Exposure Concept

Exposure Concept is the basic knowledge of photography. If you want to make creative photographs, you have to know the Exposure Concept for the first step.

We frequently enjoy with auto mode for long time after we bought a camera, even if Digital SLR or point and shoot. This mode give us ease and satisfaction, however, it can't develop our creativity in photography, so we have to leave this mode. The initial step for creativity is understanding the Exposure Concept.

There are three elements to understand the Exposure Concept called Photographic Triangle. Each of element has closed relation to the light, how the light go into the camera and interact with it.

The three elements are:

1. ISO, the level of sensitivity camera sensor to the light
2. Aperture, the lens opening while taking photograph
3. Shutter Speed, the moment of lens opening.

Picture source: motoyuk.com

The interaction of the three elements of Triangle of Photography is called Exposure Concept. The change of each element will change the other elements.

I always use parable to understand the Exposure Concept as water tapping:

1. ISO is how strength of the water flow from the source.
2. Aperture is how wide we open the tap.
3. Shutter Speed is how long we open the tap.

This is not the perfect parable, however, I got the basic mind of the Exposure Concept. You can read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson for detail of the Exposure Concept. How do you think about it?