Most people overcomplicate this and then wonder why they aren't getting consistent results
A Camera Settings Chart is just a reference table that maps exposure triangle combinations to different lighting conditions so you stop second-guessing yourself at 5 AM when the light is already fading. I built mine years ago because I was tired of spinning dials blindly at dawn and missing the shot every time. The chart itself is roughly two columns: one for the environment (overcast, open shade, golden hour, midday sun, indoor tungsten, etc.) and the other for recommended starting points across aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. You look it up before you raise the camera, you dial in those three values, and you shoot from there. That's it. The method comes first here because people usually jump straight to memorizing numbers without understanding the workflow. Print it out. Put it on your phone. Tape it inside your lens case. Whatever. Keep it within arm's reach. When you arrive at a location, read the chart for that light type, set your base numbers, then adjust by a stop or two depending on your creative intent. If you want a shallower depth of field, close the aperture down and compensate elsewhere. The chart gives you a starting grid, not a prescription.
Camera Settings Chart
Here's a simplified version of what mine looks like after running through probably a hundred different locations and conditions over the years: Open shade / cloudy day: f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 400. This is the default outdoor setting that covers most overcast situations. You can drop to ISO 200 if you need slightly more depth of field, but don't go much lower or you'll start losing shutter speed on the subject movement. Direct midday sun: f/11, 1/500s, ISO 100. The contrast is harsh so you stop down to keep shadow detail manageable. If you shoot wide open in midday sun, you will get blown highlights and crushed shadows and you'll be blaming your camera later.
Golden hour: f/4, 1/1000s, ISO 200. The light falls fast during this window, so push your ISO up as it transitions toward blue hour. One of the most common mistakes I see is people staying at ISO 100 through the entire golden hour and ending up with blurry images because their shutter speed dropped to 1/60. Indoor tungsten (no flash): f/2.8, 1/125s, ISO 1600. You're going to get noise at that ISO, but it's better than a unusable image. Custom white balance is mandatory here or everything looks orange. If you don't know how to set a custom white balance on your camera, look it up before you show up to the shoot. Stadium / well-lit sports venue: f/4, 1/1000s, ISO 800. Shutter speed takes priority because you're freezing motion. Aperture opens up as much as your lens allows, and ISO fills whatever gap remains.
Get the Full Details
City at night from a tripod: f/8, 30s, ISO 100. Any longer than 30 seconds and you start dealing with sensor heat noise. Use a remote trigger or the self-timer. Mirror slap will ruin a long exposure even if you think it won't. I should mention the edge case that cost me a whole assignment once. I was shooting a wedding reception under what looked like warm white LEDs, probably around 3200K. My chart said ISO 800 at f/2.8 and 1/200s, which was fine. But the fixture manufacturer had mixed in some cheap dimmable LEDs alongside actual PAR cans, and the color temperature was fluctuating by about 400K every few seconds as the dimmer circuit cycled. My auto white balance was hunting constantly and the skin tones were shifting between pink and orange from frame to frame. I ended up locking the white balance manually at 3400K and accepting a slight warm cast across the whole reel rather than deal with the inconsistency. It cost me about two hours of color correction in post that I could have avoided entirely by pre-setting the white balance before walking into the room. There are a couple of counter-intuitive things about using a chart like this that most beginner guides won't tell you. First, the chart values assume you're shooting in a flat or neutral profile. If you're using a saturated picture style or an older camera with heavy in-camera processing, the meter will read differently and your results will drift. Check your histogram, not your screen, every time. Second, altitude and latitude change how bright the light actually is. A Camera Settings Chart calibrated for sea level in July will be off by a full stop if you're shooting at 8,000 feet in January. The thinner atmosphere lets more UV through and the effective exposure drops.
Another pitfall is treating the chart as static. Your lens aperture behaves differently from prime to prime. A fast 35mm f/1.4 lets in significantly more light than a kit lens at f/3.5-5.6, so if you built your chart around the kit lens and then switched bodies without adjusting, everything will be underexposed. I had this happen when I moved to a mirrorless body with a brighter viewfinder and stopped double-checking my EV compensation. Spent three months wondering why my outdoor shots looked flat before I realized I'd been dialing in negative EV on the new body because of the different metering baseline. The honest limitations: a chart doesn't handle creative intent, it doesn't handle moving light, and it doesn't replace a light meter if you need precision. If you're shooting a scene where the subject moves between direct sun and shade, the chart can't account for that shift in real time. You'll still need to adjust on the fly. It also assumes your subject is roughly middle-gray. Portraits of someone wearing white will throw off your readings by a stop or more. People with very dark clothing or deep shadows in the frame will do the same. You adjust the chart numbers downward or upward accordingly, but the chart itself isn't going to make that call for you. If your situation is highly variable or you're working in a studio where you control every light source, a physical chart becomes less useful than a quick mental model of exposure relationships. In that case, stick to the exposure triangle fundamentals and check your histogram. The chart is most valuable for location work where you have no control over the lighting and you need a reliable fallback when you don't have time to experiment.
I keep mine as a simple PDF on my phone and a printed laminated copy in my bag. Both have survived several years of being dropped in dirt, rain, and roughly handled gear bags. If you want to build your own, start by recording the settings that give you a correct exposure in each common scenario you actually encounter, not the ones from a website. Your personal data beats anyone else's template every time.
