Aperture:The mouth of a watering hose
Two of the hardest photography concepts to grasp for beginners are aperture and shutter speed. I mentioned these two settings a couple posts ago, but for most people it takes more than a sentence or two to understand how to use aperture let alone remember the word.
The best explanation I’ve heard of aperture is an analogy to a garden watering hose. When you hold the hose and turn on the water, it doesn’t spray the water very far. It just gushes out water a few inches from your feet and hits only one spot on the ground, but place your thumb over part of the mouth of the watering hose and the water shoots much further and spreads over a wide area. Like the water, our shots can focus only inches from where we’re standing or out to the horizon. To get that blurred background on a close up shot you need to use a low aperture setting and for a fully in focus shot where you clearly see the foreground, background, and everything in between, use a high aperture setting.
Low Aperture Setting
Both of these photos were taken with an aperture setting also referred to as F stop of 5.6. Notice how the first image is focused on the foreground cement siding and keeps that in focus, while the second photo focuses on the staircase in the background. To try this yourself, set your camera aperture setting to its lowest, center your camera on the part of the photo you want in focus, lock the auto focus by holding the shutter button halfway, position your camera to compose the shot, and click. Keep in mind that you’ll need a lot of light to get this shot to work without blurring. You can also use a tripod to steady the camera. Since the lower the F-stop the wider the aperture opens in the camera, more light will come through the lens. Too much light can make your shots overexposed.
Using a point and shoot you can also achieve this effect using the macro mode or portrait mode.
High Aperture Setting
When taking landscape or architectural shots like this one of an old tabernacle building, using a higher aperture is ideal. Doing so ensures the whole frame will be in focus. To take a shot like this, you’ll want to be outside with a lot of light since with a higher F-stop less light gets into the camera. If it’s too dark, you’ll need a tripod or the photo will come out blurry or your photo will turn out underexposed.
Using the landscape mode on a point and shoot will automatically set a higher aperture.
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Tags: aperture, blur background, focus
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