Tech Blog

[#1]

[#2]

Cool thing about aperture. Moving along the scale by one full stop givss you double the amount of light. f/22 to f/11 - double the light. f/16 to f/8 - double the light. The real background blurring starts showing up around f/5.6 depending on what you're shooting.

[#3]

Some additional thoughts

• low apertures are great for checking sensor or lens dust
• low apertures allow you to blur "motion" when the camera is on a solid surface or tripod
• high apertures can highlight an object in your image after blurrying the background
• optimum aperture for many lenses is f/8
• low apertures can introduce diffraction issues on low quality lenses
• high apertures will allow you to use faster shutter speeds and lower ISO to minimize noise
• high apertures can increase problems with auto-focus as the camera has a tighter focus window
• consider lensbaby products if you want to experiment with different focus points or the shape of your focus points

[#4]

Want to expand on the "optimum aperture" thought. Lenses have a "sweet spot" when it comes to aperture. This is when the lens takes its best images and most lenses hold that in the 5.6-8.0 range.

[#5]

Oh -- and since I picked up the Lens Baby Optic 80 last week, I'll take a swing at that one too. They're wonderful (and reasonably priced) lenses, but do know you have to focus manually. I have poor eyes, but learned this great trick recently. FOr better manual focus, turn on the LiveView function. Then magnify the LiveView fumction all the way to its max. Now you can focus on the nice big screen at the back of your camera. Was a great help over the weekend when I was shooting kids' recitals!

[#6]

BTW.... if you are really into blurring your images..... put the DSLR away and have some fun with the Lytro camera...

  http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/lytro-lytro-8gb-light-field-camera-graphite-m01-100005-ca/102...

[#7]

It's on SALE? Oh man. The,putting. GOPro or Lytro...