ap·er·ture
n. 1. An opening
2. a. A usually adjustable opening in an optical instrument, such as a camera or telescope, that limits the amount of light passing through a lens or onto a mirror.b. The diameter of such an opening, often expressed as an f-number.c. The diameter of the objective of a telescope.
A lot of photographer’s get asked “how do you make the baground blurry?” – the simple answer is correct manipulation of aperture. The focal area changes when the f/stop changes, the smaller the number, the shallower the depth of field (area in focus) – the larger the number (smaller aperture) will give a greater depth of field. Aperture and Shutter speed work side by side with the light you are dealing with in a manner that can be described as this:
Light – How much, for how long? In this case of aperture, we are talking about how much. The smaller the number, the larger the aperture – thus letting light splash on your sensor of your DSLR, and also changing your focal plane.
Since the main lady in my life is turning six and a half, she gets to bring a treat to school (which in itself has been a fiasco – more below). I thought these delectable desserts would be an interesting opportunity to explain a bit how all that jazz works out. Starting at a wide open aperture on my 50mm lens, notice the background and forground (of the sprinkles) change as the numbers change. The main focus is on the BLUE top sprinkle. The first three are subtle in change, but notice you can see the rows of cupcakes clearer by the third photo… and the sprinkles clearly in focus by the last image along with a more in-focus background.
Cool, huh?
Another example on a lid full of confectionary pretties – you can see clearly where the focus falls and where it misses. Some people like to use other tools (I think google picasa ranks up there) to give a faux ring of “blur” versus natural bokeh from a wide aperture – however there is an extreme difference in slapping a blur over an image and mastering what apertures to use, and when. While all this cool focal stuff happens, it’s all a matter of the light hitting spilling into your camera’s sensor (film!) and creating more or less splashing of that light. Many photographers love these wide apertures for indoor photography, when they opt not to use a flash source; letting all of that light in is luscious! But balancing the fine line of keeping what you need in focus and using available light in a dim situation is a must! Can you see why it can be tricky to use a wide aperture to shoot a close-up headshot? It is so very easy to end up with simply the eyelashes of ONE eye in focus and lose the rest.
Give it a try! Play with those other options on your camera if you have them – see what you get! Please note this is just a jott down of a few things about aperture. There are so many good books that go into lots of detail, if you would like a list of a few, please let me know! Anything Scott Kelby is pretty much amazing!
Now for the little story on the “half birthday treat” – K’s birthday is at the end of August… so she either meets or doesn’t meet the first week of school. Well this year, she missed it – so she gets a “half birthday” day to bring a treat in, a nice way for the summer birthdays to have their day (I’m pretty sure it’s done like this everywhere!). This day had been looked forward to since her actual sixth birthday and when it finally came, school was cancelled due to snow. The next day? Cancelled, too. Then comes the weekend. So, these are our second batch of treats and I hope they are well enjoyed =)
I boldly avoided these amazing smelling sweets by the power of drinking a lot of water before baking (smile) – so I know how hard it is, and apologize now if this enticed you to go on a sweets binge – however, we all deserve one every now and then – so go bake something! =) I don’t typically say that following newborn posts, because it either A. relieves baby fever or B. creates it!
Just a little something fun for your day, and now you know all the flicking and clicking of buttons and wheels on my camera means something and isn’t just useless fumbling. *wink*
Side note – I’m booked in FULL for JULY 2010 and AUGUST 2010. March, May, June (after the first full week), and September are open. I know this seems far in advance, doesn’t it? I cannot even belive it is MARCH!
Happy Monday Everyone – here’s to hoping SPRING is on the way! PLEASE!
xo
dani
by danielle
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