fatsheep
TPF Noob!
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- Jan 2, 2008
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In "Understanding Exposure", Bryan Peterson advocates the use of "Who Cares?" apertures for compositions where depth of field is not an issue (everything is at the same distance). He says that "apertures between f/8 and f/11 are so often the sharpest and offer the greatest contrast in exposure".
My camera (signature) has aperture settings from f/3.5-f/13.6 (3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 6.8, and 13.6). Notice that there are no apertures between f/8 and f/11 . Because of this I decided to test which apertures are the sharpest.
I took some pictures of a colorful map of the US. I then opened them up on my computer at 200% so I could see every little bit of sharpness and contrast that the image had to offer. I did notice some small improvements in contrast with smaller apertures (large F-numbers). I also noticed that the images got a bit sharper as the aperture got smaller until f/6.3 and then it all looked pretty much identical.
However, this is some serious nitpicking because you can hardly tell a difference between the pictures at 1:1. Even after enlarging
to 200%, I had to flip back and forth several times for most apertures.
1. Would I notice more difference in sharpness between apertures on a DSLR (I use a point and shoot)?
2. What would be a "Who Cares?" aperture for my camera (3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 6.8, and 13.6)?
3. This is a bit off the subject topic but why doesn't my manual mode allow me to choose apertures that the camera uses in auto mode? If I turn the camera to shutter priority or auto, it will pull out apertures like f/9 and f/11 that would fill in the gap between f/6.8 and f/13.6 nicely. However, the camera doesn't allow you to choose those apertures? This makes no sense to me...
My camera (signature) has aperture settings from f/3.5-f/13.6 (3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 6.8, and 13.6). Notice that there are no apertures between f/8 and f/11 . Because of this I decided to test which apertures are the sharpest.
I took some pictures of a colorful map of the US. I then opened them up on my computer at 200% so I could see every little bit of sharpness and contrast that the image had to offer. I did notice some small improvements in contrast with smaller apertures (large F-numbers). I also noticed that the images got a bit sharper as the aperture got smaller until f/6.3 and then it all looked pretty much identical.
However, this is some serious nitpicking because you can hardly tell a difference between the pictures at 1:1. Even after enlarging
to 200%, I had to flip back and forth several times for most apertures.
1. Would I notice more difference in sharpness between apertures on a DSLR (I use a point and shoot)?
2. What would be a "Who Cares?" aperture for my camera (3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 6.8, and 13.6)?
3. This is a bit off the subject topic but why doesn't my manual mode allow me to choose apertures that the camera uses in auto mode? If I turn the camera to shutter priority or auto, it will pull out apertures like f/9 and f/11 that would fill in the gap between f/6.8 and f/13.6 nicely. However, the camera doesn't allow you to choose those apertures? This makes no sense to me...