Lighting when taking photos is key. You have to have enough light in order to get anything decent. Sounds like a no-brainer right? Well, it has taken me awhile to get the hang of lighting. To really understand lighting and it’s importance in photography, you need to understand aperture. Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when the photo is taken. Here is a helpful reference chart from ShortCourses. Your aperture number is called an f-stop, and on your DSLR camera, it will appear as an f/#.
Basically, what you need to remember is this: As the aperture number gets smaller, the opening becomes larger, and the image gets lighter. I will give you a minute to commit that to memory. Yes, there will be a quiz. Kidding! 🙂
Aperture is also responsible for your depth of focus. Here are a few photos to help illustrate.
Low F-Stop Number = More open aperture = More Light = Smaller Depth of Focus
High F-Stop Number = Less open aperture = Less Light = Larger Depth of Focus
Notice that the background in the first photo is more blurred than it is in the second photo. This is because it is a low aperture number meaning the objects farther away from the subject are thrown out of focus. I encourage you to play with your cameras this week and see what you learn! And if you post about it, let me know so I can check it out!
If you need help on setting the f/stop on your camera YouTube is actually a great source!
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