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  • Ap-trAhhhh-ture

  • App-errrr-ture

  • Why don't we just saycamera pupils”?

  • That's much more fun.

  • What's up, everyone?

  • Im Trisha Hershberger and in this episode of DIY in 5 we're going to teach you about

  • another of the three pillars of photography: aperture.

  • If you want to learn about the other two pillars, check out our previous video on ISO or subscribe

  • so you are one of the first to check out our next video coming up on shutter speed.

  • Aperture is just is the hole in the lens where the light travels to the camera body.

  • The best analogy is that aperture is to a camera what pupils are to our eyes.

  • The more light available, say in daylight, the smaller the pupils get.

  • The less light available, like at night, the larger the pupils become.

  • Opening and closing the aperture, or pupils, will affect how much light makes it to your camera sensor.

  • So how do we change the amount of light getting into the camera?

  • Let's talk aperture size.

  • If you've ever looked directly into a camera lens you see a spiral pattern with a hole in the middle.

  • As you change aperture settings you'll notice the hole opens at fixed points, or “f-stops”.

  • To change the aperture on your camera increase or decrease the f-stops.

  • The unique thing about f-stops is that the lower the number, the more light is let into the camera.

  • So for instance an f-stop of 2.8 actually let's in way more light than an f-stop of 8.

  • You can see this chart shows some common f-stops and how much light they let in.

  • One of the unexpected benefits of changing aperture settings is something known as depth of field.

  • You know when you look at some pictures and the subject is in focus, but the background is blurry?

  • That effect is called depth of field.

  • Depending on the effect you want you may want to change your aperture settings.

  • To have a shallow depth of field, meaning your subject is separated from your background,

  • use a lower f-stop like f2.8.

  • There is lots of photo editing software that mimics this effect but

  • nothing looks quite as good as the real deal.

  • If you want to have more of the picture in focus, use a higher f-stop like f8 or higher.

  • The last thing to keep in mind with f-stops and aperture is that not all lenses are created equal.

  • Just because you made the jump from point-and-shoot to DSLR doesn't mean your camera lens has

  • every f-stop available, especially when using zoom lenses.

  • All lenses have maximum and minimum f-stops they can achieve,

  • and generally speaking the consumer grade lenses have higher f-stop ratings than professional lenses.

  • The great thing is you can always try out new lenses before you buy them.

  • There's sites like borrowlenses.com, lensrentals.com and others where you can rent new lenses before

  • putting down hundreds or thousands of dollars on owning it yourself.

  • Now dial in the camera pupil and get to work.

  • Let us know what other photography questions you have in the comments below and be sure

  • to check out these other great photography videos.

  • My name is Trisha Hershberger and I'll see you next time with more DIY in 5.

Ap-trAhhhh-ture

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