If you told me you didn’t like background blur, I would call you a
liar. Everyone loves background blur! The reason is that it resembles
exactly how our own eyes see the world.
Put your hand 6 inches in front of your face and focus on it. While
focusing on your hand, everything else in view will be slightly blurry.
When you learn how to use your aperture settings, you will be able to
produce pictures that mimic what your eye is actually seeing. Aperture
is secretly my favorite part of photography. Because honestly who
doesn’t love he blurry background photos with a sharp focal point. It
really gives you control over what you want the photo to look like to
other people.
Aperture is the opening of a lens used to control the amount of light needed to expose the sensor/film; in addition, the aperture is used to control the depth of field (or background blur).
Let me make it less technical. Think of aperture as a pupil of the
eye. In a dark room, your pupil dilates. It gets bigger to let is more
light. In a bright room, your pupil constricts. It gets smaller and will
let in less light. This mimics the aperture function on your camera. It
is measured by the “f stop”. You may be thinking “what the heck is F?”.
Well, the larger the ‘f’ is, the smaller the camera opening, and visa
versa. In a darker room, you will want to use the smaller “f”, because
it is a larger opening- which will let in more light.
Additionally, the smaller the ‘f”, the blurrier the background. Or a
‘narrower’ depth of field. You want to use the setting that works best
for the picture you want to take.
f/ 2.8
f/11
In the image on the left, I used a f/2.8 aperture setting to focus on the flower and make my daughter blurry. On the right, I used a f/11 aperture setting to focus on both my daughter and the flower. So to me aperture serves two purposes.
It allows me to take pictures in low light
Adds the blurriness to the background
I owe all of my favorite photos to my aperture setting. It allows me
to focus in on what I want the viewer to see. It captures the memories
exactly as my eye remembers them. Such as on this particular day when I
thought these were the cutest square baby hobbit feet I had ever seen
and I never wanted to forget them.
I personally LOVE to use a low aperture, around f/3, whenever
possible. However, if I am photographing multiple people I take a
different approach. If you take a photograph of 2 subjects using f/2.5
and one person is even SLIGHTLY behind or in front of
the other (which will happen), one subject will be a little out of
focus. I made this mistake a lot in the beginning. I would always take
pictures of my 2 kids at that time in f/2.5, and one kid always was out
of focus. If I am photographing more than one person I use at least an f/4 if they are all generally the same distance from the camera. This ensures that no subject is sharper than the other. Get the Moments Collection as Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets
Here are some examples where I used the aperture setting to get the picture I wanted:
Considering the eye analogy again- when you step out into the sun,
your eyes do not stay dialated- they constrict. If you try to use a
small “f” number on a sunny day, your pictures will be OVER-exposed
(white). This is because the camera is open wide and letting in all of
the light it can. On a super sunny day, I use f/16. The background is
as clear as the focal point, but the exposure and color is spot on and
not washed out.
Keep in mind that some lenses will allow for “lower” F (more blur)
than others. You may want to consider a lens such as my 50 mm lens below
if you would like the option of a lower ‘f’. I used my Nikor 50 mm lens
for every single picture in this post, and I love it! Here it is:
Camera Settings
Now that you understand what aperture is, it is time to practice to
really get the hang of the different options. There are two good ways to
do this.
Read more and jump into manual mode
Try “aperture
priority” mode. With this mode, YOU adjust the aperture and the camera
automatically adjusts other settings to optimize exposure.
To try Aperture Priority Mode set your camera to this setting. Note: based on your camera brand and edition it may look different. Consult with your manual.
Practice time. Choose an item to photograph. For starters, find one
that will not be moving a lot so that you can practice focusing. Zoom in
on whatever you are photographing and make sure at the background is 20
feet or so behind the subject. If the subject is right up against a
background it does not give that back on the opportunity that get that
blurry effect.
Photograph images that are different distances from each other –
and with different aperture settings. Focus on something close up to
understand how the background changes when you adjust this setting.
Also, you will start to get a feel for how changing this setting affects
the exposure/lighting on your photos.
Hi!
My name is Renee, a working mother of 3, with a photography love (or
obsession). I am passionate about two things- parenting and photography.
I wanted to share what took me years to learn as I am simply snapping
along! If I can learn all of these while being a full time pharmacist,
anyone can!
Courtesy of: Simply Snapping Mom
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