Sheila Hebert Photography

Today’s tip is going to be a quick lesson on a very helpful camera setting.  So a very long time ago, I posted a {Tip} on Tuesday that gave little explanations for different camera modes.  And I also said AGAIN…READ YOUR MANUAL.  You’ve had plenty of time to do that, right?  Hehe!  You can read the tip here if ya want: Camera Modes.

So today let’s talk about Aperture Priority today – on your camera dial it’s Av {most of the time}

So first of all what is APERTURE?  Basically, the aperture is the size of the lens opening and controls how much light is allowed to come into the lens.  When you talk about aperture, you might hear the term “f/stops” – for example… f/2.8, f/5.6, f/16, etc.  The numbers indicate your lens opening.  This is where it can get a bit confusing.  The smaller the f/stop number, the larger the opening on your lens.  When your lens is “wide open” (at it’s largest lens opening), it will have a smaller f/stop number.  So when your aperture is set to f/5.6, the lens opening will be larger than an aperture set to f/22.  When you have a smaller f/stop number, your lens can allow more light to pass to the sensor (or film).  A larger f/stop number allows less light.  That’s important to remember!!!  So if you’re outside on a bright day what do you think your aperture should be set at?  A smaller f/stop number will allow A LOT of light which may overexpose your image, but a larger f/stop number (let’s say f/16) will let LESS light in.    Controlling the amount of light is ONE reason to think about your aperture.

The next reason is controlling the depth of field.  In layman terms, depth of field means how much of the image is in focus.  If you are photographing a flower, you may not want everything in the image to be in focus so you would want to create a small depth of field.  The opposite is true for a landscape image, here you may want the entire scene in focus so you’d want a large depth of field.  Your aperture can control your depth of field.  The smaller the f/stop number (or the larger the lens opening), the smaller your depth of field {less of the image will be in focus}.  And vice versa for a larger f/stop number or a small lens opening {more of the image will be in focus}.  So think about the flower you want to focus on.  What would your aperture be if you wanted to focus just on the flower and have everything else blurred out?   If you said a smaller aperture number (f/stop), you are correct.  Now think about a landscape image or a large group of people where you want everyone to be in focus.  What would you set your aperture too?  A larger f/stop number!!!

Now that you know what the aperture does, next week I’ll talk more about using the aperture priority mode on your camera.  Until then, keep practicing:)