lisacohen
07-27-2005, 09:47 AM
Hi everyone,
This week we're going to focus on camera aperture. It's tinkering with the aperture that allows some pictures to have a part that's in focus and a part that's out of focus and a but fuzzy. Even if you have a point-and-shoot you should have the option to adjust the aperature on your camera you just might need to consult your user manual. If you're shooting pictures of say a dog, flower, or your sweet grandmother's face and you want to really hone in on the details of that subject (but not the ugly kitchen cabinets in the background) adjust your aperture to fuzz out the extraneous stuff and create a shallow depth of field.
Here's aperature as defined by the Canon website (with the part in bold that I think matters - but included more for those that are interested):
aperture, aperture value
The amount of light passing through the lens is controlled by the aperture hole. The aperture value indicates how much light can pass through. Since it is expressed as f/2.8, f/16, etc., it is also called the "f-number." The f/1 aperture value represent the maximum diameter of the aperture. When the aperture is half the size, it is called f/2, and when a quarter of the full size, it is f/4. The f-number is therefore the denominator of the fractional size.
The larger the denominator or f-number, the smaller the aperture size and the less light can pass through. Note that although f/2 is half the diameter of f/1, the total area of the hole is only one-fourth of the full-size hole (1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4). And so the amount of light passing through is only 1/4 that of the full-size hole. When the f-number is doubled, the amount of light shrinks to 1/4 of amount.
So play around with aperture and have some fun.
Here's mine: http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=589&cat=500&ppuser=6
I'll post some more aperture links tonight when the kids are asleep and I can finish a thought without getting interrupted 5 times (plus we have contractors here that I'm trying to manage right now).
This week we're going to focus on camera aperture. It's tinkering with the aperture that allows some pictures to have a part that's in focus and a part that's out of focus and a but fuzzy. Even if you have a point-and-shoot you should have the option to adjust the aperature on your camera you just might need to consult your user manual. If you're shooting pictures of say a dog, flower, or your sweet grandmother's face and you want to really hone in on the details of that subject (but not the ugly kitchen cabinets in the background) adjust your aperture to fuzz out the extraneous stuff and create a shallow depth of field.
Here's aperature as defined by the Canon website (with the part in bold that I think matters - but included more for those that are interested):
aperture, aperture value
The amount of light passing through the lens is controlled by the aperture hole. The aperture value indicates how much light can pass through. Since it is expressed as f/2.8, f/16, etc., it is also called the "f-number." The f/1 aperture value represent the maximum diameter of the aperture. When the aperture is half the size, it is called f/2, and when a quarter of the full size, it is f/4. The f-number is therefore the denominator of the fractional size.
The larger the denominator or f-number, the smaller the aperture size and the less light can pass through. Note that although f/2 is half the diameter of f/1, the total area of the hole is only one-fourth of the full-size hole (1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4). And so the amount of light passing through is only 1/4 that of the full-size hole. When the f-number is doubled, the amount of light shrinks to 1/4 of amount.
So play around with aperture and have some fun.
Here's mine: http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=589&cat=500&ppuser=6
I'll post some more aperture links tonight when the kids are asleep and I can finish a thought without getting interrupted 5 times (plus we have contractors here that I'm trying to manage right now).