Monday, May 10, 2010

12 Weeks tp Better Photos, Week One: Aperture

I decided to revisit the 2 Peas in a Bucket - 12 Weeks to Better Photos tutorial I initially started all the way back in January (only made it to week 2 I think. shame!)
All 12 lessons can be viewed here 
Week One is Aperture.The challenge is to take the same photo on 3 different aperture settings. When I did this challenge initially back in January, it was the single most important lesson that busted me out of the auto settings on my camera. You mean I can control how much light goes into my camera? And I can use this knowledge to consistently acheive bokeh (blurred background)? Yes please!
Even after only 2 weeks, I never shot on an auto setting again (aperture or shutter priority not included).
So here is my Week One, redux. (ignore the brightness. I accidentally had exposure compensation jacked up from something the night before, and forgot to reset it. I am too lazy to edit these and tone it down)
f/1.8

f/10

f/22

What we are looking for here is that the lower the fstop, the more light that is allowed into the camera (aka wider aperture), and shallower the depth of field is. Confused yet? I know its backwards - smaller number = wider opening. Hence why at f/1.8 only the flower is in focus, while at f22 almost everything in frame is in focus. So this helps you decide - how much of your photo do you want to be in focus? Adjust the aperture to achieve the look you want.

1 comment:

Jen said...

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http://jens525600minutes.blogspot.com/2010/05/trendy-blog-award.html