post processing was done. Or even if as it so happens in my case, I just used the wrong settings by mistake however the photo still worked.