Friday, August 13, 2010

Photography Fridays - Aperture Basic Training




I really enjoy photography and I LOVE my Canon Rebel. I take it with me everywhere. It's getting to the point where my family tries to hide whenever I come around. I'm slightly obsessive. I sing lullabies to it. I sleep curled around it every night. I run my hand lovingly over the lens and call it "my precious" in creepy crooning tones.

It's mine. You can't have it.

*ahem*

Although I have developed an unhealthy love for my camera, I can't say that I'm using it to it's full potential. I want to improve my understanding of it's many, many, many functions.

So, I went hunting and I found a photography tutorial on twopeasinabucket.com with weekly photo assignments. Since I want to improve my photography skills, I'm going to share a little photography lesson with you each week for the next 12 weeks. Here goes!

Week 1 - Aperture Basic Training

Aperture controls how much light you let into the lens by changing how open the lens is. Changing the aperture changes the depth of field.

Aperture is measured by something called an F Stop (F/). The higher the F/, the lower the amount of light let into the lens. The lower the F/, the higher the amount of light let into the lens. This weeks assignment was to take photos of the same subject using the Aperture Priority (Av) setting while changing up the F/. Aperture Priority allows you to change the aperture or F/, while automatically adjusting all of the other settings for you. It's great for beginners like me!
With a high F/, more of the photo will be in focus. This photo was taken at F/32. Much of the photo is in focus.

When the F Stop is lower, the focus in the photo will be more shallow.

I lowered the aperture to F/16. See how the fence in the background is more blurred?


If we lower the F Stop to 5.6, it blurs even more of the background and gives you this effect:



So, which do you like the best?

That concludes this weeks lesson. Hopefully, I didn't get any of that backwards. You should probably double check me and read lesson 1 here. I'm not to be trusted.

Next week, shutter speed.

4 comments:

  1. Awesome! I'm excited about this series! Not that my little pokey camera can do any of this fancy stuff, mayyyybe oooone day someone will give me a fancy camera like that (hint... hint...::coughRobcough::)
    I like photo #2! :)

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  2. I've been trying to go through these lessons, too. Although I've really only done two of them. I'm not great about follow through with these types of things.

    Oh, and I love your lilies. So pretty.

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  3. Exciting! So glad you're doing this. I am dying to get a DSLR. What version of the Rebel do you have? I've been looking & can't decide what level investment to do. So, I'd love to know what you have! Thanks!

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  4. 5C - I'm torn between 2 & 3, but I think I like 3 the best. Also, your pokey little camera can probably handle some of lessons in this series. It's not all for dslrs.

    Kim - They are my grandmother's lilies. My yard is sad and pathetic. I hope it will one day look as beautiful and productive as your yard. One day. *sigh*

    Sara - It's a Canon Rebel T1i. It's WONDERFUL!! It more than meets my needs. If I were a professional, I'd go for the Canon Mach 2 or 3, but the Rebel is a good entry level DSLR. It's what my photography majoring roommates used in college.

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Your comments make my day!!