​Youth PhotoExpo Zambia

 

 

Basically the aperture is the hole in your lens that lets light in, onto your sensor. Kind of like how eyes work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When there is a lot of light, the pupils (like the aperture) have to become narrow in order not to let too much light in. But when it is darker, the pupils need to widen in order to let sufficient light in.

Now you may ask yourself why do I want to regulate this instead of putting my camera on automatic? Well, two reasons: 1) when the light conditions are very poor, you can open up your aperture to let more light in. 2) your aperture determines your depth of field.
Let us explain depth-of-field with two pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first one shows you 'shallow-depth-of-field' this is used a lot for portraits and gets your subject undivided attention (so no unwanted distractions on the background because they are now blurry) The second one shows you great-depth-of-field, often used for landscapes where you want everything to be sharp.

 

Here comes the tricky part: the 'f' on your camera is where you determine this. Remember the following: a low 'f'number creates a shallow depth of field (like the portrait) but this also means that a lot of light will come on to your sensor because the lens is wide open.

A high number creates a great depth of field (like the landscape) but this also means less light will fall on your sensor because the aperture is smaller. This means you will need a slower shutterspeed. What your range is between the lowest and highest f-number differs per camera. Check it out for yours!

Exercise:
1) Place three objects behind each other (doesn’t matter what, we tried some herbs in the kitchen!) Now choose your lowest f-number and focus on the first object. Do this again now focusing on the second subject and then again on the third.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Do the same but now with a high f-number and compare the difference. See it? That's the basics!

Now if you want to exaggerate the effect try increasing the distance between the objects. And then change the distance between yourself and the objects, see what happens? Cool huh?