We're up and running! Week 1

Hi ladies! I am so excited to do this. These lessons that Amy sent me back when I first got my camera helped so much. I'm thinking that I wll post a lesson each week and when everyone completes them you can send me your photos and I will post at the end of the week right before we start another lesson. How does that sound?
If you have flickr or use another photo-sharing website, leave a comment with a link to you photo(s) or you can just e-mail them to me and I can post throught my own flickr. I'm totally open to other suggestions too!


All of the lessons can be found here in PDF form: http://sites.google.com/site/biowbiow002/twopeas_12week

I'm just going to copy and paste...

And now here is lesson 1: Aperture

One of the most necessary but often times least understood parts of photography is Aperture. The size of the aperture, or f/stop, of a lens determines how much of your photograph is infocus. Generally, when you hear someone talk about f/stop, they are referring to aperture -- the terms are often used interchangeably. The f/stop on a lens can go from 1.2 to 22 or sometimes higher. (It’s not really important to this class for you to understand the mathmatical basis for these numbers, but instead to understand what they mean to your photography.)F/stops can be confusing at first. The f/stop numbers refer to how open or closed the aperture on the lens is. The wider the opening of the lens, the greater the amount of light that enters your camera at one time – which means that when your aperture is wide open your focus will be shallower and fewer things in your photo will be in focus. The smaller the opening on the lens, the smaller the amount of light that is allowed to enter your camera at one time – which means your focus is deeper and more of your photo will be in focus.The confusion for most people arrives when you try and put the f/stop number with these scenarios. In terms of aperture openings, f/1.4 would be a wide-open aperture on most high-end lenses, whereas f/22 would be a virtually closed aperture.Basically, when you use a low f/stop, less of your photo will be in focus. When you use a higher f/stop, MORE of your photo will be in focus.

Challenge:

set the camera on aperture priority (A or A/V mode). find a fixed object set away from a backdrop and take the same photo 3x.

photo1: choose the lowest fstop your camera allows (f1.8 with most fixed primes. f3.5 for most kit lenses. may vary depending on your lens). compose and focus on your object.


photo2: take the same photo, but select f/8. compose and refocus on the same point of your object.

photo3: choose the highest fstop your camera allows (usually f22). compose and refocus on the same point of your object.