The second part of basic of digital photography focus on shutter speed and aperture. This two are the main components of the exposure. ISO is the third one.
Let’s start with shutter speed. As I said in the previous blog (see here) shutter speed is the speed as the lens opens and closes. The fastest, the less light enters; the slowest, more light enters. A good rule of thumb is to never use a speed slower than 1/80 (only the second number is written in the small screen of your camera) per second if your camera is not in a tripod. Slower than that the picture would be blurry just because you can’t stay still enough. You can be as fast as you want.
Consider what you are taking pictures of. If you are taking pictures at a soccer game, you will need a fast shutter speed so the players will be sharp on the pictures. If you are taking pictures of a landscape you can use a slower shutter speed as nothing is moving.
Aperture is how big the lens opens. The number that represent aperture are called f-stop. Full f-stop are f/1.4 | f/2 | f/2.8 | f/4 | f/5.6 | f/8 | f/11| f/16| f/22. Aperture is one component of the exposure but also creates the depth of field of your picture. f/1.4 is the widest opening, you use it when it’s dark and/or when you want to create a small depth of field. F/22 is the smallest opening and create a large depth of field, almost everything is sharp in the picture.
The first picture shows a small depth of field. You can see how the plant is sharp but everything in the background is blurry. This effect is used a lot in photography to show emphasizes on the sharpest part.
My setting were aperture f/2.0, shutter speed 1/400, ISO 200
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In this picture the depth of field is larger. Because I modified the aperture I had to compensate with the shutter speed in order to keep my exposure correct. My settings were Aperture f/6.3, Shutter speed 1/80, ISO 200..jpg)
When you have a wide aperture it is very important to decide where you want to put your focal point. By rule of thumb, you always focus in the eye that is the closest to the lens.
As usual it’s my way to teach basic of digital photography. I don’t pretend to have is all right and I just want to help people who just bought a digital camera and don’t know how to start.