When would you want to avoid using aperture-priority mode? When you're shooting landscapes, for the most part.
So if you want to shoot using the widest aperture your lens can offer, keep the zoom at its widest possible angle. There are lenses with a fixed aperture throughout the zoom range, but they're pretty rare and expensive. Even if your lens has a maximum aperture of F2.0, you can probably only shoot at F2.0 when you're fully zoomed out. Plus, the more you zoom, the more likely it is that your aperture will get narrower. In other words, an F2.0 lens has a wider aperture than an F4.0 lens. There's one counterintuitive piece of information to keep in mind: Wider/larger apertures have low numbers, while narrower apertures have higher numbers. It's a great way to enhance portraits and details in still-life photos.Īperture settings are measured in "F-stops," and not all lenses (or sensors) are created equal. With a wider aperture, your subject will be in focus, while the background might be blurred out. The less-obvious advantage is that a wider aperture also decreases the depth of field in your shot. The obvious advantage to a wider aperture is that you can shoot decent pictures in a darker setting without a flash.
Aperture 3.5 pictures iso#
At a narrower aperture, you need to use a slower shutter speed or a higher ISO setting to get a well-exposed photo. At a wider aperture, more light hits the sensor when you use a fast shutter speed. By being the boss of the aperture, you're controlling how much light reaches the sensor while your shutter is open. Basically, aperture-priority mode tells your camera this: Do whatever automated tricks you can to make this picture look good, but don't mess around with the aperture setting I picked.Īnd that's a truly useful thing to control.