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Aperture

 What is Aperture?

Aperture controls the amount of light that enters a camera lens as well as the depth of field. The factors that affect the aperture include the f-stop, focal length and focal distance. When using a higher f-stop, the lens will become narrower therefore, letting less light in this will create a deeper depth of field allowing more of the shot to be in focus. When using a lower aperture the camera lens will become wider therefore, letting more light enter the lens creating a shallower depth of field, this means that the foreground of the shot will be in focus whereas the background will be blurred. Low apertures such as f/2.8 are used for things such as close-ups which don't require a narrow depth of field. Apertures of around f/8 are used for mid shots and wide shot whereas apertures such as f/16 or higher are used for shots such as establishing shots as they allow you to capture  large amount of your scene in focus (Mansurov).

Factors that Affect Depth of Field

F-Stop

This is the setting which you physically change on your camera in order to alter the depth of field. When using a lower f-stop such as f/2.8, the lens becomes wider allowing more light to hit the sensor, this in turn makes the depth of field shallower meaning that the foreground in the shot will be in focus however, the background will be out of focus. Using a higher aperture such as f/16 will make the lens become narrower allowing less light to hit the sensors, this in turn will make the depth of field deeper allowing both foreground and background to be in focus (Wunderlich).

Focal Length

The focal length of a lens measures the distance between the optical centre of lens and the cameras sensor in millimetres. Some lenses allow you to change the focal length, these are called zoom lenses other have a distinctive focal length. Increasing the focal length will create a shallower depth of field. The angle of view of a lens describes how much of your scene your lens will capture. The longer the focal length of a lens, the narrower its angle of view will be, in turn the subject appears larger. When using a lens with a shorter focal length the angle of view becomes wider therefore, making the subject in the shot look smaller (Elizabeth).

Focal Distance

The focal distance is the physical distance between the subject and the camera the closer the subject is to the camera the shallower the depth of field will become. When there is some distance between the subject and the camera the depth of field becomes deeper allowing for more of the shot to be in focus.

My Example of Aperture


In my example of aperture I have shown what sort of shot type would be used for each aperture. For an aperture of f/2.8, I have used a close up, this is because a small aperture like this will only capture details which are close to the camera therefore, for close-ups where you are trying to capture emotion a small aperture is best as it allows the audience to focus on the face as the background is completely blurred. For f/8 I have captured a mid shot, this is because with this aperture you can capture some details in the background as long as they aren't to far away. as you can see some of the leaves in the back are blurred however the leaves closest to the subject are in focus. When using an aperture of f/16 I have shot another mid shot, I believe here it would have been best to shoot a shot of a landscape or a cityscape instead as it would show you how much exactly you can capture in focus using a high aperture.

References

Mansurov, N., 2020. What is Aperture in Photography (Online)
Available at : https://photographylife.com/what-is-aperture-in-photography 
Elizabeth, 2019. What is focal Length in Photography (Online)
Available at : https://photographylife.com/what-is-focal-length-in-photography
Wunderlich, B., Understanding Depth of Field for Beginners (Online)
Available at : https://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-depth-field-beginners/

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