aperture?

[dragon12]

I got a noob question... i been messing around with my camera fro a while and i understand on how to use shutter speed as most of my subject tend to move but i dont quite understand on when to use aperture. I want eventually move into full manual control setting. i understand that it determine how much light a photo get but when do you use it?

 

[480sparky67 66]

It's not a choice of whether to 'use aperture or not'..... you have to. Every lens has a maximum and a minimum aperture, and all the light that passes through the lens is affected by it. It's merely a choice of which aperture to use.

 

[TheBiles]

Aperture controls the depth of field. Google it.

 

[xjoewhitex]

Aperture controls the depth of field. Google it.

Thats not all it controls, maybe you should google it also.

 

[dragon12]

i see... just a matter to what setting i need to use to see the dept of field too... i have a sony a330 and it have a pyramid thing as the setting i was able to under stand what shutter speed is but i see no difference with aperture. majority of my lens are 3.5 as the lowest (have a nifty fifty coming in soon) so it is safe for me to say i will not see anything difference till i get a 2.8 or a 1.7 right?

 

[Josh66]

You don't need a fast lens to see the difference (it wouldn't hurt though).

Take a picture of something with near and far objects at f/5.6, then take the same picture at f/16. The difference should be pretty clear.


To really obliterate the background, a fast, large aperture lens really does help though. Telephoto also helps for that.

 

[Stradawhovious]

Regarding DOF, this might help. http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-gallery/240559-2-8-vs-4-5-a.html#post2212927

 

[jands]

Learning about Exposure – The Exposure Triangle

Introduction to Aperture in Digital Photography

 

[TheBiles]

Aperture controls the depth of field. Google it.

Thats not all it controls, maybe you should google it also.

This guy obviously has no clue about aperture. I'm not trying to overwhelm him. DoF is the simplest thing to see the effects of changing aperture.

Sent from my HTC Glacier

 

[KmH]

Aperture controls the depth of field. Google it.

Lens aperture is only 1 of 4 things that control DOF.

1. lens aperture
2. lens focal length
3. image sensor to focal point distance
4. focal point to background distance.

The OP said, "i [sic] understand that it determine [sic] how much light a photo get but when do you use it?"

Aperture is used for every photograph you make. When you set the aperture manually, you also have to be aware of the shutter speed and the ISO settings, because those also effect how your photograph will look, and to maintain the same exposure if you change one of the settings at least one of the other settings also has to be changed to maintain the same exposure.

If there is a lot of light you can use a smaller aperture. When there is not so much light, you have to make the aperture larger so more light can get in.
But as you make the aperture large or smaller you also change the DOF the lens will render. Large apertures make the DOF shallower, while small apertures make the DOF deeper. So landscape shots are usually made using a small aperture (deep DOF) so everything in the photo is sharply focused, while using the selective focus technique of having a blurred background ,a larger aperture (shallow DOF) is used.

 

[KmH]

Aperture controls the depth of field. Google it.

Thats not all it controls, maybe you should google it also.

This guy obviously has no clue about aperture. I'm not trying to overwhelm him. DoF is the simplest thing to see the effects of changing aperture.

Sent from my HTC Glacier

You may be making invalid assumptions about the OP's ability to handle the whole story. IMO, you are actually doing the OP a dis-service by only giving them part of the pertinent information.

 

[dragon12]

Thanks for some great info... i going to start messing around with aperture setting, and see where it get me. just to clarify if i want to do landscape photography for example i would want to set my f-stop 8-11 for a deeper dof and for close up shot i want to set my f-stop to a lower setting to have shallow dof and focus on the subject correct?

 

[skwty]

This is all really good information for a new guy like myself as I was wondering, and Google'ing, the same thing recently. Thanks for this.

 

[TheBiles]

Thanks for some great info... i going to start messing around with aperture setting, and see where it get me. just to clarify if i want to do landscape photography for example i would want to set my f-stop 8-11 for a deeper dof and for close up shot i want to set my f-stop to a lower setting to have shallow dof and focus on the subject correct?

You probably want to shoot landscapes at f/22 or higher to ensure everything is in focus. f/8-11 are better in occasions where everything in the image is at the same focal length because those apertures produce the sharpest images for most lenses, and you don't have to worry about DoF.

Sent from my HTC Glacier

 

[AlexColeman]

One problem with that high of a aperture is you start to lose sharpness to diffraction. For landscapes, use hyperfocal- google it.