I have had such fun introducing you to our new contributing bloggers this week!
Monday you met Holly, our party contributor. She shared the amazing Valentine’s Day Edible Topiary. Then on Tuesday, Kendra shared a great tutorial on how to add threaded comments to Blogger sites.
Today I get to introduce you to another friend…I adore her and I think you will too.
Meet Emilie.
Emilie is a Utah-based photographer. She’s also helped hone the skills of some of our communities finest bloggers (and at-home photographers) through her hands-on education classes. She also happens to be one of our AMAZING SNAP! speakers.
Amidst running her bustling business and raising a beautiful baby girl with her husband, Emilie shares photo tips on her site Photo by Emilie.
If the success of our 101 Must Take Photos post is any judge, you’re all avid amateur photographers hungry for tips and ideas.
So, without further ado…
How to Use Aperture and Bokeh to Create Perfect Portraits
Do you love taking photos of your kids as much as I do? Here’s a great tip to creating perfect Valentine’s Day portraits you can share with Grandma and Grandpa or just keep for yourself!
Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken. Aperture is a function of the lens. Lenses contain a diaphragm, a thin light-blocking plate or interlocking set of adjustable plates. The diaphragm contains a small hole, called the aperture.
This hole is adjustable in size and allows the photographer to determine and control the amount of light entering the camera. Below is an image of a 50mm lens with the diaphragm or aperture wide open and the aperture closed tight.
One thing that causes a lot of new photographers confusion is that large apertures (lots of light gets through) have smaller f-stop numbers. Smaller apertures (less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. Here’s a diagram to help…
So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/16. It seems the wrong way around when you first hear it but you’ll get the hang of it.
Lower f-stops (wider aperture) give a shallow depth of field (DOF), also called Bokeh. This allows you to isolate the subject from the background. Shallow focus typically is used to emphasize one part of the image over the other.
1.8f is too low. It’s difficult to get the entire face in focus. In the example below the “kiss” is in focus but the rest of her face is out of focus. In contrast 5.6f is too high. There is simply too much in focus to isolate and pop your subject.
ONLINE WORKSHOPS
SALT LAKE WORKSHOPS
Tauni Everett
Creative Director at Tauni Everett
- How to Get the Most Out of a Blogger Conference
- How to Connect with Brands on Twitter
- How to Embed an Instagram Post
- How to Manage Multiple Accounts on Instagram
- How to Manage Multiple Instagram Accounts
- How to Schedule Instagram Posts
- How to Change Fonts in WordPress
- How to Install a WordPress Pinterest Plugin
Oh my goodness, what a BEAUTIFUL baby girl!
Thank you for writing about cameras in a clear & concise way. I actually understood everything. Now, it’s time to play. My photos can use a lot of work! 🙂
Thank you, Emilie.
Thanks Catherine!!
Great explanation of aperture Emilie! Thanks for sharing.
You are so welcome. Thanks so much for the comment!!
I’m not sure I’d know how to change the aperture on my camera if my life depended on it, but I do know that is one cute baby girl! You can’t go wrong with a subject like that. Loved the SWAK on her forehead.
Gosh Thanks so much Kristin!!
Such great info and in an easy to understand format!! Here’s my question; when I practice shooting with a lower f stop on my babies (2yo & 7month old), the lens stays open longer (to bring in more light, right). Well it’s open for MUCH longer than my kiddos will hold still. So far for me, lower f stop = total blur. I love taking pics of them late in the afternoon when the colors are so vibrant. However that doesn’t seem to be a time when light is heavy enough to do this! What’s your secret!?!?! Thanks!
Hi Cara, The aperture controls the amount of “depth” blur NOT motion blur. The reason your photos are motion blurry is because of your low shutter speed. The shutter speed opens and closes an amount of time the aperture is a set opening of the lens. Here is a link to a shutter speed tutorial I wrote that I hope will help clarify.
http://photobyemilieimprove.blogspot.com/2012/02/no-more-blurry-images.html
I hope that helps!!
Emilie
Great explanation! Thank you so much. Cannot wait to try this out with my new camera!
Thanks Mindy!! Happy Snapping 🙂
Oh my! I have never been able to come up with a way to know what apeture to use when taking pictures of people. Thank you so much for your idea of match the number to the number in the picture….except for the portraits of 2.8! The angels sang when I read that.
Thank you so much for your explanation.
Thanks so much Tauni for hosting my tutorial. I hope your readers enjoyed it!! I can’t wait to share more tutorials and I REALLY can’t wait to share lots of fun info at SNAP!!
THANK YOU friend. I think that your post was great and your little model is darling!
xoxo
I had came across your blog today. Just wanted to let you know most of your images don’t show up. I visited a few times in case it was just a bandwidth thing. I can kinda follow along without the photos, but it would be nice to see your examples.
I would love to view this tutorial, but all the pictures show up as a black background with a triangle containing an exclamation point. Any idea on what’s wrong?
Jenna, the guest blogger has disabled the location she was storing her photos has been disabled. I have asked if she can send over new photos, but haven’t yet heard back. xoxo, Tauni