Aperture and its Role in Taking Great Photos
Sunday, April 13, 2008 @ 05:44
Aperture is the degree the diaphragm inside the lens of your camera is opened when a photo is taken. The degree to which the diaphragm is opened can be important because it allows some control over how much light is entering the lens, and that control allows the photographer to achieve various effects with his photos.
If you have a slow shutter speed, but are using a high-speed film, setting the correct aperture will be important in preventing too much light from striking the film, and over-exposing it. It will also be vital in allowing you to control the sharpness of your subject, which will lead to your being able to take far more aesthetically pleasing photos.
Of course, different lenses will have different maximum aperture openings. For example, a 100mm lens might have a maximum aperture opening of f/2, with the f-number being the lens length (100mm) divided by the diameter of the aperture opening. So f/2 would mean 100mm/2 or a 50mm opening. In this case, your depth of field would be quite shallow and only the object on which you were focused would come out sharp. This is why professional photographers have a variety of lenses in their camera bags. But even the amateur with only a few lenses can still achieve stunning results with their photos by simply learning to manipulate the variables under his control to compensate for those things he cannot change. Aperture is just one of those variables that give the photographer a wide range of control over the effects he can achieve with his photos.
