We’re getting technical again! Today we’ll discuss aperture, how it affects your photos, and what settings you might use.
Aperture (or f-stop) is the size of the opening in the lens that can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or digital sensor. The lower the f-stop, the larger the opening in the lens and the less depth of field, which leads to a blurrier background. The higher the f-stop, the smaller the opening in the lens and the greater the depth of field which leads to a sharper background. I know, so confusing!!
Something else to consider with aperture is the number of people you are photographing. When photographing groups, you want the aperture to correspond with the number of people in the group to avoid people looking blurry. For example, a family of 5 would need an aperture of around f5.6.
With the photos below you can see what a difference aperture makes. In the first photo, the background really pulls your eye and make the unicorn a bit hard to make out. In the second, the unicorn is the only thing you can make out, causing the unicorn to really stand out. The settings for each photo are listed there. You can see there is a massive difference in aperture.
.jpg)
.jpg)
There are other settings you can use to create a fantastic image in conjunction with aperture, which we will talk about later on, so stay tuned!