Mastering Aperture

Let me start off by saying aperture rocks! I’ve taken classes before and I know how to use a camera but I’ve never really explored aperture before. Without really knowing what to expect I start shooting and I already love the shots I can create with just a few simple tweaks. I like how you can focus on one particular subject, and blur everything else completely or how you can make everything in the shot be in focus. You get great control over the amount of blur and detail by making the aperture larger of smaller. The larger aperture setting of around f1.8 creates a sharp, detailed main focus and a soft blurry background. However on the smaller aperture setting like f22, the picture comes out with everything in focus and with a high level of detail. One piece of advice I can hand out safely is if you’re shooting a picture with a low aperture (f10 or higher), I would suggest using a tripod and a wired shutter release. The exposure time can be much longer with lower apertures to allow all the extra light and detail in.

I’ve noticed this more now because I’ve always shot in the automatic modes before being that I was afraid to ruin shots by switching to manual modes. I know this is only the beginning but I already feel like I have a great start to learning my cameras manual modes. It’s highly exciting to go out and start shooting, and have my mind know what I want to do with the shot, and how to do it! I will now use my aperture settings to modify the amount of blur or detail in my pictures while I’m out shooting. As a bonus of being in the digital age, we can shoot pictures and check them right away and if needed make quick changes right in the field to test the results. If we were trying this back when film was being used, we would’ve needed to develop the film and then examine our pictures to see how they came out. Once we studied the pictures we could determine if there was any changes that would have helped the picture and then gone back to shoot the image again if possible. If not it would have been lost forever!

I believe any professional, hobbyist, or amateur could make great use of their camera's aperture settings. You can use it to only have a model in focus, or a flower, and have the rest of the picture be blurred. This makes the model or flower the main focus of the picture and keeps the viewer’s attention on the main subject. Aperture could also be used in landscape photography. A small aperture would help them capture an entire landscape with full detail and sharpness throughout the entire picture. You could also use it to creatively blur out sections of a picture while keeping an interesting subject in focus. The possibilities are endless, and I really think that anyone can use the aperture settings to their advantage. It can make for some very interesting shots and it can make you feel like a pro, at least for a little bit!

Here is a link to my series of pictures showing my knowledge of Aperture!