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Microsoft Picture It! Companion Guide
21
Chapter 2: Making the Most of Your Camera
Some cameras have a fixed aperture that can’t be adjusted. If you’re adjusting
the aperture yourself, a setting of f/8 is a good place to start, since it gives you a
fairly wide zone of sharpness.
If your camera allows you to adjust the aperture, use the settings to regulate the
depth of field in your photo. Depth of field refers to the zone in your photo that
is in acceptably sharp focus. A wide aperture gives you a shallow depth of field,
while a small aperture allows a very deep zone—maybe even everything in the
photo—to be in focus.
Imagine pointing your camera down a set of railroad tracks which go all the
way to the horizon. With a wide aperture, like f/2.8, if you focus on a railroad
tie a short distance away, only a few of the other ties are in sharp focus. With a
narrow aperture, like f/22, many more of the ties are in focus, even those quite
a distance from your main focal point.
A wide aperture will give you a short depth of field, as illustrated in the photo on the left,
where only a limited range of the tulips are in focus. The photo on the right was taken with a
small aperture, so almost all of the tulips are in focus.
For portrait photography, a wide aperture helps to limit the focus. Your
subject’s face is clear and sharp, but objects in the background are blurred. But
if you’re shooting a vacation photo of someone posing in front of a monument,
a narrow aperture may be in order. With the narrow aperture, both the person
and the monument can be in focus in the same photo.
Program modes
If your camera offers
program modes for
specific photos like
portraits or action
shots, read your
camera’s manual to
find out the aperture
settings used for those
modes.
Shutterless
cameras
Many digital cameras
do not have a true
shutter. Instead, the
image sensor is
programmed to control
the exposure time. The
effect of shutter speed
control is the same as
a physical shutter.