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9. So how does Aperture affect the light in my picture? So now we know that the size of the aperture affects how much light is allowed to pass through camera. A larger aperture opening (which is reflected by a smaller f-stop number) lets more light in. A smaller aperture opening (which is reflected by a larger f-stop number) restricts the amount of light entering the camera. But the size of the aperture also affects what is referred to as the “Depth of Field”. The Depth of Field refers to how much of the scene is in focus. For instance, you’ve probably seen portraits in which the subject is in sharp focus, but the background is fuzzy, or seems slightly out of focus. This is in direct opposition to many landscapes you’ve probably seen where a huge expanse is captured but the foreground and the background are both in focus. For example, below, I intended to accentuate the sea gull against the colorful backdrop of a busy beach but I didn't want the busy beach scene distract and clutter the image, so a large aperture (remember, that's a small f-stop number, F6.3 in this case) so that the Depth of Field was reduced. Therefore the bird is in sharp focus while the background is blurred away.
ISO 100, 200mm, F/6.3, 1/1600 sec
Inversely, in the landscape below, I wanted to demonstrate a sense of perspective. Therefore, I wanted the dune and grass in the foreground to be in focus, but I wanted the distant beach umbrella and horizon to be in focus as well, giving the picture a sense of scale. Therefore I set a very small aperture (remember, that is indicated by a large f-stop number, in this case F22), which renders a very broad Depth of Field. This means the majority of the scene is in fairly clean focus, both foreground and background.
ISO 100, 28mm, F/22, 0.8 sec
So the aperture not only serves as an essential tool for manipulating exposure, but also a powerful tool for adding an artistic element to you photos. <<PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NEXT>>
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