basic photography - shutter speed and aperture

[hilal]

the initial things that i learned about photography were shutter speed and aperture. so, what are actually those two stuffs?

well, shutter speed is the period of shutter opening to allow lights come into the camera's brain, the sensor. the longer shutter opens (lower shutter speed) means more lights will come in thus making the image brighter. but keep in mind, with lower shutter speed, pictures are prone to be blur. this is because our hand cannot be hold static for a long time. however this problem can be solved by using a tripod or higher ISO. yes.. Image Stabilizer will also help but still cannot solve for a very long exposure @ slow shutter speed.

eg: slow shutter speed = 1/30 and below, fast shutter speed = 1/250 and above

an example shot with faster shutter speed [1/8]

an example shot with slower shutter speed [1/5]

so i guess that's it for a brief explaination about shutter speed.. n how about aperture?

aperture is how large the diagphram opens to allow the lights come into the sensor.. so, what's the effect of aperture to our pictures? well.. aperture brings huge difference in producing shots for those who know how to control it and those who don't. large aperture will make the object that u focus on clear while the background will be blur. whereas using small aperture will make everythings clear (the object and background). so, where and under what circumstances are suitable in using large and small aperture? we usually use large aperture for portraits, macro and when we want to emphasize the object. in another way, we normally use small aperture to capture shots of scenery.

REMEMBER! large aperture = small aperture number on your camera.

eg: F/3.5 = large aperture, F/8 = small aperture

an example shot with higher aperture [F/3.5]

an example shot with lower aperture [F/8]

other than blurring the background, larger aperture will also make the image brighter because of larger opening of the diaphragm thus we can make use of faster shutter speed. that means, picture won't easily to be blur.

whereas, by using smaller aperture, image will be darker, so we need to use slower shutter speed to balance the picture exposure. when using slow shutter speed, that means, pictures are prone to be blur thus need extra caution when taking pics. or using a tripod will be better!
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[msafiedin]

good info hilal
thanks
simple the better explaination i guess

 

[sonictheory]

good 1 hilal...i think this just basic, but is a good beginning, maybe in future got more info can put it in also...

 

[hilal]

thanks guys, thanks for reading!

yeah sure.. will share with u guys everything i know about photography.. :_:

any questions or critiques on my articles are most welcomed!

 

[ivan_cyc]

any photography club here? so we can share out photo to learn by mistake :P

 

[satria_95]

I'll add some stuff based on my knowledge on photograpy.

If you would like to blur the background even more, set your aperture to a small f-number, maybe f3.5 or f2.8 if you have. Then, stand at a further distance to the subject. Then, zoom in to the subject. Depending on your camera / lens, when you zoom in, the aperture may change as well. This will be done automatically by the camera according to it's capability. You can tell this by looking at your lens specs.

For example, 18mm - 70mm, f3.5 - 4.5
This basically mean that at 18mm, the smallest f-number you can get is f3.5. The more you zoom, the larger the f-number will increase. Here's an example.

I shot this image at f4.5 with a focal length of 70mm. The lens that I used is the Nikon kit lens, 18-70 f3.5-4.5. It was good enough for me to blur out the background and keep the foreground subject in focus. If I were to have shot this at 18mm, the background wouldn't have been so blur. Give it a try and see.

p/s: apologize for the flower not being so sharp. fotopic website has a tendency to compress the photo a lot and it tend to lose out on the quality.

 

[ivan_cyc]

hi there satria_95 do u join any photography club?

 

[ivan_cyc]

hi there satria_95 do u join any photography club?

 

[satria_95]

ivan_cyc,
No dude, I didn't join any photography club. hehehe What bout your kindself?

 

[ivan_cyc]

i didnt join any photography club. do u know any of them?ＨＥＨＥＨＥ！～　ｕ　ｄｒｉｖｅ　Ｓａｔｒｉａ？

 

[satria_95]

I used to be active with a group of photographers from a local photography forum. Then, slowly, we became inactive already.

 

[sonictheory]

satria_95, or any expect can help me out?

im going to photoshoot a car gathering pic, which under the hot sun, wat aperture and shutter speed should i use?.. if cloudy day what to use also...

 

[vladimir]

use P ( PROGRAMME ) mode for safe reason :D

 

[satria_95]

sonictheory,
I won't actually be sure unless I'm there myself la. hahaha But basically, what I'd do would be (if there is bright light), maybe you can use aperture f8 and above. Set the aperture first, then look at the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is too low, then set the aperture to, maybe, f4.5 or something. It'd be better if you could use shutter speed of 1/200 or more. The faster the shutter speed, the better. This ensures sharper images.

If you want to play around with depth of field, then maybe you could use a larger aperture (large aperture = small f-number. and I always forget this haha). If you want a photo that's sharp all over, then a smaller aperture would be a good move. Try to stick to the max f-stop of f16 because I kinda notice (for me, that is) that anything more than that won't be all that sharp.

Good luck. hehe

 

[sonictheory]

ok thx bro, will try this trick, hopefully will get atleast some improvement lah....