GN44 said:
@MILFandCookies I just got my DSLR, what settings (shutter, ISO, and aperature) are best for photographing people?
The key is to have the person's face exposed well, and as much of the surroundings as possible.
Watch one of these videos to understand the exposure triangle: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=exposure+triangle
And once you understand that, here's the answer to your question:
1) Shutter speed 1/200 or quicker if the subject is moving, 1/160 if they're sitting
Why? If the shutter speed is slower than this, the subject can have motion blur
2) ISO as low as possible while still getting enough light. Try not to go over 1600 if possible
Why? High ISO means the sensor is more sensitive to light (the camera literally charges the sensor with electricity to do this) but if it's high, you'll get noise (a static-looking pattern) - EXACTLY the same thing that happens when you open your eyes in the dark at night. The specific number will change depending on the camera, but for the ones Andy recommends, 1600 is the cutoff between a little noise and a lot of noise. Denoising programs like Topaz Labs and Lightroom's new AI Denoising feature can compensate if you have to go over 1600
3) Aperture at f/2 or higher ("faster" in photog speak, I can explain why they use this terminology but it's unneccesary). This is confusing, because the f number is actually the bottom of a fraction... so f/1.2 is MORE than f/2, because it's really f:1/1.2 vs f:1/2, and 1/1.2 is MORE than 1/2.
Why? Because a wider open aperture means more background separation (blurry background, sharp in focus subject.) I don't want to go into the optical science of why this is because it's complicated and unnecessary... The important thing is that blurry backgrounds look better, and there's hard data (OKCupid did a study) showing that the blurrier the background, the more matches you get.
Caution though, if you have an aperture at f/1.4 or f/1.2, you might run into the problem where the depth of field is too narrow... what I mean is the part of the image that's in focus is too small - for example, the eyes might be in focus, but the nose and ears are blurry. Or if they're looking at an angle, one eye might be in focus but the other eye is blurry... So at first I'd stick to f/1.8 or f/2 while you get used to photography. Good news is that to get > f/1.8 you have to spend a lot extra on lenses, so it probably won't be an option anyway.
I got super nerdy and in the weeds there, feel free to ask me to clarify anything
