Aperture

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Aperture

Postby the dane on Fri Dec 23, 2016 6:26 pm

Been using my 35mm 1.8. Now i like the Aperture at 1.8 but what is normal Aperture on a camera under auto? If you understand that question

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Re: Aperture

Postby Dave-D40 on Fri Dec 23, 2016 8:12 pm

Dont think there is a normal one, it would change all the time in auto.
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Re: Aperture

Postby Matt. K on Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:28 pm

Aperture affects depth of field. The smaller openings reduce the amount of light entering the camera but give you more back to front sharpness....so, if you want to throw the background out of focus use big f/stops like f1.8 or f/2....if you want the backround in focus then user the smaller f/stops like f'8 or f/11.
When you set the camera to auto then it uses a middle of the range f/stop depending on the amount of light available.
Hope that helps.
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Re: Aperture

Postby gstark on Tue Dec 27, 2016 5:20 pm

I think you're asking the wrong question, and there's really no such thing as "normal" in this regard.

What's important is the sort of images that you want to make, and then learning how to use your glass ho help you to achieve that goal.

Matt has already explained the basics. What's unsaid - and often misunderstood - is how the lens setting work. It seems counter-intuitive to say that 1.8 gives you a larger aperture than 22, until you realise that in saying 1.4, 2.8, 5.6, 16, 22, etc you are using shorthand, and a more correct way of referring to these is 1/<aperture value> so 1.8 is really referring to f1/1.8, 5.6 to f1/5.6, and so on, although the 1 is often dropped as well. Confusing, isn't it? :)

As Matt said, the size of the lens opening that the number gives you has a direct bearing upon the amount of the image that will appear to be in sharp focus, and a larger aperture (f/1.8) will mean less of the image is in sharp focus, and a smaller aperture (f/16, f/22) gives you greater depth of field, which is what this is called.

On a slightly more advanced note, consider too the distance between your camera and the primary subject matter in the image. If the subject is closer to the camera, then this apparent shallow depth of field region may be greater, whereas with a subject further away from the camera, there will generally be more of the image, again, in sharper focus.

Your 35mm lens will, by its very nature, have a fairly broad region of depth of field, but to help you learn what the lens is capable of, here's a very simple exercise you may wish to try.

Grab something simple like a flower in a vase, and place it about 1.5 metres from the camera. Make sure that there's something of interest in the background. Make that flower your point of main focus, and take a few photos of it, using various apertures: f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, and f/16.

Now, keep the camera in exactly the same position, and move only the flower in the vase, so that it's now maybe 3 metres away. Repeat all of the previous images.

Again, keep the camera in the same position, move only the flower in the vase, this time maybe 4 or 5 metres, and again, repeat the images.

Finally, move the flower and vase so that they're maybe 6 or 8 metres away, and yes, repeat the images.

Now, compare what you can see, and tell us all about it. Feel free to post some images.
g.
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Re: Aperture

Postby the dane on Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:14 pm

gstark wrote:I think you're asking the wrong question, and there's really no such thing as "normal" in this regard.

What's important is the sort of images that you want to make, and then learning how to use your glass ho help you to achieve that goal.

Matt has already explained the basics. What's unsaid - and often misunderstood - is how the lens setting work. It seems counter-intuitive to say that 1.8 gives you a larger aperture than 22, until you realise that in saying 1.4, 2.8, 5.6, 16, 22, etc you are using shorthand, and a more correct way of referring to these is 1/<aperture value> so 1.8 is really referring to f1/1.8, 5.6 to f1/5.6, and so on, although the 1 is often dropped as well. Confusing, isn't it? :)

As Matt said, the size of the lens opening that the number gives you has a direct bearing upon the amount of the image that will appear to be in sharp focus, and a larger aperture (f/1.8) will mean less of the image is in sharp focus, and a smaller aperture (f/16, f/22) gives you greater depth of field, which is what this is called.

On a slightly more advanced note, consider too the distance between your camera and the primary subject matter in the image. If the subject is closer to the camera, then this apparent shallow depth of field region may be greater, whereas with a subject further away from the camera, there will generally be more of the image, again, in sharper focus.

Your 35mm lens will, by its very nature, have a fairly broad region of depth of field, but to help you learn what the lens is capable of, here's a very simple exercise you may wish to try.

Grab something simple like a flower in a vase, and place it about 1.5 metres from the camera. Make sure that there's something of interest in the background. Make that flower your point of main focus, and take a few photos of it, using various apertures: f/1.8, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, and f/16.

Now, keep the camera in exactly the same position, and move only the flower in the vase, so that it's now maybe 3 metres away. Repeat all of the previous images.

Again, keep the camera in the same position, move only the flower in the vase, this time maybe 4 or 5 metres, and again, repeat the images.

Finally, move the flower and vase so that they're maybe 6 or 8 metres away, and yes, repeat the images.

Now, compare what you can see, and tell us all about it. Feel free to post some images.

Cheers will do this the next day off, with tripod.

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