Welcome back to my photography series! If you missed part one (where I give a little back story) you can check it out here.
Today I am going to be talking about aperture, but before getting into that I wanted to explain what your display means on the back of your camera. Keep in mind I have a Canon, so if you have a Nikon or other type of camera it may look a bit different.
1. Shutter speed
2. Aperture
3. IS0
4. White Balance
So, aperture. What is aperture?
Aperture is the opening in the lens. It controls how much light is able to reach your camera sensor.
It is measured in F-stops.
The smaller the f-stop number, the more the lens is open (confusing right?)
Take a look at this super professional graphic. Imagine it is your lens opening.
The larger the opening (but the smaller the number), the more light it lets in. Less light gets in when the opening in smaller (but the number is larger).
Think of your lens like your pupil. When it’s dark
out your pupil get big to let in more light. When it’s light out your
pupil gets small. It doesn’t need as much light to for your eye to
see. Your lens is similar. When the aperture is large, more light is
able to reach your camera sensor. When it is smaller, less light reaches your camera.
Why do we care about aperture?
Changing the aperture controls your depth of field. A shallow depth of field means just your subject is in focus. A narrow depth of field means everything is in focus.
For example, take a look at these two images
Do you see how in this image, only the duck is in focus? Everything else is blurry.
This picture was taken with a large aperture (f-stop of 1.8), meaning the lens was wide open.
Now, look at this image. See how everything is in focus?
It was taken using a small aperture (an f-stop of 22), meaning the lens opening was teeny tiny,
I took this picture, with the lens that came with my camera.
The largest the aperture goes is 5.6. Notice how most of the picture is in focus.
If you are looking to take pictures where the background is blurry, then I suggest investing in a lens that has a large aperture. The 50mm fixed lens is what is usually on my camera, and what I always use when taking pictures of my girls.
Here is another example of how your depth of field changes by making your aperture smaller (but your f-stop larger).
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