What aperture to use?

[and_camacho]

<p>what aperture to use when shooting at 1/60 and below? Im currently shooting a roll of film for my photo class. We are supposed to shoot some motion pictures, and for part of it, I have to shoot some blur,stop, and panning pictures. My professor told me the Shutter Speeds but not what apertures to use. I Currently own a Canon AE-1. Thank you!</p>

[ljwest]

<p>The aperture to use will, of course, depend on the lighting conditions. If your camera is a shutter-speed priority (you set the shutter speed, the camera sets the aperture), then you set the shutter speed to 1/60th or slower (1/30th, 1/15th, etc.), and the camera will set the aperture (or try to, up to the limits of your equipment). If your camera is aperture priority, where the camera sets the shutter speed while you set the aperture, then you watch the meter to see that the shutter speed it selects is 1/60th or slower, as you adjust the aperture. If you are making the settings manually, then you set the shutter speed to 1/60th or slower, and then adjust the aperture until the meter indicates correct exposure.</p>

<p>One other factor will be the ISO rating of the film. "Fast" film (400, 800, etc.) may cause you some difficulty in bright conditions, as the smallest aperture your camera can offer may not be small enough for a "proper" exposure at 1/60 or slower. But neutral density filters can help with that.</p>

<p>I hope this helps somewhat!</p>

[and_camacho]

<p>Im using 125 Film. " If you are making the settings manually, then you set the shutter speed to 1/60th or slower, and then adjust the aperture until the meter indicates correct exposure". This is the situation im in. Now, set the shutter speed to the one i want and then how would i adjust my aperture? What aperture am i aiming for? Since when i look inside my camera, theres a needle that tells that moves up and down. Am i aiming for the needle to be in the middle?</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>The AE 1 will automatically set the aperture if you set the shutter speed.</p>

[and_camacho]

<p>How? Wouldnt i have to manually move the dial of the aperture?</p>

[phule]

<p>[[How? Wouldnt i have to manually move the dial of the aperture?]]</p>

<p>The lens must be set to "A." That's the whole point of the AE-1. In shutter-priority mode, you set the shutter speed, the camera sets the aperture. </p>

 

[and_camacho]

<p>OMG! So thats what thats for!!! Thank youuuuuuu so much! Im sorry. Im new at at these things. Thank you guys so much.</p>

[Jeff Lear]

<p>First of all, I'm sure your professor left the aperture setting vague because he or she wanted you to think about how aperture would affect the image at a given shutter speed, not so you could go on the interwebs and ask a bunch of nerds (like me) how to complete your assignment. I'm all for resourcefulness and using what you have at your disposal to learn but this question really should be posed to your professor, he or she needs to know that you aren't grasping the concept which may be because you weren't paying attention or because they failed to properly convey the principles of reciprocity.<br /><br />IMO, setting your AE-1 to shutter priority is a bit of a cop-out. I think the purpose of the assignment is to get <em>you</em> to think about this, not your camera.<br /><br />It may not be obvious right now, but the aperture you use (based on a predetermined shutter speed) will vary based on the amount of light available. If you are shooting outside on a sunny day using ASA125 film and a shutter speed of 1/60th then an aperture of f/22 is going to result in a correct-ish exposure. Reciprocity says that if you reduce your shutter speed to 1/30th of a second (exactly half of 1/60th of a second) then in order to maintain the same exposure you would need to reduce the amount of light reaching the film by half, the only way to do this (in the scope of your assignment) is to reduce the aperture by exactly half to compensate for the slower shutter speed, which would be f/32. Changes in aperture and shutter speed, if done systematically, will result in the same exposure but vastly different photographs. Slow shutter speeds will cause objects in motion to be blurred faster shutter speeds will freeze moving objects. Large apertures (small f-numbers) will result in shallow depth of field (e.g. the background will be out of focus) while smaller apertures (large f-numbers) will result in virtually infinite depth of field (the entire scene is in sharp focus).</p>

[and_camacho]

<p>I did my Shallow/infinite depth of field manually. I was just having trouble figuring out about what aperture to use in the case of taking pictures of motion. i only needed a few motion pictures, but needed about a roll of shallow/infinite depth of field. Thank you for sharing some pointers on differences between shutter speeds.</p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>Are you taking this class because you have to or because you want to? If you're just trying to get through the class then okay. I fully admit to only reading the Cliff Notes version of anything Shakespeare. If you're taking this class to learn for yourself then you clearly aren't learning the very basic concept of ISO / shutter speed / aperture. You're not going to go very far if you don't get those fundamentals. Tell your professor you don't understand the basics and ask for help.</p>

[johnw63]

<p>"I was just having trouble figuring out about what aperture to use in the case of taking pictures of motion. i only needed a few motion pictures,..."</p>

<p>The relationship between aperture and shutter speed does not change, when you want to have blur in your photos. When one goes up the other must go down, if you want to keep the same exposure. The better question is just what exposure do YOU want ? The math will give you a lot of choices to get the same amount of light on the film ( or sensor ). As mentioned, you REALLY need to learn this concept.</p>

<p>As far as motion shots go, you need to know how MUCH motion you want to show. How fast is the object moving ? Are you panning with it ? Do you want any moving parts on the subject to look like they are moving or frozen ? There is no ONE shutter speed and aperture for this. How bright is it ? How dark do you want the picture to end up being ? You don't NEED to go by what the camera's meter is telling you.</p>

<p>Here is an example:</p>

<p><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/15721552-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="293" /></p>

<p>How fast I set my shutter for THIS shot would not be the same for slower moving subjects. In some cases, you may NOT want parts of the subject to look blurred, but I did want the wheels to be spinning, so that effected my choice. </p>

[and_camacho]

<p>I'm taking this class because i need it for Graphic Design. Only reason I asked here was because i was desperate to get the few pictures i needed to develop tomorrow and didn't feel like waiting for tomorrow when i actually see my professor. I basically went ahead of myself and the rest of the class. I felt like the sooner i tried and showed my professor, the more time I would have to re-shoot and mess around with it. But i do get where your coming from, and i assure you i'm really trying to get good at this so it can help me in the future.</p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>Don't mind the grumpy folks around here, And. There really is a lot of help on this site if you get past some of that. Once you've figured out the relationship between aperture and shutter speed it all falls into place. But it does take some concentration to get it sorted out, and I think its good to be out front of your class working on it. The exercise you are going through of shooting motion is a good one to have to come to grips with not just the relationship of shutter and aperture (one goes up as the other goes down); but the impact on a photo setup. John's photo above is a good one to show motion-blur; and it points out the value of concentrating on the impact of shutter speed. He slowed down his shutter speed to get a longer exposure so he could pan for the shot, and that would automatically increase the aperture, which would have increased the depth of field although that is only marginally important in a pan shot like this. If he had wanted to freeze the car on the track he would have increased shutter speed, probably a lot, which would automatically decrease the aperture and as a result decrease the depth of field. A decreased depth of field would make a difference on that shot in that he would need to make sure the narrower DOF is focused exactly on the car, as much of the foreground and background might be out of focus.</p>

[waltflanagan]

<p>I'm not trying to be rude or grumpy. I don't know how far into your course you are but the concepts of shutter speed and aperture should have been handled in the first week. Also, I don't know how you have been able to do much without knowing how the light meter in the camera works.</p>

<p>This link has PDF versions of the Canon AE-1 manual. I'm assuming you bought the camera used and didn't get a manual.<br>

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/canon/canon_ae-1/canon_ae-1.htm</p>

<p>This link explains proper exposure, shutter speed, and aperture, as filling a bucket with a garden hose. <br>

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/digital-photography-exposure-for-dummies-cheat-she.html</p>

[johnw63]

<p>And,</p>

<p>I think a good understanding of photography concepts is going to be very helpful, in graphic design. Once you understand this stuff, you will see it in other places. </p>

<p>Here is the thoughts I needed to go through, for the above shot. </p>

<p>1) I needed the shot to be exposed properly, so that dictated a given set of apertures and shutter speeds. So, which one of those combinations should I use ? </p>

<p>2) I knew from past efforts, that if I am going to pan with race cars, and I want the background to get blurred, the shutter speed should be around 125th of a second. This does vary with the speed I am panning. Looking at the streaks in the background, it looks like 125th was about right. If the car was in a slow turn, I may have needed to go slower. Down to maybe 1/60th of a second to get the same effect. There were times where I was trying the same thing on a fast section of the race track, and I could have used a faster shutter to get the same blur, but the faster the car, the harder it is to pan steady. None of those came out sharp because I did not pan smooth, and probably pressed the shutter too firmly. My motion made the shot look out of focus. </p>

<p>3) How will the aperture the camera suggested effect my shot ? Since I was shooting in manual mode, it was ME that picked the aperture. I set it for f16. It was a bright day and even at ISO 100 I had to close the lens down to f16 to get the exposure I wanted. F16 also helps give a deeper range of focus, which could only help with the cars zooming by and not all at exactly the same distance from my camera. I did not have an auto focus lens I could use for this shot, so I had to "prefocus" on a spot of the track and shoot when the car got to it. No camera assist following the subject and keeping it locked on target. </p>

<p>4) What would happen if I moved the shutter speed UP, which would make it easier to get the car in sharp focus ? While the background would be less blurred, as I got faster and faster, the wheels would also have less blur. At some point the shutter can stop EVERYTHING and it looks like you took a shot of a car parked on the track. Not very interesting. </p>

<p>Now, for your experiment, your instructor told you some shutter speeds, but not the aperture. That's fine, because once you set a given shutter speed, your camera will tell you it's SUGGESTION for the right aperture to try, with the built in meter. It's up to you to take that suggestion or decide you want the result to be lighter or darker. </p>

<p> </p>

[and_camacho]

<p>That's a really nice photo you took there. I personally would have loved to try to pan with cars because i feel like it would be really good practice, but i was unable to because my professor stated that shed seen enough cars in the past years and the current project is almost due. So I decided to just take a couple pictures of different objects that could possibly work. I've told myself i'm willing to retake the class because like you said John, in Graphic Design, these basics will be very helpful to me. </p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>I really like John's explanations about why he chose his approach and settings. The same strategy works for any moving object, although you would have to adjust for speed to get the same results.</p>

[rob_mulligan1]

<p>Ok. Square one.<br>

Aperture, film speed and shutter speed all go hand in hand for correct exposure.<br>

The ONLY ONLY ONLY thing that will affect blur is shutter speed. It's "How long the window is open while the bird flies by."<br>

Aperture will affect exposure and depth of field - a different subject for a different discussion. Film speed will affect exposure combining to determine what shutter speeds and apertures can be used in what light.<br>

Important: shoot manual and just get the meter needle to point in the middle. Don't try to figure any more than that out. It's not worth the trouble right now. Keep it simple.<br>

For some blur fun, try a 1/15 second shutter with whatever aperture/film speed will give correct (remember the needle in the middle thing?) exposure. Try shooting people dancing or running. Pan people running. Shoot a bicycle race, both static and panning. Shoot a friend doing jumping jacks. Shoot a flock of pigeons flying up from an old man feeding them at a park bench. Someone out there shoots dogs faces while they're shaking off water - pretty funny stuff.<br>

Think of what moves - nearly everything alive, and think of what you can do with that.<br>

Good luck.</p>

[and_camacho]

<p>Thanks Rob. Thank you all. You guys have been very helpful. I understand this more and i find it being really fun to do.</p>