so, im fairly new to photography and i was jus wondering if anyone had some sites that explained what aperature does.. ive played with my cam and tested it out, but still confuses me as to how its used...

?

Aperture is a setting for the amount of light that your lens lets into the camera. The higher the number the more ligh let in, the lower the number the less light.

Because it affects how much light enters the camera, the aperture also affects your shutter speed. The higher the aperture (F2.8) the faster the shutter speed can be, the lower the aperture number (F32) the slower the shutter speed.

Aperture also affects depth of field. Depth of field is the distance in front of and behind the area that you have focused on that is actually in focus. The higher the aperture (F2.8) the shallower the depth of field. The higher the aperture of F-stop (F32) the more depth of field you will get. For example if you are taking a shot at F2.8 of a plam and volcano in the background then the plam will be in focus and the volcano very blurry. If you set the camera to F32 for example then you will be able to get the palm and the volcano in sharp focus. Now F32 may let so little light into the camera that the camera will need to be mounted on a tripod to keep it still enough because you will need a longer shutter speed.

The affects of adjusting aperture will be more noticeable at medium to telephoto zoom lengths than wide angle ones. So if you want to test it, set the zoom to telephoto.

wow, that was a blast of info... thanks alot... great overview of how it works and how to work with it.

i didnt know depth of field was controlled through aperature.

if i had a moving object, how would i capture that moving object without the parts in motion being blurred?... i tend to take alot of moving photos.

thanks alot freakyclean.

=)

sorry i dont know what telephoto is?... im using olympus c8080 widezoom.

To get pics of moving objects with no blur you need to have fast shutter speed so in most instances a higher aperture. The speed of the shutter will depend on the speed of the object, but i can pretty much garauntee that 1/60 sec is too slow unless you are tracking your oject as you shoot it (then the background is blurry - can be a cool effect but is hard to master). I would think that 1/250 sec+ shutter speeds are a good place to start. Using a flash will also 'freeze' an object. A higher ISO setting or film is helpful as well (400+)

sorry i dont know what telephoto is?... im using olympus c8080 widezoom.


Telephoto would be the zoom end of the wide/zoom

thanks alot guys.. ive fairly got the hang of it... ill go ahead and give it a test.

again, thanks for all the time and typing.