Now that you have the camera in manual mode, consult the camera manual and determine which buttons or wheels control the adjustment of the Aperture and Shutter. \u00a0I know for example on most Canon DSLR cameras, the aperture is\u00a0controlled\u00a0by the large thumb wheel in the middle of the back of the camera just to the right of the LCD and the shutter is controlled by the small finger wheel in the front of the camera just under the shutter release button. \u00a0On Nikon DSLR cameras, the aperture is controlled by a small finger wheel on the front of the camera just under the shutter release button \u00a0and the shutter is controlled by a similar wheel on the back of the camera at the top right, behind the shutter release button.<\/p>\n
With the camera now on a tripod and in manual mode, adjust the aperture to its largest setting, i.e. the smallest f-number something like f4, f3.5 or f2, and set the shutter speed to its longest setting, for most cameras 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
Now press the shutter release button, you will need to wait 30 seconds for the exposure to complete and then look at the LCD. \u00a0What do you see? \u00a0If everything went as described, you should see a completely white screen, and possibly blinking black to white. \u00a0This is extreme over-exposure. \u00a0In other words too much light got into the camera.<\/p>\n
Now, start reducing the aperture size by dialing in larger f-numbers. \u00a0For example if you started out at f3.5 now go to f5.6 then f8, f11, f16, f22 and so on until you run out of f-stop settings. \u00a0Each time making that 30 second exposure and examining the LCD. \u00a0It is possible that even at the smallest aperture opening, like f22, with that 30\u00a0second\u00a0shutter speed you won’t see much difference.<\/p>\n
Now dial in the next shorter shutter speed, most likely 15 seconds and then make photos with increasing aperture sizes going from f22 back to f3.5 or whatever your maximum aperture is. \u00a0Examine your LCD each time.<\/p>\n
Continue to repeat this with every shutter speed setting you have 8 seconds, 4 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 sec, 1\/2 sec, etc.. until you reach the shortest shutter speed probably 1\/2000 sec or 1\/4000 sec. \u00a0At least one if not several aperture-shutter combinations will give you a photo that will resemble the uniform tone you have your camera pointed at. \u00a0In fact the photo that closely resembles that tone will probably be the one you like least as it will probably be not what you thought you “saw”. \u00a0A series of these photos that I made is shown below. \u00a0Oh, and for the record, I liked the f11 @ 1\/60 sec exposure best, even though the camera indicated that it would have given me the f11 @ 1\/125 sec exposure.<\/p>\n
This is the first step to mastering your camera to convey what you want it to, learning how to take control of exposure. \u00a0To learn more about photography consider taking an Organic Light Photography Workshop<\/a>. \u00a0You’ll learn more about exposure and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n
![\"Exposures](\"https:\/\/www.organiclightphoto.com\/images\/ExposureExample1.jpg\" "\\"Exposure")
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