Day 1: Universal Camera Settings (Part 1)
2 Understanding Shutter Speed, Apperture and ISO
Subtitle
I'm going to show you what I would do if I was starting over from nothing...
2 Understanding Shutter Speed, Apperture and ISO
Now we'll delve into shutter speed, aperture and ISO. These settings are extremely important. They make up what I like to call the exposure triangle due to the fact that these three settings are what we change in order to properly expose our scene.
The Exposure Triangle
Exposure is the industry term for the brightness or darkness of your image and although that may sound simple, having the wrong exposure is number one on my top ten list of beginner mistakes. Mess up these settings and you may find yourself with an overexposed image (too bright) or an underexposed image (too dark).
1. Shutter Speed
Controls exposure time & motion blur
2. Aperture
Controls light & depth of field
3. ISO
Controls digital brightness & noise
💡 Understanding Primary vs Secondary Effects
When it comes to these three settings that make up the exposure triangle, each one has a primary effect and a secondary effect. The primary effect of all three of these settings is having an influence on the exposure of your scene (making your image bright or dark).
The secondary effects these settings have are very different and one of the key attributes that many amateur content creators completely disregard — it keeps them from unlocking the full potential of their videos. So make sure to pay close attention to these secondary effects.
1. Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is essentially the length of time that the sensor of your camera is allowed to capture the image and it's measured in seconds. What's great about shutter speed is you can actually see it in action making it much easier to understand.
All cameras have sensors — a complex array of photo sites that collect light data. Historically most cameras had a physical shutter which is like a door that keeps light from hitting the sensor when it's not time to take a picture or video.
When you take a picture the shutter literally snaps up and down revealing the sensor allowing it to briefly capture the image before the shutter comes back down. The length of time that the sensor is exposed is the shutter speed. Modern cameras like our cell phones or mirrorless cameras don't have the physical shutter that goes up and down and instead the mechanism is essentially built into the sensor itself.
✓ Primary Effect: Exposure
Long Shutter Speed (1 second): Sensor is exposed for a long period of time collecting tons of light → Brighter image
Fast Shutter Speed (1/50th second): Only briefly exposes the sensor allowing less light to enter → Darker image
✓ Secondary Effect: Motion Blur
Long Shutter Speed: Any movement that occurs over the course of that time will be captured → More motion blur
Fast Shutter Speed: Sensor only collects light for a microsecond → Very sharp, almost frozen in time, less motion blur
📐 The Golden Rule for Shutter Speed
The general rule of thumb is you want the denominator of your shutter speed to be twice your frame rate.
| Frame Rate | Shutter Speed Formula | Actual Setting |
|---|---|---|
| 24 FPS | 2 × 24 = 48 | 1/48 or 1/50 second |
| 30 FPS | 2 × 30 = 60 | 1/60 second |
| 60 FPS | 2 × 60 = 120 | 1/120 second |
Note: Most cameras only show you the denominator of your shutter speed. So if your shutter speed is set to 1/50th of a second, your camera will only show "50".
🎬 Why This Rule Matters for Cinematic Quality
The reason behind this is super important and it has a massive impact on the cinematic quality of your footage. It is all about the motion blur.
You see, the goal is to always capture footage that mimics what our eyeballs are used to seeing and our eyes are very used to seeing motion blur. Pick up your hand and wave it in front of your face. If you try to focus on your fingers you'll notice it's not crystal clear and in fact has motion blur to it.
When we film with a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second, there's quite a bit of motion blur which is good. Watch practically any Hollywood film and most of the time you'll notice the same — fast motion is always accompanied by motion blur.
⚠️ Common Mistake: Too Fast Shutter Speed
If you accidentally increase your shutter speed too much and let's say you film at 1/500th of a second, there's practically no motion blur whatsoever. The image is almost unnaturally sharp at every frame.
Even if this is your first time noticing the impact of motion blur, believe me this is something your subconscious mind absolutely picks up on and it's a big part of that cinematic look that is sometimes really hard to define.
Conclusion on Shutter Speed: First and foremost, your shutter speed impacts the exposure of your image (fast shutter speed = darker image, slower shutter speed = brighter image). The key though is making sure to follow the double your frame rate rule to nail the perfect amount of motion blur. Increase your shutter speed too much and you'll lose that cinematic motion blur altogether.
2. Aperture
All cameras need to have a lens in order to function. Some cameras have interchangeable lenses like the Canon EOS R where we can swap one lens out for another. Other cameras have fixed lenses like the Sony ZV-1 or more commonly our smartphones. Regardless of which type of camera you have, all lenses have a specific component called the diaphragm which controls the aperture of the lens.
A large aperture lets more light in resulting in a brighter image while a small aperture lets less light in resulting in a darker image. It's exactly like the pupil of your eye which automatically adjusts in size to let in more or less light.
📸 Understanding F-Stop
With our camera lenses, aperture is measured with a term called f-stop.
| F-Stop Value | Aperture Size | Light Amount | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low (f/2.8) | Wide/Large | Tons of light | Brighter image |
| High (f/11) | Small | Less light | Darker image |
✓ Primary Effect: Exposure
Low F-Stop (f/2.8): Wide aperture letting tons of light in → Brighter image
High F-Stop (f/11): Small aperture letting less light in → Darker image
✓ Secondary Effect: Depth of Field
Low F-Stop (f/2.8): Shallow depth of field → Only subject in focus, blurry background (cinematic look)
High F-Stop (f/11): Deep depth of field → Everything in focus (less cinematic)
A lot of people will call this the "blurry background effect". Having your f-stop low like f/2.8 will give you a shallow depth of field meaning only a very small plane of three dimensional space in your image will be in focus. Everything else like the background and the foreground will be blurry and out of focus. This is a very desirable look and it's why most of the time we recommend filming with a low f-stop meaning your aperture is wide open.
💰 Understanding Lens Quality & Price
Here's the thing though, not all lenses are built equal. Some lenses have lower f-stops than others meaning their apertures can open even wider. This will allow you to get even more background blur than other lenses.
Lenses with even lower apertures allow you to let even more light in as well. So if you're ever filming a scene where there isn't much light, you're going to want a lens that has a low f-stop. This is one of the largest factors that impacts the price of a lens. Since quality increases the lower the f-stop can go, the price will also increase significantly.
🎯 General Rules for Aperture
Most of the time: Film at the lowest f-stop possible. This lets the most light in and increases the background blur as much as possible.
Exception - Landscapes: When filming landscapes, you actually want everything to look sharp and in focus. In this situation, use a higher f-stop like f/11 so both the foreground and background are in focus.
Smartphones: Most smartphones have fixed apertures that can't be changed at all. If that's the case, then you have one less setting to worry about and can focus on all the other settings in the exposure triangle even more.
3. ISO
I like to call ISO "digital brightness". Because when you increase your ISO you're essentially adding fake light to your scene. Unlike shutter speed and aperture which literally impact the amount of light that hits your sensor, ISO is all digitally manufactured light.
The measurement for ISO typically starts at around 100 and goes all the way up into the tens of thousands, which would mean adding a ton of this digital light to your scene.
⚠️ The Problem with High ISO
You might be thinking, "Well this means I can film in any lighting scenario because even if it's super dark I can just keep bumping the ISO up until the scene looks well lit." Unfortunately that's not the case.
See, as we continue to increase our ISO, yes it adds more digital light to the scene, but it also adds digital noise — which is almost like static showing through your images and videos. As you increase your ISO, the image gets brighter but this ugly static noise shows through on your image, which takes away from the cinematic quality of the scene.
✓ Primary Effect: Exposure
Low ISO (100-400): Minimal digital brightness added → Image may be darker but clean
High ISO (1600+): Lots of digital brightness added → Image is brighter but with noise
✗ Secondary Effect: Digital Noise
Low ISO: No noise whatsoever → Clean, professional image
High ISO: Visible grain/static → Unprofessional look that ruins cinematic quality
⚠️ Why Auto Mode Fails
This is part of the reason why filming in auto mode can be so bad when we're trying to shoot professional looking content. When you're filming in an area where there isn't much light, a camera in auto mode will almost always crank the ISO way too high, which yes brightens the scene but it ruins the professional look due to that god-awful noise.
With auto mode we have no say — this just happens and it's why we avoid auto mode and learn to control these settings and also add our own light to the scene to accommodate.
📷 Camera ISO Sensitivity Varies
Some cameras have better ISO sensitivity than others, meaning you can continue to increase the ISO without adding as much noise.
Example - Canon EOS R: Can bump ISO to around 1,000 before noticing too much noise
Example - Sony a7S III: Can bump ISO all the way up to 12,000 before noticing too much noise (well known for amazing ISO sensitivity)
🎯 Best Practice for ISO
When it comes to ISO, the best thing you can do is to keep it as low as possible. Only increase it when you have to because the environment you're filming in is just too dark.
Testing Your Camera: Before you ask "How high will I be able to push the ISO on my camera?" remember that the best answer to questions like this is to film a quick practice test yourself. Even if it's just your smartphone, film a few clips:
- One at low ISO (100-200)
- One at ISO 400
- Another at ISO 800
- One final clip at ISO 1200
When you review these clips you'll be able to tell pretty quickly what your line is for your camera that you don't really want to go above.
The Exposure Triangle - Complete Overview
All three settings have a primary function of controlling the exposure of your scene. Here's everything you need to remember:
Shutter Speed
- Primary: Exposure control
- ↑ Shutter Speed = Darker image
- ↓ Shutter Speed = Brighter image
- Secondary: Motion blur
- ↑ Speed = Less blur (frozen)
- ↓ Speed = More blur
- Rule: 2× frame rate
Aperture (F-Stop)
- Primary: Exposure control
- ↑ F-Stop = Darker image
- ↓ F-Stop = Brighter image
- Secondary: Depth of field
- Low f-stop = Blurry background
- High f-stop = Everything in focus
- Rule: Keep as low as possible
ISO
- Primary: Digital brightness
- ↑ ISO = Brighter image
- ↓ ISO = Darker image
- Secondary: Digital noise
- High ISO = Lots of noise
- Low ISO = No noise
- Rule: Keep as low as possible
You can download a cheat sheet graphic to reference on the fly as your own personal guide!
You are now all caught up! We've covered everything you need to know to take complete control over three of the most important camera settings that there are.
Thanks for watching this training. I'll see you in the next one!