How the trade works
Exposure is set by three things: aperture (how wide the lens opens), shutter speed (how long light hits the sensor), and ISO (how much the signal is amplified). On a phone the aperture is usually fixed, so you're left balancing two: shutter and ISO. Make the shutter one stop faster and you halve the light — so you raise ISO one stop to put it back. That's what every row of the table above is: the same total exposure, split differently.
Which pair should you pick?
- Faster shutter + higher ISO — freezes motion (kids, pets, street) but adds noise. Go just fast enough to stop the blur.
- Slower shutter + lower ISO — cleanest image, but any movement (yours or the subject's) smears. Brace the phone or use a tripod.
- Middle ground — for a still subject in decent light, keep ISO low and the shutter fast enough to hand-hold (a rough rule: 1/60s or faster).
What EV tells you
EV (exposure value) is a single number for "how much light" a setting lets in, referenced to ISO 100. Lower EV means a darker scene needs more light; higher EV means a bright scene. It's mostly a sanity check here — the useful part is the equivalence table, which shows your real, on-device options.
FAQ
Does this control my camera?
No — it's a reference calculator. You read the pair you want and dial it into your phone's Pro/manual mode yourself. Nothing is sent anywhere.
My phone has no aperture setting.
That's normal — most phones have a fixed aperture. Leave it at your phone's value (often around f/1.8) and just use the shutter/ISO table.
Why do all rows say "same brightness"?
Because they are equivalent exposures. The point is that many settings give the same brightness — you choose the one whose side effects (motion freeze vs noise) suit the shot.