Photography Show Offs

Usually when you're looking at a photo that has the subject in sharp focus and a blurry background or foreground, that has to do with the aperture setting. The smaller the f-stop number (the wider the aperture), the narrower the depth of field. So when you have an f-stop number of say f/2, only a small area will be in focus, as opposed to say f/16 which would probably have most everything in focus (depending on how far away things are).

You have to adjust shutterspeed etc to account for the amount of light you're letting in, but if you shoot in Aperture Priority mode then your camera should take care of that for you.

...Or maybe a course at the local community college!!!! Tried reading my cameras directions... I GOT NOTHIN'!!!! And this stuff about f/2 lmqrstuvwxyz is way over my head. "I NO SPEAKA"... Oh well, something else to learn about!!
 
Glad you said "practically", because I'm your idiot!! I have no idea what half of what you said means... I think I'll start with reading my cameras instructions!!! This goes against everything I beleive in being an engineer and all!! :D

Instructions are your friend. :gnorsi:

Usually when you're looking at a photo that has the subject in sharp focus and a blurry background or foreground, that has to do with the aperture setting. The smaller the f-stop number (the wider the aperture), the narrower the depth of field. So when you have an f-stop number of say f/2, only a small area will be in focus, as opposed to say f/16 which would probably have most everything in focus (depending on how far away things are).

You have to adjust shutterspeed etc to account for the amount of light you're letting in, but if you shoot in Aperture Priority mode then your camera should take care of that for you.

Everything he said is true.

...Or maybe a course at the local community college!!!! Tried reading my cameras directions... I GOT NOTHIN'!!!! And this stuff about f/2 lmqrstuvwxyz is way over my head. "I NO SPEAKA"... Oh well, something else to learn about!!

It's pretty simple stuff. The aperture controls how much light hits the film or digital sensor. On a manual camera the aperture can go from f/1.8 all the way to f/64, depending on the lens you have. Most mass-market zooms go from f/3.something-f/5.6 to f/22. Extremely large apertures like f/1.0 are unusual and unnecessary for most users, and you'll never see them on a zoom or telephoto lens costing under a few thou. Fixed focal length lenses like a standard 50mm lens will often have a large aperture, usually around f/1.2 to f/1.8.

The larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. An aperture of f/22 has such a large depth of field that it seems almost infinite.

Shutter speed is another animal entirely, but it's very simple. If you're photographing a NASCAR race or the Thunderbirds, you want a fast shutter speed. The max shutter speed on my camera is 1/4000th of a second and I've never needed anything faster than that. Usually the only people who do are professionals.

The combination of shutter speed and aperture give a photo a lot of its character, but there's also focal length to consider. Some people love the spaciousness of an extreme wide-angle lens for landscape photography (I do too) while others like the compression of perspective offered by a telephoto lens. I'm not a big fan of telephoto lenses and usually the maximum focal length I will use is 105 mm, which with my camera's 3/4 size sensor translates to about 150-175mm. To me it's too distorting to use as a portrait lens and I don't like to use it for anything other than what it's designed for: macro photography. I do have a 75-300mm zoom lens, but it sits in a lens case collecting dust the majority of the time. I take it out with me sometimes and occasionally I find a use for it, but if I dropped it in a lake or accidentally ran over it with my car I would not bother to replace it.

Once you have it down in your head, it's pretty simple to look at a scene and make a judgement call on aperture and shutter speed. I often use full manual settings on my camera, but I've used manual SLRs half my life. I still have my trusty Canon AE-1 from high school; it's my favorite camera of all time. I pull it out from time to time and run a roll of film through it and it always performs like a champ. It takes better pictures than my Canon EOS 350D, which is a digital SLR. I usually have my EOS on manual focus too, or if I autofocus on a scene I then switch it to manual so the camera doesn't refocus on another object while I depress the shutter release. Autofocus cameras have an EXTREMELY irritating habit of doing that.

If you're serious about learning about this, you don't need to take a class. You can join a Flickr meetup group in your area and learn from others, or just find a few books at a used bookstore. The fundamentals of photography, i.e. f/stops, shutter speed, film speed, lens focal lengths, etc., haven't changed. A book written in the 1970s will be just as accurate as one written last year when dealing with those topics, but of course it won't cover digital photography. :blush5:

One of my favorite photography books is one I found at Half Price Books; it was published in 1974. Just as relevant today as it was then.
 
If you're serious about learning about this, you don't need to take a class. You can join a Flickr meetup group in your area and learn from others, or just find a few books at a used bookstore. The fundamentals of photography, i.e. f/stops, shutter speed, film speed, lens focal lengths, etc., haven't changed. A book written in the 1970s will be just as accurate as one written last year when dealing with those topics, but of course it won't cover digital photography. :blush5:

One of my favorite photography books is one I found at Half Price Books; it was published in 1974. Just as relevant today as it was then.

Thanks... all great advice. I'll look into books, or if there is a Flickr group in my area. :)
 
...Or maybe a course at the local community college!!!! Tried reading my cameras directions... I GOT NOTHIN'!!!! And this stuff about f/2 lmqrstuvwxyz is way over my head. "I NO SPEAKA"... Oh well, something else to learn about!!
Dude, I know what you mean :D It wasn't until recently that I started to get into photography and started to understand this stuff. What helped me was And wikipedia is pretty good as well. It's basically all to do with light, and letting the right amount of light in. Once you get it, it'll all make sense :D
 
So this is my latest one. It was for a contest on another forum. The "topic" was macro.



I only have a Kodak point & shoot, but I used a magnifying glass :D
 
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