As a photographer, I get questions people of all ages and interests about how to make better pictures. There are many angles from which one can work on their photography, but one of the most devilsome for many is understanding the basic variables of exposure – what they are, how they work together, and how they effect your options for image making at any given moment. The good people at Blue Moon Camera have made up a handy little exposure chart/recipe card that really explains the interplay of amount of light, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.

The more light you have, the further left along each axis you can choose to be. As your light decreases, you’ll need to choose what you will move to the right, depending on your subject and vision. If you want shallow depth if field (farther on the right of its access), you can choose between a higher shutter speed and/or a lower iso.

I’m not very mathy, but this visualization helped drop all those tetris pieces in place, allowing me to make all my exposure decisions quickly and wisely.