Squinting into the sun
June 03, 2010

When you are outdoors on a sunny day, you never want your camera's ISO setting to be on "auto." When there is plenty of bright light, you want to set your ISO (film speed) to its lowest possible setting. The general rule is this: the higher the ISO setting, the more noise/grain your image will have. When the sun is out, you do not have to put up with that at all. My Canon 40D's lowest ISO setting is 100. My brother's Canon goes down to ISO 80.

Also, when outdoors, you can afford to set a very fast shutter speed. This allows you to "stop time" and nearly eliminate motion blur. This shot was taken at 1/800s, nearly fast enough to stop the splashing water droplets in their tracks (the ones above Stephen's head, for example). I should have set it to 1/1000 or 1/1200s exposure time, probably. The easiest way to control shutter speed is to move the mode selection wheel on your camera to shutter priority mode, typically labeled Tv. Once the wheel is on Tv, set your camera's exposure time. On my camera, a reading of "1000" means 1/1000s, a very fast exposure time. If you walk inside with your camera set to 1/1000s with ISO 100 or less, you will not be able to take any pictures. Everything will be dark because there is not nearly enough light indoors for that.

Good luck, and happy summer shooting.