FE670: Expose the Dog

The Secret to Picking Your Settings

Picture this: You're watching someone photographing dogs flying over jumps, and you think "I need those exact camera settings!" So you march over, get the magic numbers, dial them in, and... your photos still look nothing like theirs. Sound familiar?

Trust me, I've been on the receiving end of this question more times than I can count. I'll be at the ring at an agility trial and someone will see my camera (or, to be more accurate, they'll see my ginormous lens) and inevitably they will ask what settings I'm using. I sometimes rattle them off and sometimes I waffle a bit and give them a vague answer. It just depends on how generous I'm feeling that day. <grin>

The thing is, knowing my settings is only half the story. Yes, you can set your camera to the same exact settings I use and get a photo that is exposed the same way mine is. But what actually makes the difference is understanding the strategy behind those numbers. Without that foundation, you're still going to struggle with that screaming fast dog on the agility course.

When I tell someone I'm using an ISO of 80,000, the looks I get range from confusion to amusement (as if I'm pulling their leg), to outright disbelief. But when you understand how and why I chose my settings, ISO 80,000 makes complete sense. The difference is understanding the reasoning behind the numbers rather than just copying a "recipe" for your camera.

In this class, there will be no recipes. I will share my settings of course, but more importantly, I will share my strategy for picking those settings. My hope is that you will leave this class with a solid understanding of the process for picking your settings for any situation you want to photograph. (And you'll learn when you should just put away the camera and be present in the moment.)

Reality Check

If you've taken any classes with me, you know that I try to inject a strong dose of reality to balance out the fantasy folks imagine life as a photographer is like. 

You will be learning how to think through a process for selecting your manual exposure settings. This doesn't mean you'll nail it every time—I've been doing this for 25 years and I still mess up my exposure. STUFF HAPPENS. You'll practice, build fluency, and yes, I'll show you my screw-ups to make you feel better. This is about developing confident decision-making skills, not achieving perfection.

The Secret to Picking Your Settings

What is this secret? It's a strategy called the Limiting Factor Method (LFM). This strategy was introduced in Shoot the Dog, so we'll start with some review.

Galen Rowell, an accomplished landscape photographer, describes it this way:

"To shoot many different subjects in natural light, each with different technical requirements, I devised something I call the 'limiting-factor' method. Professional sports photographers gravitate naturally toward this way of shooting, but most scenic photographers focus on static subjects so often that they are rarely forced to organize their approach to technical problems — that is, how and in what order they adjust the camera's settings.

"The limiting-factor method instantly streamlines and reorders my mental checklist for each photo situation. I simply think of every photo as having one problem to be solved, a limiting factor, and I begin with that. If there's more than one, I pick the most crucial. If I can't think of one, I know I'm in one of those rare right-place/right-time situations where I can't miss."

Until I read this, I didn't even realize that this was a "thing." However, this is EXACTLY how I approach photography. I decide on the most important problem I have to solve in the image I'm trying to create and base my settings on it. This will nail down one of the three elements of exposure. Then I decide which of the two remaining elements is more important and dial it in. By setting the two most important elements, that leaves you no choice for the third element.

In order to effectively use the LFM, it is really helpful to know what things can be fixed or altered in post-processing and which things can't. I know we don't do any post-processing in this class, but I'll give you enough information here so that you'll know how to make that determination.

Let's look at this through the lens of our three exposure elements—aperture, shutter speed, and ISO—and what each one impacts:

Shutter Speed impacts motion blur—and you cannot fix motion blur after the fact.

You cannot fix a blurry photo.

This is worth repeating, so repeat after me: You cannot fix a blurry photo.

You must get your focus right or it's an image destined for the trash. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Blurry image = throw it away. In general, if you have a subject that is moving, shutter speed will be your priority setting.

Aperture impacts depth of field—and you cannot change depth of field after the fact.

Yes, there are tools in Photoshop and Lightroom to add fake background blur, but there is no substitute for the natural blur created in the camera with a shallow DOF. In general, if you have a subject that is stationary, aperture will be your priority setting.

ISO impacts digital noise—and noise CAN be fixed after the fact.

High levels of noise can be cleaned up effectively. The noise-reduction tools in both Lightroom and Photoshop are very good. There is no reason to make ISO your priority setting. EVER. ISO is used to balance the other two settings — that's it! In my classes, you will never select your ISO first.

This is why the Limiting Factor Method works: you identify which of the first two problems (motion blur or depth of field) is most critical to solve, set that element first, then adjust the second most important element, and let ISO fall where it needs to fall.

The way we solve our "problem" is through a series of questions about the specific situation we are trying to photograph:

1. What is the most important problem to be solved? Be sure to define this in terms of things that are controlled with camera settings, not problems in a broader sense.
2. What setting (aperture or shutter speed) do we use to solve that problem?
3. What is the value of that setting I will use to solve the problem?
4. What is the value of the other non-ISO element (shutter speed or aperture)?
5. What ISO will I have to use to get these other two settings?

This systematic approach transforms you from someone who copies settings to someone who creates them. No more guessing, no more hoping someone else's recipe will work in your situation. You'll develop the judgment to look at any scene and know how to approach it technically—whether you're shooting your dog in the backyard or tackling the challenging lighting at an indoor agility trial.