Hey everyone! Welcome back to the Newbie Chronicles! This week, we’ll be starting our talk about one of the most important things to understand when taking our photos: The Exposure Triangle.
Aperture
Shutter Speed
ISO
Let’s start with Aperture.
aperture
Think of aperture as the size of the opening in your lens. The smaller the f #, the more light you are letting in your camera. The larger the F#, the less light is getting in your camera.
When to use a wide aperature or lower F#:
Usually, I use a lower f # ( 3.5 and below) when I am in a low light situation. Such as indoors. Because remember, when you use a lower f#, that opening in your camera is usually wider, letting in more light. Another reason I would use a lower f# is when I want a shallow depth of field.
For example: I’m taking a photo of this plant on my kitchen table. In the first photo, my f# is at 8.0. You can see the plant. But you can also see the vase and chair in the background .
settings: f/8 SS:1/160 ISO 3200
In the second photo, I shot at f/2.8. I didn’t move, just simply lowered my f stop. Now, all that junk in the back ground is blurred out. That is a shallow depth of field.
Settings: f/2.8 SS:1/1600 ISO 3200
When to use a high f # or small aperture:
I tend to use a high f stop when I want the whole imagine in focus, when I’m taking photos of more than one person, and when I have a lot of light. Like this photo:
Settings: f/6/3 SS:1/30 ISO:6400
That’s it for this week. Really, there is so much more to aperture, but I need to explain the rest of the exposure triangle to bring it all together. I hope you all will stick around! Please stay tuned for next week when I will be talking about Shutter Speed!
