Here are the results from my recent studio shoot exploring the use of aperture to create different effects.
Here is a diagram to remind you of the effects that aperture creates:
In this shoot, we chose to show the results of using different apertures to take the same images:
Here is an image taken with an aperture of f5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/4″ – you can see this because of the nature of the radial focus – only the focal point of the image is clear whilst the rest is slightly blurry.Here is an image taken with an aperture of f16 and a shutter speed of 4″ – you can see this because although the image is not fully clear, there is more clarity than the previous image. Also, the image is slightly lighter which is due to the camera’s automatic shutter speed setting adjusting the shutter speed with the aperture to ensure that, as the hole is now smaller in size, the same amount of light will still be let in (requiring a longer shutter).Here is an image taken with an aperture of f36 and a shutter speed of 20″ – you can see this because although the image is now crisp and clear, with almost full focus.
The following images are in the same order of aperture (f5.6, f16, f36), but in these, the objects were arranged moving away from the camera, in order to show the clarity in aperture levels. This is drawing on the idea of lining up 22 eggs away from the camera, and by increasing aperture from lowest to highest, seeing an increase in the number of eggs that are in focus. Here we of course didn’t use eggs but instead the objects we were already photographing. You can see this effect was achieved as in the first image (with a low aperture) a low number of the objects are in focus, but in the final image (with a high aperture) all the objects are in focus.
When I first opened Lightroom Classic, I created a collection to put my photos inside. I made a sub-folder for the photographs we had taken in the studio, and began the process of editing.
Using the picker tool, I selected my best images that would be eligible for editing, ones with the least blurring, highest resolution, and good framing. The rest would be discarded as the set was obstructed by either someone else or the shutter when the shutter speed was set too high.
this is annoying
The photographs with the white flag in the top left were the ones that were kept, whilst the ones with the black flag were discarded.
I gave each image a star rating (/5) and colour-coded them based on how usable they were (red = unusable, yellow = could use, green = usable)
These were the photos I was left with. My plan was to then experiment with editing to give them more colour and detail.
These were the three edited images I was left with. I increased the vibrance in each one to bring out the blue hue of the background, and messed mainly with the exposures and contrasts to create three similar pieces that could work as a tryptic.
During my GCSE’s I used Lightroom for my photography, so I’m familiar with the tools and layout of Lightroom Classic.
Aperture is the opening of the lens through which light passes to enter the camera, aperture can also be described as the adjustable lens opening that controls the amount of light allowed in the camera
Aperture affects the lighting in your picture. The larger the hole in the lens is, the brighter the image will be. While the smaller the hole, the darker the picture will be since it doesn’t let as much light in.
Aperture also affects depth of field. It affects how far the image is focused. For example, the image could be focused solely on the centre of the image or it could be focused on the whole image.
You are able to adjust aperture settings on your camera by turning the dial to the small ‘A’, then spinning the small wheel at the front of the camera.
Aperture experiments
This image has a low aperture since less light is showing through the image.
Meanwhile this image has higher aperture since more light is shown in the image.
Shutter speed is the speed the cameras shutter closes, the faster the shutters closes the less light exposer and the slower the shutters closes the more light exposer.
Aperture can be defined as the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the camera. It is expressed in f-numbers like f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8 and so on to express the size of the lens opening, which can be controlled through the lens or the camera.
The aperture seems to be affecting the background and the focus. This leads to depth of field…
Depth of field
Depth of field is how much of your image is in focus. In more technical terms, depth of field is the distance in an image where objects appear “acceptably in focus” or have a level of “acceptable sharpness.”
two different photos of some purple flowers shot with different apertures, the left with an aperture of f/2 and the right with an aperture of f/22
These are the photos i took myself experimenting with aperture.
Baldessari was an American conceptual artist, he lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice California. Baldessari’s unique ideas gave him the nickname ‘the father of conceptual art.
Shutter Speed
Shutter Speed is the speed on which the camera’s shutter closes, a fast shutter means the photo is more focused and has a shorter exposure a shorter shutter means the photo has a longer exposure and is more blurry.
Shutter speed is the speed at which the shutter of the camera closes…. A fast shutter speed creates a shorter exposure the amount of light the camera takes in and a slow shutter speed gives the photographer a longer exposure. Here is a image I’ve found to describe shutter speed visually:
John Baldessari
To test shutter speed we used John Baldessari as inspiration. He showed how shutter speed makes a difference by throwing balls into the sky and trying to capture them in a certain position; for example:
We then used this as a ‘template’ and tried to experiment with shutter speed our selves, we did this two ways. The first way was like the image above (throwing balls into the air and photographing them). The second way was having someone fighting the camera to capture and show the blur or sharpness, this task is to show our undertanding of both sides of the scale.
My pictures:
This is my favourite image we captured using the balls as they are almost align and it shows the still and sharpness of the balls because the shutter speed was fast to create a short exposure.
This is also another sharp image however not as focused as the other one.
This shows more of a blur as we changed the shutter speed to around 1/60 or 1/30 so we were now trying to experiment more with the longer exposure.
Shutter speed affects an image as it controls how much light the camera takes in. A fast shutter speed will let less light in meaning the image will be sharper as it isn’t over exposed. If the shutter speed is slow it will let more light in to the camera making the image blurry and over exposed.
John Baldessari
Photo games
in lesson time we played photo games to try using different shutter speeds. we would throw 3 balls in the air and try to capture them in line, we did this by making the shutter speed faster. Here is my attempt
The last picture was my best attempt as it captures the balls nearly perfectly alligned.
We also played a game using slow shutter speed to try capture action shots. one person would pretend to box the camera while the photographer tries to capture shots.
The aperture is a hole located in the camera’s lens that decides how much light is let into the picture, thus controlling the exposure of the outcome. Photographers can manually control the aperture by switching to ‘A’ or ‘AV’ mode and then changing the f/number using the dial on their camera. The lower the f-number, the bigger the hole, meaning it lets more light into the picture and it is a larger aperture. A very large aperture (such as f/2.8) can result in an overexposed image. On the other hand, the higher the f-number, the smaller the hole, meaning less light is let into the photo and the aperture is lower. A very low aperture (for example f/22) can result in an underexposed image.
Aperture also effects the Depth of Field (DoF). A lower aperture (for example f/16) would create a deeper DoF which causes the background to not be blurry. A larger aperture (such as f/4) would cause the DoF to be shallower and result in a blurry background.
Experimenting with Aperture
A photo from my studio photoshoot.
Throughout my photoshoot, I played around with the dial, trying out different apertures. This image was the result of a f/22 aperture, causing the image to be extremely underexposed. Barely any light was let into this picture, causing it to be very dark, despite having two lamps set up.
A photo from my studio photoshoot.
Furthermore, I also tried make the aperture larger and make it f/4, which isn’t the lowest f/number I could make it but still caused the image to be much brighter than the other ones I took as the hole is much bigger. I wouldn’t call this image overexposed however the exposure of it is quite high, causing it to look very white and bright.
A photo from my studio photoshoot.
This is a picture with an aperture of f/8, resulting in neither an overexposed nor underexposed image. The lens brought enough light in to clearly show the colours and the details of still life in the middle.
I decided this was a perfect aperture to work with as it captured the still life with the colourful lighting illuminated it the best, therefore that was the aperture for most of my images.
A photo from my beach photoshoot.
As aperture also effects the DoF, I used a larger aperture to take this image, causing the background to become very blurry and therefore only the object to be in focus as the DoF was shallower.
A photo from my beach photoshoot.
For this picture, I used a smaller aperture as I wanted everything to be in focus. The object is still slightly more in focus however the DoF is still clearly quite deep. I don’t think a deeper DoF was as effective for this photoshoot, as I prefer the look of a blurry background and sharp foreground/ midground.
I used a variety of different apertures for the section of the photoshoot that I took on the beach, experimenting with shallow and deep DoFs.
My Still Life Photoshoot(s)
Beach Photoshoot:
Studio Photoshoot:
My Edits (Using Lightroom):
All of these images were edited in the ‘develop’ section in Lightroom. After I finished, I put them into the ‘before and after’ layout to clearly show the improvements I made.
