Wide appeture?????

[imagine photography]

You will probobly all think i am stupid but I have been reading some threads and you keep refering to wide appeture. I understand how to set my appeture and shutter speed but do not know what you mean by "wide appeture" and I like the photos that you said this would create. Would someone please explain. Please keep in mind that I am an ameteur just beginning to open my studio, and have mostly had tutoring from an instructor though i have had some training from a beginners class.

 

[hippychick]

I've never heard the term wide-aperture. But I think what some are referring to may be wide-open (aperture)? If that's the case, then it means your lens is opened up all the way, to allow more light in and depending on your subject and the distance from the background you can achieve a nice shallow depth of field (meaning the subject is in focus and the background is blurry).

There's a great book by Bryan Peteron called "understanding exposure" that really helps alot when you're first starting photography. Teaches you all the terms, explains how to achieve them and when best to use a shooting style. I just couldn't grasp anything until I got that book. It did wonders for me!

Good luck

 

[fmw]

The iris diaphragm in the lens is adjustable to control the amount of light entering the camera. A wide aperture simply allows more light to pass than a narrow one. The aperture is calibrated in f numbers. You can see them in the viewfinder or lcd screen. From large aperture to small the f numbers are 1, 1.4, 2, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. These are the numbers that double or halve the amount of light entering the camera from step to step. Your camera probably displays f numbers in between these as well for finer adjustment.

 

[Big Mike]

The 'F number' that is used to represent the aperture is actually a ratio. The ratio is between the diameter of the aperture iris and the focal length of the lens. So with a 50mm lens...at F2, the diameter of the aperture is 25mm.

So a low F number (ratio) is a bigger or wider aperture.