Aperture priority. In a word: HANDY.
Ahhh. Aperture. Friend. Occasional frenemy. It’s the backwards, confusing mechanism of technical photography that usually has people reverting back to auto. It works like your eyes in terms of letting light into the camera: when it’s dark, your pupils are wide open and when it’s bright and sunny, they’re snapped tight.
Some notes on aperture:
- bigger f/stop (number) = the more your aperture is closed
- smaller f/stop (number) = the more your aperture is open
Aperture has a very intimate relationship with depth of field (DOF) which gives those dreamy, blurry shots with lots of bokeh or makes sure everything is in focus.
Some notes on depth of field:
- what the heck is ‘bokeh’? it’s the (deliberate) blur in a photograph
- keep everything sharp/in focus = small aperture / large f/number
- make things blurry/bokeh = large aperture / small f/number
The easiest way to control exposure but take control of aperture is to put your DSLR into aperture priority mode (Av for Canon and A for Nikon). You set the aperture based on your lens and the camera will do the math on the rest. Good deal.
For landscapes, group shots or times when you want everything in focus, etc. I tend to start at f/11 and adjust from there. Here, everything is in focus from the baby to the table to her highchair.
1/250 at f/11, ISO 400
For up close shots or to get more creative, I drop to the lowest f/number available (f/1.8 on my 50mm, for example) and adjust from there. Here, you’ll see the foreground and background are blurred with only the elephant sharp.
1/125 at f/1.8, ISO 800
For lil’ faces, I stick to a sweet spot around f/5.6 or close enough to give their face and full body focus but add some bokeh to the background. Here, you’ll see her main facial features are sharp but it starts to blur out as it hits the ears and bedspread.
1/125 at f/5.6, ISO 100
Keep in mind that bokeh — however much or little of it — is a personal choice and artistically subjective. Have fun with it and experiment! Take a picture of a toy propped up on a table using a few different f/stops and compare the results for yourself!
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