First, please allow me to introduce my two models for today's exercise of Big is Little and Little is Big - Aperture Priority. Here we have Mamma Bear and Baby Bear. They were very willing subjects and are appreciated for their time!
Alright, what is this business of Big is Little and Little is Big? It's had me in a quandry for a while too, and I still have to think about it from time to time. Remember, I'm not here to teach, but to recount my experiences as practice, practice, practice will help me to become a decent photographer. Therefore, in order for one to understand how to work their own camera, you'll have to refer to your camera's User Manual or search for pages or tutorials to show you how to operate Aperture Priority in your own model of camera.
Aperture is like the iris of your eye. Open the aperture wide (it's that round thing in the shutter) and it lets more light into the camera. Close the aperture down, and it lets less light in. When you set your camera to Aperture Priority Mode, you can control how big or small you want the aperture to be. Here's where the big is little and the little is big comes in. Aperture openings are reported as f-stops. Or you might shoot with f-8 or f-11 relating to the size of the opening. F-8 is open wider than F-11 - Yup! Thats the big is small and small is big. Why in the world they did it that way makes no sense to me. But that's the way it is and we've gotta live with it.
So here we go - Momma and Baby Bear came in as the models for a couple of trial (practice) shots to help figure this out and commit it to memory. Here are the first two Photos:
Here's our first photo. Yes, I see that the pictures are crooked, that's not what we're here for! (Intended diversion for the fun of it.) Please pay attention to what we're working on here. This photo was taken at F-18. Remember, big number, small opening. Of course, the photos on the wall are not in perfect focus, but compared to the photo below, they are in much better focus. A higher F number - smaller opening would have produced an even better focus on the background as well as the good focus on the foreground.
Exhibit Number 2 - Notice how the pictures on the wall at a distance are more blurred than the previous photo! Aperture set at F-5.6 - bigger opening, smaller aperture number. "Why in the world would I want to blur my background?" you ask. Sometimes the close subject is the important part of the picture, and the stuff at a distance isn't. Therefore with the use of aperture priority, one can blur the background creating for a pretty cool backdrop - improving the photo. In other instances, maybe your family is perched at a distance in front of Half Dome in Yosemite. Half Dome is pretty important to the photo as well, so you would set a higher F-stop number to make the aperture smaller, thereby bringing everything into closer focus. In other words, increasing your depth of field.
You with me on this? I still have to think a moment to get it all straight now and then!
Thanks, Momma Bear and Baby Bear, you may be excused now!
Here's two more instances to consider/learn about Aperture Priority. This time without the distance between the subject and the background. Momma and Baby Bear are gone, and this time we're just taking two pictures of a wall with crooked photos on it. We'll set two different F-stops and take these two photos:
The top photo was taken at F-5.6 - larger opening. Bottom photo taken at F-11 - smaller opening. Note that both sets of crooked pictures are focused the same. Now how can that be? Well, the camera is focusing on the wall - period - nothing in front of it. As with the two bear pictures above - in both of those pictures the bears were in focus, but there was a different and much further distance from the bears that the camera wasn't "concentrating" on. Thus the difference because of difference of aperture settings. There's another issue that comes into the equation - see below:
In these two "wall" photos, note the ceiling fan at the top. Here's where the aperture makes the difference. On the top photo, the aperture is set at F-5.6 (a larger opening) and the fan is not blurred. On our bottom photo the aperture is set at F-11 (a smaller opening). Let's think about this for a minute.
The other settings of the camera are being automatically managed by the camera itself. We are only directing the aperture setting. The camera adjusts the other settings to obtain what it thinks is the optimum photo. SO... when set at F-5.6 - the larger opening, the camera is able to open and close the shutter faster, because the aperture is letting the necessary light in. BUT, when set at F-11 with a smaller aperture opening, the camera has to adjust the shutter to a slower speed to allow enough light in to get a decent exposure. Therefore, any motion will be caught because the shutter is open longer. Make sense? I hope so!
That's about enough for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll practice some of this again and explain in the blog what the settings are on the photos. Will take it outside as well, to get some perspective out there. And, I'll address how you can find out what all the settings are on each photo, after the shot is taken and you have your pictures on your computer.
In the meantime - pondering on this exercise will help to engrain it in my subconscious and hopefully it will begin to become second hand!
Finally - must account for time served!
Behind the camera: 1 hour In Study and Post Process: 1.5 hours
Total: 10 hours Total: 9 hours
Make it a snappy night! See you tomorrow.
©CynthiaG Photography
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