Where to Start Learning Photography? No Better Place than Home ....Beginners Basics

Hi everyone, thanks for joining us for some beginners basics in photography learning.

If you'd like to start at the very beginning go right ahead and skip back to our first week.

Continuing with Learning Aperture Priority

Last week I said we’d stick with aperture priority again this week.

I think a week probably isn't long enough to learn this setting, because I'm thinking you all work on other things, home, job and quite possibly children too, and not so much time for your photography learning.  Am I right?

But you're not getting off lightly! 

I’m setting you a task! Just a little exercise gives a little more focus me thinks :)

Take time to notice what happens when you just change your Aperture?

Take similar photos from the same position and focus point, one with an aperture of f 2.8, or the lowest aperture your lens will go to.
And another with aperture set higher, maybe f8 or f11.

See what happens to your image and what happens on your camera settings.

Worth Taking Note:  

One thing to remember ...... if you are using a zoom lens on your camera with a varying aperture ie: f 3.5 to f 5.6 it means that you won’t be able to set an aperture of lower than f 3.5 and as you extend the lens to zoom the aperture will also change. Ie: the lowest number you can set is f 3.5 and as you zoom the number will increase.  

See examples below:

I set my ISO at 1600 as I was indoors on a very dark dismal morning.

This is on my mirrorless Olympus Pen F with a 14-42mm lens which has an aperture range of f 3.5 to f 5.6  
IMAGE 1 Widest aperture on lens of F3.5
IMAGE 2 Zoomed in and aperture goes up to F5.3

You can always use a higher number Aperture than the lens gives you but not lower and then the aperture stays the same.  See images below:
Setting aperture of F8 at 14mm
Staying at F8 zoomed in

Technical or Logical or just a light bulb moment?

Now if you have a technical brain like my husband or a logical brain like my son you may well have worked out that when you change from a low number aperture to a high number aperture your camera will change the shutter speed settings to compensate for the amount of light you are letting into the camera!

However, if like me you're neither logical or technical it will take you a little longer to work it out that you have a little gauge to help you.

It was like a light bulb moment for me :)
Did I feel silly?  Nope!  We all learn differently and at a different rate!

Watch the thingamejig   

If like me you haven't noticed ...... look now.... yep you've got it that little gauge thingamejig at the bottom of the screen.

To the left of the scale there is a number.  That is your shutter speed which will be going up and down when in semi auto setting of Aperture Priority.

The scale will also tell you whether you are under or over exposed - but we'll get into that in future weeks too.

Small number = large diameter and more light - Large number = small diameter and less light

Of course, as we learnt last week the smaller the diameter of the aperture the less light can pass through your lens.  All this means is you may have to compensate by upping your ISO in order to get a brighter picture.

Another note that's worth mentioning now....... once you get to editing your pics it's much easier to recover an underexposed image than an over exposed image. :)

Exposure Tip for iPhone users

Remember last week I told you about tapping on the screen for your point of focus?  Well, you can slide your finger up and down the screen to change your exposure too.  So, no excuses.  If you have a phone you can also get a little control over its camera :)  Have a go!

Whew - all getting a bit technical now

I don't know about you but this techy stuff is giving me a little brain ache so we'll stop here for this week.

Let me know how you get on and NEVER GIVE UP because it'll be worth it in the end......

Quote of the week:

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”
— Diane Arbus

Remember, go out and enjoy, take photos of things you love and want to remember.  

Love
Jan x