App-errrr-ture…

Why don't we just say “camera pupils”?

That's much more fun.

What's up, everyone?

Im Trisha Hershberger and in this episode of DIY in 5 we're going to teach you about

another of the three pillars of photography: aperture.

If you want to learn about the other two pillars, check out our previous video on ISO or subscribe

so you are one of the first to check out our next video coming up on shutter speed.

Aperture is just is the hole in the lens where the light travels to the camera body.

The best analogy is that aperture is to a camera what pupils are to our eyes.

The more light available, say in daylight, the smaller the pupils get.

The less light available, like at night, the larger the pupils become.

Opening and closing the aperture, or pupils, will affect how much light makes it to your camera sensor.

So how do we change the amount of light getting into the camera?

Let's talk aperture size.

If you've ever looked directly into a camera lens you see a spiral pattern with a hole in the middle.

As you change aperture settings you'll notice the hole opens at fixed points, or “f-stops”.

To change the aperture on your camera increase or decrease the f-stops.

The unique thing about f-stops is that the lower the number, the more light is let into the camera.

So for instance an f-stop of 2.8 actually let's in way more light than an f-stop of 8.

You can see this chart shows some common f-stops and how much light they let in.

One of the unexpected benefits of changing aperture settings is something known as depth of field.

You know when you look at some pictures and the subject is in focus, but the background is blurry?

That effect is called depth of field.

Depending on the effect you want you may want to change your aperture settings.

To have a shallow depth of field, meaning your subject is separated from your background,

use a lower f-stop like f2.8.

There is lots of photo editing software that mimics this effect but

nothing looks quite as good as the real deal.

If you want to have more of the picture in focus, use a higher f-stop like f8 or higher.

The last thing to keep in mind with f-stops and aperture is that not all lenses are created equal.

Just because you made the jump from point-and-shoot to DSLR doesn't mean your camera lens has

every f-stop available, especially when using zoom lenses.

All lenses have maximum and minimum f-stops they can achieve,

and generally speaking the consumer grade lenses have higher f-stop ratings than professional lenses.

The great thing is you can always try out new lenses before you buy them.

There's sites like borrowlenses.com, lensrentals.com and others where you can rent new lenses before

putting down hundreds or thousands of dollars on owning it yourself.

Now dial in the camera pupil and get to work.

Let us know what other photography questions you have in the comments below and be sure

to check out these other great photography videos.

My name is Trisha Hershberger and I'll see you next time with more DIY in 5.