I have been getting lots of emails and questions lately from people who have just bought their first DSLR camera. (Digital single-lens reflex camera) So I thought it would be helpful to share some basic info here. And so begins the new series “What’s that Wednesday”.
Let’s get started. One of the first and most important things you need to learn about your camera is how to use it in “M” mode or manual. (If you leave your camera on “A” or automatic you might as well still be shooting with a point and shoot because you still won’t get the great results you are hoping for.) In order to do this you need to understand some basic things about exposure. Your camera has a built in light meter. This will help guide you in finding the proper exposure. You will need to change your aperture and shutter speed based on your light meter to achieve correct exposure. This week we are going to talk about aperture or f-stop and how it effects exposure.
Here’s the dictionary definition -
ap·er·ture [ap-er-cher]
–noun
1. an opening, as a hole, slit, crack, gap, etc.
2. Also called aperture stop. Optics. an opening, usually circular, that limits the quantity of light that can enter an optical instrument.
Confused yet? LOL! It’s much simpler than it seems. Grab your camera – go ahead, go get it….I’ll wait.
OK great, your back. Now turn it on and turn the dial to “M” mode.
You will notice one of the settings that you can change has numbers that look like this 2.0, 2.8, 3.2, 4.0, 5.6, 8 etc…… Those are your f-stops or apertures. Those numbers control the opening on your lens that allows the light into your camera. Now comes the tricky part, the smaller the number the more light that this allowed into your camera. So an f-8 would let much less light int then say an f-2. I know, it is just the opposite of what you would think. Right? The way I keep it straight in my head is this, the less light I have the smaller number I need. So less light small f-stop, lots of light large f-stop. Does that make sense?
Note: another thing aperture or f-stop effects is depth of field. But that is a whole other topic to be covered at a later date.
Here’s a picture I took several times with all the same settings just changed the aperture (f-stop). See the difference? Go ahead and give it a try!
Hope this post makes sense to you and helps you understand aperture better. Next week, we will talk about shutter speed and how that effects exposure.
