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# The Basis of Things to Come
- URL: https://back2basicsphoto.com/the-basis-of-things-to-come/
- Published: 2010-10-01T13:39:03.000Z
- Updated: 2010-10-01T13:39:03.000Z
- Author: Dan Cabral
- Tags: concepts, Difficulty, Foundation, photography, aperture, Auto, Basis, camera, component, components, computer, concept, decision, DSLR, exposure, fundamentals, graph, Greek, Hasselblad, inclination, lens, markings, mode, Modern, Once, photographer, Proper, relationship, sensor, Settings, topics, #Migrated-1790414487459, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-09-26 05:21

![DC_DSC1072-80](/content/images/wordpress/2010/10/DC_DSC1072802.jpg "DC_DSC1072-80")

![DC_DSC1075-83](/content/images/wordpress/2010/10/DC_DSC1075832.jpg "DC_DSC1075-83")

Too dark… Too light…

The concept of exposure, in my view, is critical to understanding almost everything in photography. From getting the right color in your images to understanding the markings on your lens to the mode dial on your camera, all of these things are rooted in in the concept of exposure. Of the many topics I plan to eventually cover in this blog, exposure will play a critical part in almost all of them, and getting at least a base understanding in this concept will yield immediate results in improving your photography.

Photography is the art of capturing light. The word photograph comes from the Greek words *photo-*meaning light and *graph-* meaning write or draw. Modern photography is still the art of writing light. Every time we make a photograph, regardless of the camera we use, we’re exposing light onto film or the sensor of a digital camera. How we make a proper photograph out of the light we capture is through controlling the how the film or sensor is exposed to the light. That’s exposure.

Exposure consists of three components: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. The relationship and balance of these components is how we control exposure. Proper understanding of these components will allow you, as the photographer, to predict the effect on the final image when they are adjusted. This control will allow you to make better (in the technical and/or artistic sense) photographs.

Exposure is also a concept that is 

universal 

in photography. It applies to every photographer using every camera. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a $100 point-and-shoot, a $1000 SLR, a $40000 Hasselblad, or a $.50 pinhole camera you made out of a box and spare lens cap. You are performing the exact same function of exposing the film or sensor to light, and controlling the exact same variables of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

The act of proper exposure might seem foreign for someone who’s been using a point-and-shoot camera set on Auto mode because the photographer has no control of these components. Nevertheless, the exposure is being controlled. When a camera is in Auto mode, the camera is looking at the scene presented before it, and deciding on-the-fly what settings should be used. Unfortunately, this takes all of the technical and artistic control out of the photographer’s hands, and puts it in the hands of a computer chip.

When you go from a point-and-shoot camera to your first DSLR, your first inclination might be “I used Auto mode on my old camera. I’ll just use that on my SLR.” What this simple decision effectively does is turn your fancy new SLR with good optics into a high-end point-and-shoot, because all of the control over exposure you have with an SLR has just been handed over to a computer chip, just like with a point-and-shoot camera on Auto mode. Once you understand the concept of exposure, and it’s component elements, you’ll (I hope) quickly get your SLR off the Auto setting, and never put it back.

I will explain, in detail, the individual components of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO in subsequent posts. For now, just take away the understanding that, as a photographer, everything you do has been, and will be, based on the fundamental concept of exposure.