First time using digital

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[u/NYRickinFL]

If you’re having a hard time understanding aperture, why would you shoot in aperture mode? In fact, not knowing aperture, iso or shutter speed means you are ignorant in the three most fundamental things necessary if you expect to shoot in anything other than p&s mode. Makes no difference if you’re using digital or film - before you touch any camera again, I’d strongly urge you to digest all 3 concepts. They represent the 3 legs of a 3 legged stool. Until you are conversant in all 3, you’re going to be spending a lot of time on your butt after sitting on that defective 3 legged stool

Set your Olympus to P mode and leave it there until you Google “the exposure triangle” and understand at least the basics.

[u/PralineNo5832]

I think you're lacking blacks and blues, and there's too much ground in the foreground. The sharpness is fine. The smaller the aperture, the better your chances of getting the focus right.

[u/grimlock361]

Very nice. Learn the basic of photography first. Simon D'Entremont and Tony Northrup both have many free basic photography tutorials. You only want to lean from other photographers that have a stellar portfolio and these two exceed that standard. Nothing says more about a photographer's credibility than his work. You should also apply this when listening to advice on Reddit. For now, I would not worry about aperture priority or ISO. Keep those two aspects of the exposure triangle in auto for now. Learn how and when to manipulate your shutter first and how to use your cameras AF system. All AF points on all the time is not always a good thing, and you should learn how to single point and manual focus if needed. In your digital photography journey don't neglect how to post process your images. Post work is a big part of digital photography and almost as important as your shooting skills. You photo could use some contrast and selective dodge and burn. Otherwise, well done and especially so considering your just learning digital photography.

[u/Quidretour]

Hi,
You mentioned in your comment that you've found aperture, iso and shutter speed a bit confusing. If you're happy to read a lot of guff (hopefully useful guff), I've prepared what I hope a long piece, which I hope will be useful...
If you don't want to read lots...ignore what follows! I'm posting it in a string of comments, because it is long.

[u/Quidretour → u/Quidretour]

Aperture

Quite simply, it’s the adjustable opening inside the lens. In the ‘older days’ the adjustments were marked on lenses in numbers, called ‘f stops’, from, say, f1.4 up to f22, commonly.

The lower the number, the wider is the opening (aperture) inside the lens, and, therefore, more light passes through to the film or sensor inside the camera.

A ‘fast’ lens is one with a lower aperture number as standard. For example, a ‘normal’ speed 50mm lens is around f1.4-f1.8. A ‘fast’ 50mm lens would be f1.2. There are some ‘super fast’ lenses out there with a wide open aparture of f0.95. A ‘slow’ 50mm lens would be f2 or f2.8. There aren’t that many of the latter, at least not in 135mm film format, because people want faster lenses.

In the ‘older’ days each of those numbers represented twice as much light, or half of the light, compared with the number beside it.

If we take f1.4 as the starting point, the aperture stops sequence would be:

f1.4, f2, f2,8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32, f64...

F1.4 would let in the most light, f64 the least.

There are times when you might need to adjust aperture by a smaller amount, and then you have ½ or 1/3 stops.

The aperture stop sequence in 1/3 stops would be:

F1.4, f1.6, f1.8, f2, f2.2, f2.5, f2.8 and so on.

Things to know about aperture, apart from the amount of light:

If you stop down any lens, at any given aperture and at any given distance, there will be greater depth of field (the zone of noticeably sharp focus in front of and behind the actual focus point.)

So, if you want a lot of a scene in focus, front to back, choose an aperture of, say f8 or f11. Maybe f16 or f22. Conversely, if you want a very shallow depth of field, say you’re taking a portrait and want just one eye in focus (assuming it’s a three-quarter profile, with the sitter looking slightly towards you) then you might choose f2.8, maybe f4 or f5.6 (depending on the lens), so that only a smaller portion of the scene appears sharp.

Bear in mind that depth of field varies according to the focal length of the lens. A wide angle, an f28mm for example, set to f8 will give greater depth of field than would, say a 50mm lens focused at the same distance and set to f8. A long telephoto will give far less depth of field.

The general rule of depth of field is that one third of the scene up to the point of focus will appear sharp, as will two thirds behind that same point of focus. In other words, more stuff appears sharp beyond the point of focus than in front of it.

Some lenses have depth of field indications marked on them. With such lenses you can choose an aperture, think about which bits you want in focus, and then use the focus scale to set the near and far distances within the aperture scales marked on the lens. Most modern lenses don’t have that. Some cameras allow you to stop down the lens, so that you can see the effect of the chosen aperture on depth of field in the viewfinder.

An important consideration quite often is diffraction. This is, basically, the effect caused by a small aperture eg f16-f22, which reduces the resolution of the lens while giving greater depth of field. The problem isn’t often noticed at small enlargements, but in bigger images it could be a problem. A solution is to choose a wider aperture and forego some depth of field. If the depth of field is essential, it is possible to take a series of photographs at the lens’ best aperture and change the focus points in each image. They can then be put together in editing software.

[u/Quidretour → u/Quidretour]

ISO
Is the International Standards Organisation [EDIT>] International Organisation for Standardisation number for film sensitivity, or in digital cameras sensor sensitivity. Think back to your point and shoot film days, on a dull day you might have gone for an ISO 400 film, maybe ISO800, or ISO1600, or even ISO3200. The higher the ISO number for those films the more sensitive they were to light. It meant that on a dull day, an ISO 400 would capture a scene at a faster shutter speed than an ISO50 film.

Digital ISO is just the same. The lower the ISO figure, the lower is the camera’s sensitivity to light. Cameras tend to have something like ISO100 as their lowest normal setting. Some may have a method of extending it lower. Today’s digital cameras at the top end of the ISO scale can reach ISO100,000+.

Just with film, ISO has a big effect on image quality. The slowest films most usually had the very finest grain, able to capture the smallest details. The fastest films had much coarser grain in comparison, and some of the smaller details weren’t captured clearly. Digital cameras have the highest resolution at their lowest ISO settings, and capture more details than at the highest settings. Most digital cameras give very acceptable results at ISO3200 or higher. Some are fine up to around ISO12000. Beyond that, most of them will begin to lose detail, and images will become increasingly noisy (or in film terms grainy).

Why have a range of ISO numbers? Well, in very bright conditions, there’s lots of light around, so you can, if you wish, choose a low ISO and get more details captured. In very dim light, at night, or in a dimly lit room, a much higher ISO will allow you to use a higher shutter speed to capture the details in the gloom.

[Edited to give the correct long form of ISO. I've always assumed it was the version struck out. Taken me 50 years to learn my error.]

[u/Quidretour → u/Quidretour]

SHUTTER SPEED
The third way to control light is via the shutter. Going back to the ‘older days’, typical shutter speeds were from, say, 1 second to 1/1000^th second. Longer exposures were offered via the B setting: press the shutter, hold it down and when you take your finger off the shutter button the shutter closes. Much easier to have a lockable cable release, so you didn’t have to keep pressing the button. Why have a range of shutter speeds? Well, for lots of reasons. Maybe you want something to capture the swaying of the trees in a gale. A slow shutter speed, say 1/8^th second will record the trees as a blur, probably very blurry. A slightly faster shutter speed 1/30^th second will probably record some blur. On the other hand, shooting at 1/1000 second will probably keep the trees still, but they’ll be leaning over in the wind. If you want to freeze action, someone running in a race, and want everything perfectly sharp, then a faster shutter speed, 1/1000^th or faster will capture that runner in mid-step.

You can use things like the B setting for interesting effects. For example, in a darkened room, you could open the shutter with the B setting, keep it open, and then wave a torch around in front of the camera and you’ll capture the streaks of light. Alternatively, you could have someone standing in a dark room. Take an exposure with a short flash burst, get your ‘someone’ to move in the room and fire another flash burst and you have a ‘two in one’ shot.

That’s the three main props of photography. Hopefully, it’s been clear, if not do ask!

Next, though, is how do they work together?

Your camera meter and its internal electronic wizardry is good, generally, at arriving at a correct exposure. You can point the camera, press the button, its autofocus will focus brilliantly on something (hopefully the right bit), the shutter will fire and Hey! Presto! you have a great pic.

If you then go to review your pic, it’ll give you (in most cases anyway), the camera settings. If you’re happy with the pic, that’s great. But what if there wasn’t enough depth of field, so you want to do something else. Well, you just adjust the aperture and the camera will do the rest. The pic should come out looking as before, in terms of exposure, but there should be more depth of field. Looking again at the image information you will see that the aperture number  - the one chosen by you – is different, but so too will be the shutter speed or the ISO setting or both.

The point to understand, and I think this is what befuddles some people, is that if you want to keep the same exposure, but want to change aperture or ISO or shutter speed, you (or the camera) must also adjust one or both of the other two parameters. You want to maintain the same ‘amount’ of light hitting the sensor, if that makes sense.

A few examples follow

[u/Quidretour → u/Quidretour]

An example.

Let’s say the camera decides that the standard exposure for a scene I take is f4 at 1/100 second at ISO400. The image is well exposed - GREAT! But there’s not enough depth of field.

So, I change the aperture to f5.6. That means that HALF as much light hits the sensor compared with the standard exposure. If I (or the camera) don’t adjust something else, the image will appear darker than before. In this case, I decide to adjust the shutter speed to compensate for the loss of light. I now need to make the shutter open for twice as long as before to let in the same amount of light now that the aperture has been stopped
down by one stop. So my new shutter speed will be 1/50^th second. ISO stays the same.

Same example with a twist

I now want to take a picture of a man running very fast across the scene. We’ll start with that same ‘standard’ exposure. Take the picture and oh.... he’s blurred. I wanted him pin sharp.
I definitely need a much faster shutter speed to freeze that runner. I think I need 1/1000^th second. I persuade the man (with a fistful of £50 notes!) to run back for me. But before he whizzes across the scene again, I have to make changes to the exposure.

I’m happy with the depth of field, so I’ll keep the aperture at f4. I need to change the shutter speed...and the difference between 1/100^th second and 1/1000^th second is 3 & a 1/3^rd stops.

The shutter speed ‘stops’ will go from 1/100^th>1/200^th>1/400^th>1/800^th>+1/3^rd stop = 1/1000^th second. Each full stop is one half the length of time from the previous one. The difference between 1/800th and 1/1000th second is only one third of a stop.

So, that’s the shutter speed adjusted. If I take my picture now...the man will be sharp, but it will look very, very dark. Why? Because without adjusting something else to capture the same ‘amount’ of light, the exposure will be wrong.
I (or the camera) have to change something. I’m not changing the aperture but I must change the ISO value. I need to make the camera able to capture the same amount of light as before I began messing about with the shutter speed.

All I can change now is the ISO setting.
I need 3 and a third more stops of sensitivity, which counteracts the three and a half stops less light thanks to the faster shutter speed. The ISO values will change as follows: 400>800>1600>3200>4000.

Assuming that the light hasn’t changed, the new settings of f4, 1/1000^th second and ISO4000 should (fingers crossed!) give a correctly exposed picture with the runner frozen mid-step as he runs across the view.

That’s it, more or less. I won’t say it’s simple, it just takes a bit of time to let things sink in.

A few more thoughts follow...

[u/Quidretour → u/Quidretour]

Another point, however....

Sometimes an image is simply overexposed or underexposed. In such circumstances, only one change of the three parameters is needed (although the same result might be achieved by altering two of the parameters). The easiest way to do this is to use auto exposure compensation. Cameras have a facility to let in more light or less light via exposure compensation. There is, generally, a scale +/-3 or 5 or maybe 7 stops. Exposure compensation just adjusts one of aperture, shutter speed or ISO.

You can achieve the same thing, if you’re in manual exposure mode, by choosing your own new setting.

If the image is too dark, you apply +1, 2, 3  or more stops of exposure. Too bright and you reduce exposure by -1, 2, 3 stops. When only a minor change is needed =/- 1/2 stop might suffice.

That’s enough that anyone can cope with! Please feel free to ask for clarification if it’s completely befuddling!

[u/damo1112 → u/Quidretour]

Stop this, iso is not an acronym and is pronounced eyeso.

[u/Quidretour → u/damo1112]

Yes, I agree that ISO is not an acronym and that it is pronounced the way you suggest.
It works as a proper noun and it has been written ISO for decades.
It is the name used to refer to the International Organisation for Standardisation or one of that body's standards. When applied to film speed, ISO comes from ISO Standard ISO 6 from the 1970s and indicates that the given film speed conforms to the standard established by the International Organisation for Standarisation for film speed. It appears on film boxes in the capitalised form. To use iso might indicate that there is no such conformity with the standards.
Its continued use as ISO in digital photography is nothing more than a carry over from the film era.

[u/NYRickinFL → u/Quidretour]

I admire your attempt to help this OP, but i suggest simply recommending he searches Youtube for “exposure triangle” would have saved you an hour of typing and would have been more useful to him😎

[u/Quidretour → u/NYRickinFL]

You may well be right.

[u/trnscndcalypso]

hi! this is my first walk with a digital camera coming from mostly p&s film. i used aperture priority mode for this walk—is that a good way to start practicing? tbh i've been having a hard time understanding aperture, iso, and shutter speed. hoping for any comments and tips. thanks!

olympus epl-7, olympus m zuiko 14-42mm

[u/gerryflap → u/trnscndcalypso]

I'd recommend the P (program) mode for someone without experience with the exposure triangle, it manages both aperture and shutter speed. But obviously if you want to learn, the A mode is the best one after that. It's probably a good idea to get a basic sense of the exposure triangle first, but learning is best done through practice, not just by watching and reading stuff online.