Understanding Aperture: the Key to Being Artistic

f/5.6 Aperture Example / Photo by Rachael Olson

People often ask me how to get a blurry background. Something about a blurry background makes people think “professional”.
First, if you want to sound cool, call it bokeh (pronounced: boke-uh), which means “haze” or “blur” in Japanese.
Next, you need to understand depth of field. This way, you don’t let in just enough light, but instead you control depth of field to achieve what you want artistically.
The depth of field is the area of sharpness within a photograph. Although focal length and distance between camera and subject affect it, the simplest and most effective way to change your depth-of-field is to change your aperture.
Your aperture is basically just a hole letting light in. Think of it this way: the shutter (controlled by shutter speed) opens and closes over the hole. The wider the hole, the more light coming in to the sensor in the amount of time the shutter is open.
“F-stop” refers to aperture. The higher the f-stop the more narrow your aperture (hole letting in light). Your lowest f-stop is referred to as “shooting wide open” because the lower the f-stop, the wider the aperture. The lowest and highest f-stop you can choose depends on your lens. If you hear someone refer to a “fast lens” they’re talking about a lens that can open up wide like to a f-stop 2.8 or 1.8, which is even better (thus, they can use a fast shutter speed and still get enough light). Love fast lenses. But that’s a discussion for another day….

f/2.8 Aperture Example / Photo by Rachael Olson

Lower F-stops (wider apertures) will blur background. Higher F-stops (more narrow apertures) will have more in sharp focus.
If you remember nothing else, remember these words go together:

• Small aperture – lower f-stop – wide – open – more light – less depth-of-field
• Large aperture – higher f-stop – closed – stopped down – narrow – less light – greater depth of field

I think of it like a stack of paper. Imagine that your focus point is on a piece of paper in that stack. That plane will be sharpest and then each piece of paper will get progressively less in focus as you move away from that plane. You’re telling your camera how quickly to move out of sharp focus. Just a note: anything in front of the focus point will go out of focus a lot faster than the points behind the focus point will. So if you’re taking a picture of a large group, focus on the person closest to you.
The best way to get this into your brain is to play with it:

1. Set your camera on Av mode. This will allow you to change your aperture and the camera will automatically choose a shutter speed. Less thinking for you!
2. Choose a subject that holds still – a newborn or an object. Definitely NOT a 2-year-old. Make sure you are in bright light. Place it where you can see a lot of background for comparison of depth of field.
3. Take a picture of the same subject in at each of these apertures:

f/2.8 (if you have a fast lens)      f/5.6                      f/7.1                      f/11
Now, compare your images on your computer screen. You should be able to see a difference, especially between f/5.6 and f/11.
After you’ve done that, the following guidelines should make sense:

• Use lower apertures when you want a blurred background. Remember to think about the paper analogy or you could end up with weird portraits with one eye in focus and the other out-of-focus – if you’re open too wide and the subject’s head is even slightly turned.
• f/11 is often considered a “safe” aperture for portraits if you don’t need to worry about getting a bokeh. This makes sure the entire face stays in focus.
• When you want the background in focus, or when doing landscape shots, use the highest possible aperture to capture all of the detail.
• When I don’t really care about the aperture, because everything is pretty much on the same plane of focus, I choose f/8.

Understanding how to use aperture will allow you to move from merely correctly exposed images to creative images. And then you won’t only sound cool, your pictures will look cool too!

f/10 Aperture Example / Photo by Rachael Olson    http://www.spectrumphotographytips.com/understanding-aperture-the-key-to-being-artistic.html

5 Secrets Professional Photographers Will Never Tell You

I remember when we first started out in photography, we would look at the professionals who had “made it” within the industry and somehow think they were different then us. They had a fan base stretched out around the world. They traveled to exotic locations to photograph their clients. They were featured in magazines and talked on stages in front of hundreds of people.
They were real photographers. And deep down we questioned all the time whether we had what it takes to make it to that level.
But as we worked more on our photography, we quickly realized that perception doesn’t always match up with reality. Photographers at all levels have the same struggles as you and me. They just handle it a bit differently. Here are five things every photographer faces at some point every year.

Secret #1 – Photography is Difficult

“I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term — meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching — there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.” ~Ansel Adams
Anyone can pick up a camera and snap a picture. Even an amateur who shoots occasionally is going to get lucky once in a while and capture a great image. Yet when you get to the professional level, you expect every image to come out perfect every time.
It doesn’t always happen.
As professionals, we’ve trained ourselves to be ready for the unexpected, think ahead to what is going to happen so you can be there when it does, and be patient. Yet its easy to “kick” ourselves when you find the perfect shot – and your camera is at home. Or you see the action and you’re across the room.
And that’s okay – as long as you capture the majority of what is truly important.

Secret #2 We All Struggle With Procrastination

“Our attention span is shot. We’ve all got Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD or OCD or one of these disorders with three letters because we don’t have the time or patience to pronounce the entire disorder. That should be a disorder right there, TBD – Too Busy Disorder.” ~ Ellen DeGeneres
Yep, everyone has this at some time or another. You have the client you aren’t really into – so you put off the work until the last minute.
You know you need to get the images ready for your new brochure – but you just can’t seem to quit watching those YouTube videos.
Procrastination usually comes in one of two forms.
You do anything to avoid the little stuff. You work on large plans for the future, without taking the small steps to put it into place. It’s the dream instead of the action.
You do only the little stuff to avoid taking a really big step. You check email, run to the post office, create a new filing system – anything but create the new promotion you’ve been thinking about.
The only way around it, no matter who you are or what you do, is to take a good hard look at your daily life and decide how to change it to get exactly what you want.

Secret #3 We Fall Into Habit Mode

“A habit is something you can do without thinking – which is why most of us have so many of them.”  ~Frank A. Clark
When something works, you do it over and over again simple because it works.
It doesn’t mean it’s the best way to to do. Or the easiest way. Or even the most logical way.
I see it all the time when I train people on using online tools. I’m amazed at the number of people that head into a browser, visit the website we are talking about, then shut down the entire browser when they are finished. Their day is a constant action of opening and closing an entire system instead of simply opening up new tabs.
It’s a habit. Efficient or not, its just something people fall into.
The same goes with photography. Even a seasoned professional may snap an image wide, knowing they will crop in Photoshop instead of taking an extra second or two to focus in on the true subject matter.
Or deal with an amazingly inefficient filing system because that’s the way its always been – even though a few minor adjustments could save hours of time every week.
The only way to change habits is to recognize them first; then work to adjust the pattern to make your life more efficient.

Secret #4 Each Photograph is Never “Finished”

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
When was the last time you snapped an image with the feeling of being finished?
Neither has a professional.
Every photographer looks at his or her work and thinks, “I could change that…” or “I could do that…”. You can always crop in a different way. Or change the color of the final image. Blow it up and frame it in a certain way. Put it together with other images to tell a story.

Secret #5 We Look For Perfection

“Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion.” ~ Paul Carvel
We are all visual, yet most aren’t photographers. Have you seen ads in magazines or newspapers where companies spend thousands of dollars on the ad – them use the most horrible picture on earth? (I can’t say photograph because they really are that bad.) They stretch it to fit the ad layout, or crop out just the pieces they want to use.
A true professional never feels the image is “perfect”. We’re obsessed about finding the perfect location or the softening the light “just a little”.
We’re the ones who take a camera along “just in case” and photograph no matter where we go “just for fun”.
It doesn’t change if you’re an amateur or a professional, have just received your first camera or have been in the business for 30 years. Passion is passion.
When you love something like photography, you can’t imagine your life doing anything but photography. So why not strive for perfection?

31 Days of Photo Tips | Index

Welcome back! This is the second installment of my 31 Days series. Thanks for checking it out.
1. Welcome, A Shoebox of Memories.
2. What are the best settings for my dSLR camera?
3. Can I take pictures of people in public?
4. Recognize Composites & Safety First
5. What’s the Best Lens for your Shot?
6. 1 / Focal Length, Shutter Speeds and Lens Choice
7. Supplement Available Outdoor Light
8. Tips for Photographing in Bright Midday Light
9. Tips for Indoor Photography
10. Your flash is probably just annoying those around you; the Inverse Square Law
11. Metering Modes: 3 ways to Measure Light & Exposure
12. Matrix Metering vs Center-weighted Metering vs Spot Metering
13. Why shoot “Under”, Shooting Underexposed
14. Why Shoot “Over”, Shooting Overexposed
15. Why Focus & Recompose isn’t the Best Choice for Portraits
16. Composition Tip: Don’t Crop at the Joints
17. 3 Tips for Shooting Subjects’ Faces
18. 2 Simple Rules for Posing Portraits
19. What is the S-Curve?
20. Smile and say Cheeeeeeeese! Getting Natural Expressions
21. Catch the Light | Identifying Catchlights
22. How to Calculate Depth of Field
23. Room Ambient Light & Photo Editing
24. Rock whatcha got: Using ACR to Fix Color Casts
25. Using Batch Editing for Fast Post Production
26. Tutorial: How to Fix an Overexposed Photo
27. Tutorial: How to Fix an Underexposed Photo
28. How to care of your jpg image files
29. Be Prepared
30. Be a Critic
31. Filling Shoeboxes – Memories not to Miss   http://my3boybarians.com/31-days-of-photo-tips/