Creative Photography

Understanding Aperture

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Regardless of whether you have a new fully digital SLR Camera, or an older traditional manual Camera, there are always 2 aspects of photography that stay constant; Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Many young photographers just getting started are shocked to think there was a time when every photo had to be manually setup, with light, location and after affect taken into account.

Today, I want to talk a little about Aperture.

Aperture refers to the amount of light that the lens lets into the Camera. Aperture works much like the human eye in many ways. In bright light, the human eye will reduce the size of the pupil, therefore letting less light into the eyes. In the dark, the pupil increases in size, allowing more light in.

Aperture is measured in f-stops, and range from 2.8 (low) up to 16 or 22 (depending on your camera / lens). For each f-stop step, the amount of light in is doubled, so f2.8 for example will let in twice as much light as f4.

The best way to learn how Aperture works is to try different settings and see how your photos turn out. This method isn’t really feasable if you have an older film camera, but if you do have a digital camera, don’t be afraid to go a bit crazy and try new things. As you will soon learn, having the correct Aperture setting is vital to getting great photos.

Here is a great 2 minute video from youtube that explains Aperture.

It is important to remember though that Aperture is only half the equation, as you also need to take into account Shutter Speed (tomorrows article).

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Tags: aperture, aperture and shutter speed, aperture setting, camera, camera aperture, camera lens, digital camera, digital slr camera, f-stop, film camera, fstop, image, lens, manual camera, photo, photography, pupil, range, Shutter, shutter remote, shutter speed, SLR, youtube

January 17th, 2008 Posted by admin | Photography Techniques | no comments

Pentax Optio v10

A slim 19mm alloy body, 8 megapixels, 3x Optical Zoom & 3.0″ LCD Screen

Option v10 At first you might think this is impossible. If that is so, Pentax have performed a miracle in their Pentax Optio v10.

Completely revolutionizing the point-and-click camera, Pentax have created a camera less than 2cm wide, which packs more punch than many of it’s competitors.

To acheive this, Pentax have re-designed the camera from the ground up, making changes to the body of the camera, right through to the inner electronics.

From Pentax: A little digital with a three inch LCD monitor
The Optio V10 is an ultra-slim compact digital camera equipped with an impressive 3.0 inch LCD monitor for enhanced usability and easy viewing. This little beauty features 8 megapixels, a 3X optical zoom, easy operations and an abundance of features in a slim, stylish, affordable body.
- Pentax.com.au

Option v10 As users have come to expect from all Pentax Cameras, quality of the end product has been carefully thought of with the creation of this Camera.