What Pros Know About APERTURE That Beginners Often Ignore

so the way that most beginners understand aperture is simply the setting on our camera that gives that blurry background aka the B and we're taught that the lower the f-stop this number right here the blurry of the background we can achieve to the point where we can just melt the background away and while it does look nice this actually creates a lot of problems one beginners are led to believe this is the only way to get blurry backgrounds two when they start shooting at these lower f- stop numbers they're struggling against the sharpest results and three lenses that don't have a minimum of f1.8 on prime lenses or f2.8 on zoom lenses are automatically terrible we got to Chuck them out to the trash can forget about them don't even buy them don't even waste your time and these issues exist because beginners are only taught the surface level of aperture but after understanding these six Concepts that I'm about to show you you will be a pro but first let's go back to the basics level one big hoe versus small hoe so aperture is the hole in your lens that controls how much light comes into the sensor the larger the hole the more light comes in the smaller the hole the less light comes in makes sense right but the numbering does get a little confusing I have here the 50 mm f1.4 when you turn your lens to f1.4 that's going to be the largest hole of this lens and when you turn your lens to F16 that's going to be the smallest hole of this lens so we kind of have a bit of an inverse going on right here right smaller the number bigger the hole bigger the number smaller the ho and aperture is a way for us to control depth now the iPhone actually does a great job illustrating this even though the blur is simulated it does a great job teaching us how changing the aperture number affects our blur pay attention as I move the slider from F4 to f1.4 the background gets blurrier and when I move over to F-16 more of that background becomes in Focus you're going to hear terms like wider aperture which means bigger hole narrow or closed down aperture smaller home and you're also going to hear terms like faster aperture and slower aperture which all means the same thing level two how to stop missing Focus so let's talk depth of Feud right and this is where most people would mess up on aperture and getting Sharp Images so you're going to hear terms like shallow depth of Feud and deep depth of Feud pulling up the chart again same thing shallow bigger hole deeper smaller hole now shallow depth of few means you have a razor thin line of plane to get your subject in focus and it took me years to understand this but I'll clear it up for you right now it's hard to visualize depth sometimes because we're looking at it from the front but when we imagine it from a top down bird side point of view that's when it's going to make more sense this Thin Line right here represents f1.8 which is fitting because it has a thin depth of Feud so when we're taking photos it's important that we stay as steady as possible if we're accidentally rocking back and forth there's a strong chance where we would still misfocus despite the camera telling us otherwise versus this thick line right here which represents f8 we have a deeper depth of Feud so even if we're accidentally swinging back and forth there's a strong chance that we would still get our subject in Focus level three how to get more blur with any lenses so most people have the basic kit lens right and they think oh I can't get blurry backgrounds with this and that's simply not true focal length can also have a lot to do with blur for example 18 mm f3.5 versus 50 mm f5.6 at 18 mm we're not getting a whole lot of blur but by zooming into 50 mm boom look at that blurry background a long telephoto lens despite it not having the lowest f- stop can still give you very blurry backgrounds for example some of these shots here are taken between 100 to 400 MM focal length varying from 4.5 to 5.6 aperture and look at the background butter but of course because the lens is so long you will need a lot of distance which brings me to level four how distance affects blur and you can also get a blurry background at 18 mm f3.5 you just simply have to get closer now certain lenses have really good close focusing capability which means how close you can get to your subject and still get Tac Sharp Images it doesn't necessarily have to be a macro lens see it doesn't matter if it's f3.5 5.6 or even f8 the background is still going to be blurry just because of how close you can get to your subject not going to be the most flattering for every single subject but knowing that knowledge now how distance effect blurs you can use it to your advantage the next time you go out and shoot level five avoiding the mistake that most beginners make and that is shooting everything wide open just because you bought a fancy f1.2 lens doesn't mean you always have to shoot at f1.2 here's an excerpt from my friend Professor Hines now's look at the difference between the 6.3 shot and the 1.8 this is why I don't shoot wide open for all of my shots because we can't tell what the hell is in the background here it's just a a big blur but in 6.3 we can actually see more of the environment so that's why you want to play with your aperture even if you have a prime lens that's 1.8 1.4 1.2 even don't use that for every photo because it doesn't always complement the entire composition the way that you think it will level six so let's talk about choosing the best aperture and the answer is there is no best aperture it just really depends on what you're going for and the conditions you're in but I can give you some key pointers for maximum blurry background obviously shoot the widest you want but if you're shooting landscape well generally f8 is going to be the safest bet you want some of that light twinkle in your photo for the night Skate City shots set it to F9 minimum your ISO at 100 and compensate with your shutter speed if you want everyone in a group photo to be in Focus but you refuse to slop down your aperture Beyond f2.8 well then back up because again distance affects the blur for more amazing photography tutorials by me you can check out this playlist right here including how to get sharper images and how to take better lowlight photos guys thank you so much for watching stick around to listen to what my sponsor Squarespace has to say Squarespace is an all- in-one platform to create beautiful websites you don't need any coding knowledge whatsoever simply just choose from their many easy to ous templates perfect for people like us who want to focus on our travels and make YouTube videos for you guys but still want a presentable website for brands that are looking to work with us whether you're building your own photography portfolio an e-commerce store or even a landing page for your business design it with Squarespace get a 14-day trial with my link below and try it for yourself when 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Channel: Jason Vong

Views: 423,488

Keywords: jason vong, sony alpha, photography, cameras, camera lens, digital camera, potatojet, gene nagata, jason vuong, jason wong, videography, filmmaking, travel, digital nomad, aperture, pros vs beginners, photography for beginners, photography tips, f stops explained, depth of field

Id: 1LWI7VyBW80

Length: 7min 8sec (428 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2023