By Luke Walker
If you're a newbie photographer, there's a good chance that you don't have a comprehensive understanding that enables you to know how to define aperture (as well as a few other things, which we will get to later). Here I want to explain to you exactly what aperture is and how to use it.
Simply put, aperture is your camera lens opening and closing. Imagine you are taking pictures in a dark place. If you are using a small aperture, less light will enter the camera. You would have to let more light to reach your camera's sensor by opening up your aperture.
You have to know about the numerical values of F stop. This decides the slice of of aperture. The smaller the F number, the lens will be wider. If you want more light to come through, we should use a smaller F stop number. With larger F stop values such as F stop 2, the aperture will be big. There is an opposite link between aperture and the F stop number.
By working with different F stop values, we can make various effects, for example a blurred background in a portrait shot, or a landscape photo where everything is in focus. With an aperture of F2, the lens will be wide open. Some lenses can go down to F1.4 and allow lots of light in, which is perfect if you don't have much light.
With a larger F number the size of the opening is reduced. Bigger numbers mean smaller openings and smaller numbers mean larger openings.
To change this setting on your camera, rotate the dial on the top left hand side to A or AV. This means Aperture mode. This setting is semi-automatic, meaning you choose the F stop number and your camera will choose the shutter speed and ISO for you.
If you have the cash to spend, prime lenses which can go down to F1.4 can really be worth the extra money, especially if you do a lot of portrait photography.
To get blurred backgrounds, use lower F numbers (such as 2.8). As you move up to F 4.5 or F 9, you will see the background details becoming crisper. Such backgrounds can also take the viewer's attention away from the main subject, so for portrait images you want to choose smaller F numbers. For landscapes, groups of people and so on, you will want to use bigger F stop values.
The camera will be set on auto focus single (rather than auto focus auto) to prevent your camera from deciding what it should focus on, as that is not what we want in this case.
So, now that you've read this article you should know how to define aperture pretty well, as well as how to use it when taking your photos.
Simply put, aperture is your camera lens opening and closing. Imagine you are taking pictures in a dark place. If you are using a small aperture, less light will enter the camera. You would have to let more light to reach your camera's sensor by opening up your aperture.
You have to know about the numerical values of F stop. This decides the slice of of aperture. The smaller the F number, the lens will be wider. If you want more light to come through, we should use a smaller F stop number. With larger F stop values such as F stop 2, the aperture will be big. There is an opposite link between aperture and the F stop number.
By working with different F stop values, we can make various effects, for example a blurred background in a portrait shot, or a landscape photo where everything is in focus. With an aperture of F2, the lens will be wide open. Some lenses can go down to F1.4 and allow lots of light in, which is perfect if you don't have much light.
With a larger F number the size of the opening is reduced. Bigger numbers mean smaller openings and smaller numbers mean larger openings.
To change this setting on your camera, rotate the dial on the top left hand side to A or AV. This means Aperture mode. This setting is semi-automatic, meaning you choose the F stop number and your camera will choose the shutter speed and ISO for you.
If you have the cash to spend, prime lenses which can go down to F1.4 can really be worth the extra money, especially if you do a lot of portrait photography.
To get blurred backgrounds, use lower F numbers (such as 2.8). As you move up to F 4.5 or F 9, you will see the background details becoming crisper. Such backgrounds can also take the viewer's attention away from the main subject, so for portrait images you want to choose smaller F numbers. For landscapes, groups of people and so on, you will want to use bigger F stop values.
The camera will be set on auto focus single (rather than auto focus auto) to prevent your camera from deciding what it should focus on, as that is not what we want in this case.
So, now that you've read this article you should know how to define aperture pretty well, as well as how to use it when taking your photos.
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