Manual Photography Exposure Cheat Sheet

On my quest toward shoot-to-print, I've been having a lot of difficulty remembering the different aspects that influence exposure when using the manual features of my DSLR camera. So. I created a bit of a cheat sheet to remind me what all the numbers mean.

MakingItLovely has a few tips for better photographs of your home, but they work for lots of other situations:

1. Use a tripod, when possible.
2. Crouch down, to be head-on with your target instead of awkwardly over it.
3. Proper exposure (i.e., probably not your camera's auto-features).

A few more necessary techniques:

1. Photograph in natural light as much as possible.
2. Set your camera's white balance properly, either manually or through its preset options.
3. ISO, aperture, and shutter speed need to be balanced in order to achieve proper exposure. Most DSLRs have a little light meter in the viewfinder to tell you if your settings will result in proper exposure.

For some more information:

• This post from ampersand castles explores the relationship between aperture and depth of field a bit more.
• And this post from Augustine's notebook explores this concept too, but with diagrams instead of actual photos.
• I like this diagram of ISO from Blindink Design and here's diagrams of shutter speed and aperture.

I'm very much a visual learner, so all of these websites use diagrams.