Settings you understand beat settings you copied
Somebody in every class asks me for "my settings." Like there's a magic combination — f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 400 — that I'll hand over and then their portraits will look like the ones on my phone.
I get why. It feels efficient. But it doesn't work, and I want to explain why before we go any further, because this is one of those things that seems like a shortcut and is actually the long way around.
Why copying a number doesn't help you
A setting is an answer to a question about the light in front of you right now. Change the light, and the answer changes. If I tell you "shoot at f/4, 1/200, ISO 200" and you go try that in your backyard at 2pm with harsh overhead sun, you'll get a different result than I got shooting near a window at 4pm. Not because the number was wrong. Because the question was different.
So instead of memorizing numbers, I want you to understand what each setting is actually doing. Just the plain version, nothing technical you don't need yet.
Aperture controls how much of your photo is in focus, front to back. A low number (f/2, f/2.8) blurs the background more. A higher number (f/8, f/11) keeps more in focus. For one person standing in front of a wall or some trees, you'll usually want that background soft, so you lean toward the lower end your lens allows.
Shutter speed controls motion. Slower shutter, more blur if anything moves — including your subject swaying slightly, which people do more than they realize. For a portrait of someone standing reasonably still, you want your shutter fast enough to freeze that. As a floor, I tell people not to go below about 1/125 for a standing adult. If there's a kid involved, faster still, and honestly even then it's a bit of luck. I've said before that fast-moving kids are not my strong suit. Give me a cooperative teenager over a toddler any day.
ISO is your camera's sensitivity to light. Low ISO (100, 200) needs more light but gives you a cleaner image. Higher ISO (800, 1600, up) works in dimmer conditions but starts to look grainy. You raise ISO only after you've done what you can with aperture and shutter and the light still isn't enough.
Here's the thing: those three settings are a triangle. You adjust one, you usually have to adjust another to compensate. That's not a formula to memorize either. That's just what happens when you point a camera at the actual world, which has actual light in it that changes by the minute.
The practical part — what to actually do
Put your camera in aperture priority mode if you have it (usually marked A or Av on the dial). This lets you control the background blur, which matters most for portraits, and lets the camera handle shutter speed automatically. It's a good in-between step before full manual, and I don't think there's anything wrong with staying there for a while. Your mileage may vary, but I still shoot in aperture priority more than I don't.
Then do this exercise at home, no subject required yet: pick one window, one time of day, and take the same object — a mug, a plant, doesn't matter — and shoot it at three different apertures. Look at what changes in the background. Then move to a different window, different light, same three apertures. Notice how the same number gives you a different feeling depending on the light it's working with.
This is the part people skip because it feels like homework instead of photography. It's the part that actually teaches you something, though. At the end of the day the camera can't think for you, so.
Where this gets tested — the bored subject
I'll tell on my oldest here. Jace agreed to model for a lighting demo exactly once, and spent the entire time asking if we were done yet. I got maybe four usable frames out of twenty minutes, and every single one of them looks like exactly what it was: a bored kid waiting for his mom to finish messing with a camera.
I could have had the technically perfect settings that day and it wouldn't have mattered. A bored subject reads as bored in the photo. No exceptions. I bring this up here because settings are only half the equation. You can nail your aperture and shutter and ISO and still get a flat, lifeless photo if the person in front of your lens isn't engaged. We'll get into the people-management side of this soon. For now, just file it away: the technical stuff creates the possibility of a good photo. It doesn't guarantee one.
My opinion, which I hold pretty firmly: natural light beats a bag of gear for a beginner, every time. Learn to read the light you already have access to — a window, a porch, open shade under a tree — before you spend money trying to solve a problem you haven't identified yet.
Before next time: do the window exercise above with whatever camera you've got, even a phone if that's what you're working with, and notice what actually changes when the light changes. Bring your favorite frame to class and we'll talk about why it worked.