Comments on: Digital Photography 101: Aperture

By: plastik

plastik — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:17:21 +0000

Very good blog page about aperture. Excellent. Congrats.

By: Ratheesh

Ratheesh — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:30:14 +0000

Excellent article
Thank you

By: Phil de Fontenay

Phil de Fontenay — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:18:36 +0000

Excellent!

I feel more confident to play around with manual settings on my camera now

By: Digital Photography 101: Shutter Speed at inluminent

Digital Photography 101: Shutter Speed at inluminent — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 21:38:54 +0000

[...] Aperture [...]

By: kathy cutillo

kathy cutillo — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 20:10:16 +0000

thank you for explaining everything in laymens terms. i’m just starting back with my nikon fm2 camera and i have forgotten every thing. i guess what i’m trying to find out is what is the rule of thumb about: if you have your aperture on f5.6 , what should you have your shutter speed on,etc. or does it matter? i understand the light and openings but something is not clicking for me. kathy

By: In Photos » Blog Archive » Off The Wall

In Photos » Blog Archive » Off The Wall — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 13:40:45 +0000

[...] John Engler’s photography section of his blog has lots of good stuff, including 3 introductory articles: What’s an SLR Anyways?, Film Speed, Aperture. (via) [...]

By: Pete Gregorio

Pete Gregorio — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 21:13:41 +0000

Hi,
Well written introduction to aperture (not the Apple Software or for that matter one of the best photography magazines ever published. In my opinion, variable aperture lenses are always the way to go Amatuer or professional. In understanding the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, it is always wise to remember the law of reciprocity that governs nost things photographic from film speed vs. grain in film selection to time vs. temperature in developing to aperture vs. shutter speed in exposure. Also, it is helpful in remembering the counter intuitive
“smaller f-stop = more light” thing by realizing that the f-stop numbers are actually the bottom half of fractions. the top half having been eliminated from camera ring notation because of space. Therefore, f:2 is actually f:1/2
and f:4 is actually f:1/4 etc. Pete

By: Sidney Lo

Sidney Lo — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:03:50 +0000

Great post.

With most point and shoots, the set aperture is the same situation as the 400 ISO film speed. Most people will want portraits and a large depth of field, so the average camera will be set for that. Unless you get really close the lens, most things will be in focus.

Anything prosumer and up should have customizable settings, and rightfully so. Composing an image involves all the aspects of the three fourths rule (not always thought, but in a general sense, yes), lighting, shutter speed, and aperture. It’s also like a swing, where each aspect affects the other, and as a photographer you have to compensate for those aspects while shooting.

The style of a photograph can easily be affected by the shutter and the aperture, but with the aperture you have to adjust the shutter accordingly. So having a large depth of field may not be an option if you subject will be blurred by a slow shutter and camera shake. Most often, the golden rule for the shutter speed is another formula involving the focal length, but I don’t want to spoil possible future installments of the 101 course, so I will refrain.

Anyway, the ideas are relatively simple to understand, but once applied to shooting in situations that require quick decisions, these concepts become more essential than it appears to be. I can remember so many times I wanted a shot a certain way, but because of lighting situations, I ended up with slight blur or not the right depth of field.