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Monday, January 31, 2011

On Aperture


Went on a field trip to learn about aperture. Shot all these in A (aperture-priority) mode. I was so excited - bokeh! Oh my gosh, my little p&s camera was such a struggle to get any kind of bokeh - but today - NICE! Such a treat to be learning all this from Kat. Loving her e-class. Below is a pretty good example of the differences in aperture and how it dramatically changes the feel of the photo.



f/5.8, 62mm, ISO 200, exposure -1



f/8, 62mm, ISO 200, exposure -1



f/20, 62mm, ISO 200, exposure -1



f/25, 62mm, ISO200, exposure -1

I find that I prefer the short DoF photos - because I love bokeh and the blurry backgrounds. I also tend to like to take more focused close up shots on my subjects. But there are many applications for wanting the background to also be in focus. It was interesting to see how the as the entire picture comes into focus using f/25, how my subject of the grasses was lost and the houses across the lake became so much clearer. My camera goes from 3.5 @ 18mm to 5.6 @ 105mm. The aperture changing system on my Nikon D90 was a little troubling for me to work. I had to push the shutter-release button half way and hold with my pointer finger, then dial in my aperture setting with the middle finger of the same hand. I found I would take a scad of unwanted photos while trying to dial and hold at half on the button. *click, *click, *click - drat! Good thing I wasn't using film. Will take a little practice. UPDATE: OK, learned that I don't have to push 1/2 way on the shutter button - I only have to dial. Soooo much easier. I really couldn't understand why they had made that so difficult - but wasn't the case afterall - quite easy. Learning....


Overall - awesome day. Learning so much and feeling more confident.


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5 comments:

  1. ginaJanuary 31, 2011 at 7:40 PM

    I learned a lot from this post -- thanks so much for sharing those photos and info! Isn't it fun to be learning how to really use our cameras?

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  2. Kat SlomaFebruary 1, 2011 at 1:39 AM

    Yay! You picked a great image for aperture because of the distance between your subject and background - thanks for posting the various images and the settings. Isn't Aperture fun?? I had no idea about the Nikon system for Aperture Priority - yikes! :) Thanks for sharing that as well.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2011 at 8:20 AM

    This is awesome, Marji! It's a great way to teach about camera settings - a friend of mine is always looking to get me to explain depth of field, shutter speed, etc. I will point her to your site as your info is easy to grasp and understand. You're amazing, but you already know that ;D

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  4. Dizzy DressFebruary 1, 2011 at 2:48 PM

    Great post! Thank you for the fabulous examples. It's so interesting to learn from everyone's work.

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  5. jj_momFebruary 6, 2011 at 10:25 AM

    After a few minutes of inactivity, Nikon disables adjustment dial. I suspect that it is a battery saving thing. Touching the shutter half way will re-activate the dial.

    love that first photo.

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