pixelens photography

DPS Assignment : Wide Open

Over at the Digital Photography School Forums they have a new assignment every couple of weeks. The latest assignment is “Wide Open”.

This weeks assignment is “wide open”. This may have a few people asking what exactly shooting wide open is. Basically it refers to the size of the opening in your lens to let light pass through. The smaller the f-stop the larger the opening. For example, if your lens is the standard 18-55mm kit lens it probably has options of f3.5 to f5.6. The f3.5 is a larger opening than the f5.6. So for this assignment we are trying for smaller numbers to have a wider opening.

A great intro for this is in the blog: http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture/

This was my submission, shot with my 50mm lens at f/1.8.

Tags: 50mm, aperture, assignment, cemetery, digital photography school, DPS, grave

“What the Heck is an Aperture?” Part One.

Very easy to understand explanation of what aperture is and how it affects your photos over on the Pioneer Woman Photography blog. In a nutshell:

If you want a very shallow depth of field (background blurry), you’d choose a very large aperture opening, which would be a very low number. (f2.8)

If you want a very large depth of field (everything in focus), you’d choose a very small aperture opening, which would be a higher number. (like f22)

Be sure to check out the full “What the Heck is an Aperture?” Part One. post!

Also, the Digital Photography School Forum latest assignment is Wide Open - so submit your pictures taken with a wide open aperture! Below is one of my past favorites that I’ve taken with a shallow depth of field, it was taken at a setting of f/1.2.

Tags: aperture, DPS, pioneer woman photography, Tips