#Focal Length Comparison

10 Best Newborn Poses to Maximise Cuteness

By Hillary Grigonis 

 Unfortunately, newborns can’t pose for you on their own – even if you ask politely!

Posing a tiny baby is entirely different from posing men and women. Newborn photography is a unique challenge that needs plenty of patience.

Here are 10 poses that photographers should know when posing a newborn for their photo shoot.

  

Always Start With Safety Measures

Always prioritise safety when posing a newborn.

If you are a beginner, stick with simple poses. Work with basic positions and ideas. Then you can add variety by adjusting the hands and legs, your camera angle, the crop and varying props.

Newborns often need props because they can’t hold themselves up.

You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on fancy studio-level gear. But a few simple, inexpensive items make a big difference in the poses you can create.

Your first go-to item for newborn photography should be a beanbag. Of course, you can buy specially designed newborn beanbags, but a regular beanbag chair will work too.

Beanbags are safe, soft places that you can easily mould to prop the baby up. First, place a blanket or backdrop over the beanbag. Then, you can either adjust the beans inside the actual bag or place rolled-up blankets or towels to prop up the baby.

U-shaped nursing pillows are perfect for safely propping up the baby’s head.

Always keep an adult within arm’s reach. When in doubt, have someone hold the prop in place and composite the arm out later.

Let’s have a look at some of the best newborn poses.

1. On the Back Pose

Placing the baby on their back is a safe, simple pose. With a back pose, you don’t need more than a blanket and a soft surface. But you can add plenty of variety by using different props.

Back poses work well for swaddled babies, as well as newborns in their birthday suit! If the baby is nude, make sure you cover them with a blanket to keep it appropriate.

Once the baby falls asleep, you can add variety by taking shots at different angles.

You can try shooting the back pose from straight above. Also, by propping the baby’s head and feet up, you can get a sweet shot from the side without having to move the baby.

2. On the Side Pose

To place a baby on their side, use blankets, towels or the beanbag to elevate the head or feet as needed.

To emphasise those cute fat rolls, make sure the baby’s hands or blanket don’t cover their face.

Side poses work well both swaddled and unswaddled. Again, this pose is easy to work with.

By changing the camera angle, you can make it look like the baby is sitting upright.

3. On the Tummy Pose

Placing the baby on their tummy is harder. Keep the baby in a natural position to make sure the pose is safe. Also, take care not to obstruct the baby’s face.

Prop the baby’s head up higher than their bum with a blanket or a u-shaped nursing pillow.

You can shoot the tummy pose from the side or above. Adjust the baby’s head gently so you can see the whole face if needed. Again, take care to keep the baby comfortable and in a natural pose.

4. Lying on the Belly With Chin on Hands

This pose gives a dreamy appearance to your shots. The newborn will be on their tummy, with their hands under their chin.

Place a pillow under their baby’s hands, or arrange the props to raise their upper body.

Usually, you can curl the arms under their chin easily. But don’t expect those tiny hands to hold the head up. Instead, rely on the pillow to keep their head in place.

5. Newborn Froggy Pose

This pose is a composite done in Photoshop. Babies can’t hold this position themselves, and it’s unsafe to try putting a baby in the final pose shown in the image without any support.

For the first image, ask a parent to support the baby’s head from above, with the baby’s arms placed on their chin. Then, ask a parent to support the baby’s hands while placed under the baby’s chin for the second image.

Merge these two images in Photoshop and remove the parent’s hands.

It takes a while to create these kinds of images, but the result is cute and this pose is quite popular. Parents often ask for it.

This pose can be dangerous if the baby is not supported carefully, as this is not a natural position. So if the baby gets upset when taking the two images, it’s best to avoid this pose.

6. Potato Sack Newborn Pose

For this pose, you will need some fabric to wrap and curl up the newborn. Being curled up is comforting for babies because this is how they were inside their mother’s belly.

This pose gives an intimate and wholesome image.

You can vary this pose as you wish with props. For example, try using little hats and headbands or any props that you think will work.

Make sure to support the baby from all sides. You can do this with a pillow or blanket. This will give a soft, warm and comfy feeling to your newborn photography.

7. Tucked in Bed

For this newborn pose, cover the baby with a blanket to show only their head and face. You can place the blanket under the chin, but covering a little can make the image cosier. Make sure not to cover the baby’s nose so that they can breathe safely.

Shooting from above is the best for this pose, as this way you can enhance the small size of the newborn.

Using a cute toy is a great prop for this scene. A toy is also great for scale. You can use the same toy for future photos to show how the child is growing. If you use the baby’s favourite toy, the baby will love recognising it in the image once they are older.

8. Getting Close and Capturing Details

These poses help enhance how small the baby is. It’s popular to take up-close shots of baby hands and feet.

You can use the parents’ hands to emphasise the size differences and capture a warm family moment.

Or, you could also focus on the face of a sleeping newborn to capture the calmness.

The possibilities are endless, but try not to rely only on this technique. Parents will want to make sure they also have images where you can see the entire baby.

Use this style as a part of your newborn portfolio to complement wider compositions.

9. Pose With One Parent

Your images should show the connection between the baby and their parents.

Parents love to have photos of them holding their baby. Taking shots of the baby with one parent at a time will help you capture their relationship with the baby and showcase their personality.

Ask them to hold the baby close to them. For example, you can ask the parent to give the baby a hug or a kiss. They can hold the baby up to their faces or make them laugh. Let the parent express their connection with the baby.

10. Pose With Both Parents and Siblings

Involving the whole family helps make the photo session a memorable moment. You should capture the joy this newborn is bringing to the family.

Pay attention to the poses of all the members. They should be relaxed and close to each other. A distant or uncomfortable pose will create tension instead of harmony.

Let siblings play with the baby and laugh together.

Pay attention to where the family members are facing. For example, by looking at the baby or having their eyes closed together, you can enhance their family unity.

If they are looking at the camera, it’s more like a documentary image. This can also work, but be careful to make sure you don’t lose the family’s energy by making the image too formal.

 

As a newborn photographer, you might meet babies who can easily get distracted. So, always prepare yourself for a long session because a lot depends on the baby’s mood.

Be careful not to move the baby too much, as you might then have to wait for them to settle. Instead, take as many shots as possible with only minor adjustments to your angle and the baby’s position.

Parents might have ideas in advance that you might not be able to do. Talk to the parents before and during the photography session and let them know if a certain pose is unsafe or if the newborn is not comfortable.

With these newborn photography tips, you’re ready to capture images that parents will love! 

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Five Tips for Fantastic Photos of Kids – Free Quick Guide

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When it comes to photographing people, children will often be your biggest challenge.

Seasoned portrait photographers have their tricks when it comes to photographing kids.

Karthika Gupta has created an entire career out of family and child photography.

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Here is what you will learn:

• How to make the subjects feel comfortable
• How to generate real emotion and sidestep the fake smiles
• That making the shoot fun equals success
• How to learn to read the family dynamic
• Why structuring the photoshoot is essential but being flexible is critical
• Why you need to be aware during setup time
• The positive effect of taking a break
• The reasons why embracing the chaos will make you a better photographer of children and their families

It’s all here. Grab your copy below.

Photo Credit: Karthika Gupta

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#Focal Length Lenses

What Is a Telephoto Lens? (Why and When you Need One!)

By Hillary Grigonis

By Lili Jakobovits 

A telephoto lens makes far-way objects appear closer to the camera. But, do not think to pull out a telephoto lens only when you need to capture something in the distance. If you did, you would be missing out on some of the biggest reasons to shoot with such a long lens.

In this article, we break down everything budding photographers need to know about telephoto lenses.

 

What Is a Telephoto Lens?

A telephoto lens has a focal length longer than the diagonal size of the image it takes. In everyday language, it can be any lens that has a long focal length.

Depending on who you ask, some say this length is 70mm or greater. Others would not consider a lens as telephoto until 80mm or 85mm. And others do not use the term until the mid-telephoto range above 135mm.

Telephoto lenses can be zoom lenses, such as 70-300mm. They can also be a prime lens, such as 200mm.

To bring subjects up close to the camera, telephoto lenses need many pieces of glass inside. This often makes them large and heavy. It also makes them expensive.

The long focal length results in a narrow field of view. The angle of view of these lenses is between 30° and 1°. This is useful when you cannot get close enough to your subject.

What Are the Different Kinds of Telephoto Lenses?

Telephoto lenses can be further divided into sub-categories based on focal length.

Lenses between 85mm and 135mm are considered short telephotos. These can bring an object in close and create background separation but to less of an extreme. These focal lengths are popular for portrait photography, product photography, and event photography. The lens offers more background separation without requiring the photographer to stand too far from the subject.

A 135mm to 300mm lens is often called a medium telephoto lens. These focal lengths are among the most popular. They offer a significant reach without a high price tag.

Lenses above 300mm are typically also referred to as a super-telephoto lens. These lenses offer the most reach. If you use a telephoto lens on a crop sensor, it can reach a focal length as long as 1000mm. This also means that they have a narrow field of view, from 8° to 1°. They are often expensive and used by professionals. They are primarily for shooting sports, wildlife, or the night sky.

Due to their size, for using super-telephoto lenses, you always need a tripod. There might be image stabilisation in them. But you will not be able to hold them so steadily that your images stay sharp. Most oversized telephoto lenses have a tripod collar to help support the lens’s weight.

For a quick comparison, look at these images below. The first was shot at 165mm and the second at 300mm.

What to Know About Telephoto Lenses and Sensor Sizes

A 300mm lens on a full-frame camera is a 300mm lens. But change the size of the sensor in the camera body and the angle of view that the lens captures also changes.

A crop sensor, such as an APS-C sensor or Micro Four Thirds, makes a telephoto lens appear to bring the subject even closer.

The optics in a lens projects the image onto the sensor. If that sensor is smaller, the image is cropped. Cropping the image makes that distant subject feel even closer.

That crop is why photographers who need to capture close-up images of their subjects sometimes prefer crop sensor cameras. This is even though full-frame cameras usually offer better image quality.

For example, for macro or wildlife photography, you may want to use a crop sensor camera. With one of these, you can reach longer focal lengths.

With Micro Four Thirds, the crop factor is 2x – which means a 300mm lens shoots like a 600mm lens.

That allows photographers to get up much closer with a smaller lens. But unfortunately, this can also mean lower image resolution and lower image quality.

How to Deal With Camera Shake

The camera settings that work with a wide-angle may create motion blur with a telephoto lens. That is because telephoto lenses are more sensitive to camera shake.

The magnification of the lens can exaggerate even the most minor camera movements, thus creating a blur. Telephoto lenses are also heavier, which means your hands are also more prone to shake.

As a general ‘rule’, the denominator on the shutter speed should be at or greater than the focal length when shooting handheld. With a 100mm lens, you should shoot at a minimum of 1/100 of a second. For 200mm, at a minimum of 1/200 of a second.

Heavier lenses may need an even faster speed. To shoot with a telephoto lens and a slower shutter speed, you’ll need a tripod. The rule isn’t true 100% of the time, though. Some stabilized lenses (or lenses attached to a stabilized body) can shoot a bit lower without the shake. This technology utilises gyroscopic sensors and motors to stabilise any movement in the lens elements. This way, it can prevent blur in lenses with longer focal lengths too. A lot of new camera models have in-body stabilisation (IBIS).

What to Know About Telephoto Lens Apertures

Like any lenses, telephotos are more expensive if they come with a wide maximum aperture. But here you cannot avoid buying an expensive one. With telephoto lenses, you usually need to use a fast shutter speed, so you will need a wide aperture. It’s necessary to keep up with the shutter and let enough light in. Also, a lower f-number usually means a better image quality.

Telephoto lenses often are zooms. The cheaper alternatives operate with a variable aperture. You can see it written like 70-300mm f/4-5.6. The more expensive ones have a fixed aperture (usually f/2.8 or f/5.6), and their widest opening likely depends on their focal length.

If you wish to use faster lenses, you can also opt for a prime telephoto lens with a greater f-number and macro capability. Prime alternatives often come with better image quality and macro capability.

How Telephoto Lenses Affect the Background

Sometimes, photographers choose a telephoto lens because of what it can do to the background of the shot. With a telephoto lens, the background appears closer to the subject than with a wide-angle. In fact, the longer the focal length is, the less exaggerated distances seem to be.

Lens compression is a result of standing further from the subject rather than the actual lens optics. Because of lens compression, a telephoto lens can help fill in the background with less empty space. Lens compression will also help the background to appear more blurred. A common misconception is that using a telephoto lens creates a shallow depth of field or creates more background blur.

A telephoto lens does not affect the math for calculating the depth of field. But, the background compression brings that blurry background closer. This gives the appearance of having more blur.

How Telephoto Lenses Affect the Subject

The difference between the background of a photo shot with a wide-angle and one shot with a telephoto is significant. But the subject itself will also have some subtle differences too.

Like the distance between the subject and the background is compressed, other distances in the photo appear to be shorter too. A wide-angle lens will make the eyes, nose, and mouth appear farther apart in a portrait. With a telephoto lens, those facial features appear closer together. This typically creates a more flattering portrait.

The effect is the same for subjects other than portraits too. Remember that a telephoto lens makes distances seem shorter in the image. This is a kind of distortion called pincushion distortion, which is the opposite of barrel distortion. This can happen in zoom lenses and prime lenses too.

Due to the focal lengths, the angle of view of the telephoto lenses is relatively narrow. The lens sees a smaller part of the scene than the camera sensor would be able to detect. So it needs to stretch the image to fill the frame. This can be a bigger problem in cameras using a bigger, full-frame sensor. It’s more visible towards the edges of the image.

To avoid this distortion, you should do profile corrections during post-processing. If you want to create the sense that the objects in the photograph are closer together, use a telephoto. To exaggerate distance in your photography, use a wide-angle.

Telephoto lenses are generally great for situations when you cannot get close enough to your subject. If you want to get a shallow depth of field or avoid barrel distortions, these lenses are also great for you. Experiment with different kinds of photography, and you are going to see what lenses you need. It can happen that you will not need a telephoto lens at all. But now you know what to use telephoto lenses for. 

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The Photoshoot Is Over: Now What?! – Free Quick Guide

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As a photographer, you probably know that the photo shoot isn’t just taking pictures.

It lasts much longer than just this specific hour.

There are a lot of things that need to happen beforehand: countless exchanged emails, planning, organizing, buying props, searching for the perfect location, and also the less fun things like invoicing.

After all that planning, the last thing you want to do is have a misstep!

Today, we’ll be talking about what should happen after you come home from a photo shoot.

We’ll cover…

• How and why to back up your photographs
• How to select the pictures for editing
• How to keep your files organized
• How to implement a routine for editing and delivering images
• Why it’s essential to have your gear in one place

Photo Credit: Brooke Cagle

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The 50mm f/1.8 Lens Review & Guide

Tags: Shutterbug Photography, Rookie Photographer 

By Joshua Dunlop 

When it comes down to quality for price, bang for buck, a 50mm 1.8 is one of the best lenses on the market and an upgrade I would recommend to every new SLR user.
A very small investment of $105 for the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8, or slightly more for Nikon, will give you one of the best upgrades you can make to a camera.

The Right Lens for Your Camera

If you’re a Canon user, you only really have one choice, the Canon 50mm f/1.8, which I linked to above.
If you’re a Nikon user, it’s a little bit more complicated.

You actually have three choices depending on which camera you have.

If your camera has an autofocus motor, you can buy the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF.

The following Nikon cameras don’t have one:

• Nikon D40
• Nikon D40X
• Nikon D60
• Nikon D3000
• Nikon D3100
• Nikon D5000
• Nikon D5100.

If you have one of the cameras mentioned, your camera body doesn’t have an autofocus motor built in; you have to buy a lens that does – marked with an ‘AF-S’.

Unfortunately for you, this is more expensive: the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S.

Now, regardless of whether or not you have an autofocus motor, you can buy the 35mm f/1.8, which will provide a better viewing angle on a crop sensor (you’re likely to be shooting on one of these) – Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S.

General Review

There are advantages of buying more expensive lenses, such as the Nikon ones listed above, as they have better build quality.
Before I upgraded, I used my 50mm regularly – extensive usage like this takes its toll on the plastic build (glass inside) and toy-like features. The lenses are very light and small; ideal if you’re looking to upgrade from your kit lens but don’t want to carry around a load of extra weight.
It’s true that you get what you pay for but, for a couple hundred bucks, you can produce some astounding results from these lenses.
The optics on prime lenses (no zoom) are usually much better quality; they’re not making as many compromises. With this, the price comes down, hence I endorse them so much.
Having used both the Canon and the Nikon, I can tell you that the focus does tend to suck on these lenses; they’re slow and inconsistent.
The small focus ring on each lens doesn’t help much with manual focus either and the focus tends to be quite loud – watch out for that if you shoot video regularly.
That being said, I’m looking back on these lenses after being used to using much more expensive lenses; my judgment has changed somewhat. You may not notice so much of a difference if you’re using cheaper lenses to begin with.
Because of the crop factor on these lenses, the Canon feels more like an 80mm lens, the Nikon 50mm is more like a 75mm lens and the Nikon 35 looks like a 52.50mm lens.
If you do choose a 50mm lens and you’re shooting on a crop sensor, expect everything to be quite zoomed and remember, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They make ideal cheap portrait lenses in terms of focal length but expect to have to move back if someone asks for a group shot.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you should have expert knowledge about how perspective changes at different focal lengths. As I mentioned in my post on the crop factor however, putting your full frame lens on a crop sensor body will not change the perspective – only crop it.
This is a good thing because the way we see through our own eyes is generally considered to be similar to about 45mm; by using a 50mm you’re quite accurately representing our natural view without compressing the perspective too much.
There are obvious downsides to cheaper lenses but don’t be put off. Once you’ve put a 50mm f/1.8 on your camera, you’re not going to want to take it off – I know I didn’t.
It’s a tool for every photographer’s arsenal and I personally don’t know anyone who has regretted the purchase. Enough of telling you why it’s so great, let me show you…

The Lens Guide

The very first thing you’ll notice about your new lens is the ability to shoot in much lower light without having to use the flash.
This is because of the wider aperture which allows more light in. If you don’t know your aperture scale, I suggest learning it. For now, let me tell you that if your lens went as wide as f/3.5 before, it now lets in four times as much light at f.1.8.
When I say wide, I’m talking about the size of the hole in the lens that the light passes through.
The photo below was taken indoors in a dark room at f/1.8 for 1.200 of a second at ISO 100.
The next thing you’ll notice is that the depth of field (DoF) can go remarkably shallow. This is because of the way the light passes through the lens at a wider aperture.
The wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. This can be used for creative effect – it works really well. A common problem with people who get a 1.8 is that they think it looks so good that it’s all they ever use; use it sparingly or it’ll lose its appeal.
Notice from the photo below that the glasses on the face are in focus but the end of the hat and chin are out of focus. This was also shot at f/1.8.
In the photo above, you may notice the circular shapes of colour in the background – this is what’s referred to as Bokeh. Simply put, it’s the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photograph.
Bokeh relates to how nice the background blur looks when out-of-focus.
When you’re shooting at wider apertures, the effect of the bokeh is accentuated; it will look a lot more prominent than anything you would have seen with your kit lens.
Because this is a cheap lens, made to a price, it’s not the highest quality (which you may see from the photo above) but, if you use it properly with distant light, you can produce some really nice effects.
Again, the photo below was shot at f/1.8.
Selective focus with an f/1.8 is something that you may not have much experience with.
Because the depth of field can be made to look so shallow, it’s even more effective with this lens. You can focus the viewer’s attention onto a certain part of the photo, making them want to explore the rest at the same time.
It’s a powerful technique but, like everything, remember not to overdo it.When you’re shooting wide open, you’re going to produce some very soft photos. If you want these to be sharper, you need to narrow your aperture a fair bit.
I find around f/8 to be the sharpest point on my Canon 50mm f/1.8.
The photo below was shot at f/7.1 and manages to keep the whole of the subject in focus while making sure plenty of detail remained in the background – you can make out the burnt down pier.
Experiment with wide apertures at first but you may find that narrower ones suit your style a lot better.
As I mentioned earlier, the crop factor does make this lens appear more zoomed than you may want it to be. That can’t really be helped unless you opt for the 35mm – it’s really a matter of personal preference and budget.
It’s all about working with the gear you have at your disposal.
When I took the photo below, I had no tripod on me, just my 50mm lens.
Because I knew what effect this would have on my photos, I found a position that would work for me rather than simply giving up; I would usually have shot this photo with a wider angle.
I found a position on a dock further away and shot this photo at f/4.5 for 8 seconds – I was very happy with how it came out.

I’ve spoken a lot about f/1.8 but the lens aperture will go as narrow as f/22, which is fairly common.
This will give you a much deeper DoF so that you can have your background and foreground in focus.
The photo below was shot at f/22 for 4 seconds. As you can see, the deep foreground is in good focus and you can still work out all the minor details in the background on the pier.
It’s important to remember that this lens does have more uses than just low light photography or shallow depth of field.
Finally, as you start to collect more gear, you can use it to make your photos look even better.
A 50mm lens is great but, when you use it in conjunction with an external flash unit (and off camera transmitter for the photo below), you’ll get even better results.
Like I said before, it’s about working with what you’ve got – when you have a little bit more, it can become a lot easier (when you know what you’re doing) to get better shots. 

Camera Basics Series: Zoom Lenses Explained – Free Quick Guide

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Buying lenses for your camera can be an exciting and overwhelming task.

There are so many to choose from, but how do you know which ones to invest in and which ones will work the best for you?

There are two general types of lenses for you to choose from – zoom lenses and prime lenses.

This guide will focus on zoom lenses, but it will also touch on the differences between a zoom lens and a prime lens.

It is important to know the difference between the two and what they both have to offer.

Here is what you will learn:

• What is a zoom lens?
• What is focal length, and how is it measured?
• What are the differences between a zoom lens and a prime lens?
• What are the advantages of a zoom lens? What are the disadvantages of a zoom lens?
• How to decide which zoom lens is right for you.

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Photo Credit: Garrett Morrow

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When to Use a Narrow vs Wide Aperture

By Simon Bond 

Using a narrow vs wide aperture can make the difference between a good and a bad picture. In this article, you’ll learn about arguably the most important setting on your camera, the aperture.

So let’s open up and shed some light on the subject! 

What Is Aperture?

The aperture is the hole in the lens that lets light through. This hole can be controlled to be larger or smaller. This will cause a number of different effects.

The most obvious is that more light will come into the camera at a faster rate. So what more can be said about aperture?

• Diaphragm ring – Aperture can be controlled by a ring within your lens, every lens has this ring.
• f-number – The f-number determines how large the aperture will be. Larger numbers imply a smaller aperture. Smaller numbers imply larger apertures. A large aperture would be f/1.8, while f/22 is considered small.
• The lens – Prime lenses will always have the largest apertures. They can be as large as f/0.85! The largest aperture available on zoom lenses is f/2.8.
• Exposure value – Aperture is one of the 3 settings that controls the exposure value. An exposure value of 0 is considered correctly exposed. The other settings are ISO and shutter speed.

One of the main effects of the wide aperture is the distinctive bokeh background you can see

 in this image.

Wide Aperture

The use of a wide aperture goes beyond how quickly light comes into a camera.

An aperture of f/2.8 is considered a large aperture. For some of the below effects to be in evidence you’ll need this aperture or even larger.

Depth of Field With Wide Aperture

When you focus your camera you’ll pick an area of the photo to focus on. This, for example, could be a person in a portrait photo.

Depending on the aperture setting on your camera the area in front of and behind your focal point will also be in focus. A large aperture will produce a shallow depth of field.

This will make only the main subject sharp. And the area in front and behind the subject will be out of focus.

In this photo, the main subject is separated from the background through the use of 

a wide aperture.

Subject Isolation

This means a large aperture is perfect for subject isolation using focus. This works 

well when the subject is placed in the middle of a tunnel.

The subject will now pop out of the frame, and the background will be blurred.

Bokeh

If the main subject is sharp, there can be a large portion of the photo that isn’t. This area is often referred to by photographers as bokeh.

If there are no objects behind the main subject this area of the photo won’t be noteworthy. 

This might happen if the background is a simple blue sky.

When the background is a line of trees, a tunnel, or street lights, you’ll see a pleasant bokeh background. When there are points of light this will manifest itself in the form of light globes.

Creative Bokeh

It’s possible to do even more with bokeh. You can create shaped bokeh such as hearts, stars 

or electric bolts. To do this you’ll need to cut a black circle from some paper.

Then cut the shape you desire into the black circle and make sure it is in the center of your 

black disc of paper. Place it over your lens and shoot away.

Photographing at night will almost certainly mean using a large aperture.

Low Light Photography

A good fast lens is a must have when it comes to low light. It’s true that cameras perform 

better at high ISOs these days, somewhat mitigating the need for a large aperture.

That said, without a large aperture you’ll often be struggling for light, especially when it 

comes to night street photography.

Get a good quality 50mm lens with a large aperture and you’ll be set for most low 

light settings.

Action Photography

Action photography is about fast shutter speeds, but wide apertures play a part here as well. That wide aperture allows light to enter the camera quickly enough to ensure a fast shutter speed is achievable.

Action photography often means sport, which can make using a large aperture tricky. That’s due to the shallow depth of field, and because the main subject is moving in a dynamic environment.

This can mean the subject moves out of the focal sweet spot. When you get the action photo right with the large aperture it will look amazing.

Look to use the camera’s focus tracking function. It’ll help you keep your subject focused.

This photo uses a large aperture, and that allowed a fast enough shutter speed to capture this 

dancer mid air.

Narrow Aperture

At the other end of the scale is a narrow aperture. This means an aperture of f/16 or smaller. It should be noted that you wouldn’t normally use an aperture this small for landscape photos.

The sharpest focus is usually achieved at f/8 or f/11 depending on the lens. The following are ways in which narrow apertures can benefit your photography.

Depth of Field With Narrow Aperture

If elements in the foreground and background of your photo are important, and you want them to be focused you’ll need to use a narrow aperture.

The effect of this narrow aperture is a large depth of field, with most areas of the photo being in focus. If you have a line of people and you want them to all be in focus, for example, you’ll need to use a large depth of field.

Aperture for Landscape Photos

As mentioned most landscape photos should be photographed at that lenses sweet spot aperture, often f/8. This calculation changes when there are strong foreground elements that you want to be in focus, then a narrower aperture is needed.

If you focus on an object very close to the camera even using a small aperture might not be enough to keep the background sharp. Bracketing your images for focus is an option.

Focus stacked images can then correct focus problems in post-processing.

This landscape photo used an aperture of f/16, so that background would be more in focus.

The Starburst Effect

The starburst effect can only be achieved by using a small aperture. It will cause a point of light to have spikes.

The type of diaphragm your lens has will affect the number of spikes produced. If the diaphragm has an even number of blades, then the number of blades will also equal the number of starburst spikes produced.

If the number of blades is uneven you will get double the number of spikes. This means that 9 blades will produce a starburst with 18 spikes.

It’s possible to produce the starburst effect from street lights, and even the sun. Look to follow these steps to be successful at this technique.

It should be noted there is a starburst filter you can use to create spikes. But it looks better and more natural using this method.

• Street lights – You’ll need a tripod since small apertures and street lights mean a long exposure at night. Experiment with the aperture a little, the smaller the aperture the longer and thinner the spikes will be.
• Sunlight – Photographing the whole sun won’t produce a good starburst effect, the likelihood is that the sun will overexpose your photo if you’re aiming at it. It’s also not good for your eyes, unless the sun is near sunset. This means finding ways of reducing the amount of sun photographed. That means blocking the sun. This could be by using leaves on a tree, clouds as they pass the sun in the sky, or the horizon line as the sun begins to set.

This photo shows how hiding the sun behind an object you can use a small aperture to create 

the starburst.

Slow Shutter Speed

As with action photography, slow shutter speed is not controlled by the aperture. Using a small aperture, especially into the evening will result in slow shutter speeds.

Slow shutter speeds in conjunction with small apertures can in interesting for cityscapes. You’ll get traffic light trails from cars, and starburst effects from the stationary street lights.

Other effects that you can get from slow shutter speed are the flattening of water, or making white water appear like silk.

These photos taken in rural areas often during the day will require a small aperture. This is in order to get long exposures between 1 and 20 seconds to achieve the effect.

Panning may also need a narrow aperture, the shutter speed of around 1/20th is not too slow though. A smaller aperture gives you a larger depth of field to use.

This is useful with a moving object and can result in a sharper focus on the object you’re panning.

In order to slow the shutter speed down to create the motion blur, a small aperture was needed.

Learning about using aperture is really important for your photography. It’s a setting with a great deal of creative potential. You need to know about its relationship with shutter speed as well.

A lot of photographers will use aperture priority mode for many of their photos. It speeds up changing your settings, and aperture is that important.

How do you use aperture in your photography? Do you use aperture priority, or do you go fully manual? We’d love to see example photos that have used aperture for creative effects.

Please leave your thoughts and photos in the comments section of this article. 

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Camera Basics Series: Aperture Explained – Free Quick Guide

Download Your Free Guide Now →

Aperture, like shutter speed, is an essential building block in understanding how light reaches our camera’s sensor for us to create the perfect photograph.

Learning about aperture can be confusing at first and can trip up the most experienced photographers, but it does get easier to understand with patience and practice.

It can be rare to hear the term aperture being used outside of photography, but at its purest form, the word aperture means an opening, a hole, or a gap.

If we think about this in relation to photography, we can understand that the aperture is simply the opening in a lens that allows light to travel through the lens and into our camera.

In this guide, we will discuss:

• What aperture means
• What a diaphragm is and how it works
• How aperture affects our photos
• How aperture is measured in our cameras
• How aperture size affects our depth of field and how to control it

Understanding the aperture is a core photography skill, and you can master that skill today!

Grab your copy now!

Photo Credit: Angela Fulks

Download Your Free Guide Now → 

 

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