What aperture do you generally use?

mrbez

mrbez

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I know that you should change the aperture for each shot, as a different aperture can provide different outlooks on the same image, but do you guys often find that most of your shots are taken with a certain aperture?

I haven't really messed about with mine, and tend to keep it around 4, and may increase to 8/11/16 if I want a longer shutter time.

Just looking for any tips and advice.
 
f2.8 here. Cameras set to that as a default. :)

Change up to f8 for shallow group shots and f11 for deep ones. Then back to f2.8. :)
 
Depends on what depth of focus I want.

With birds In low light I may have to shoot with the widest aperture available f2.8 or f5.6 to retain fast shutter speeds but that's no use if I want a deeper dof so the ISO gets cranked up instead.

Landscapes might well be f11 - f22. If light is an issue I'll leave the ISO down at 100, use the tripod & use a longer shutter speed.
 
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MrCraigBerry said:
I know that you should change the aperture for each shot, as a different aperture can provide different outlooks on the same image, but do you guys often find that most of your shots are taken with a certain aperture?

I haven't really messed about with mine, and tend to keep it around 4, and may increase to 8/11/16 if I want a longer shutter time.

Just looking for any tips and advice.
Click to expand...

What sort of thing are you photographing?
 
For portraits, often f4 as I find it pretty sharp and normally allows good shutter speed, sometimes f5.6. Very rarely I may use f8 but never higher unless I need to slow to 1/125 ish for prop blur on planes.

Will sometimes use f2.2 or f2.8, but I guess 85% will be at f4 or f5.6
 
i tend to think of the settings as a toolbox.
you pick the tool you need to do the job (y)
 
Mentioning aperture and DOF in the same sentence is pointless unless you also mention focal length and shooting distance

Choice of aperture will effect: overall image quality, depth of field, amount of diffraction introduced by aperture blades. Lenses have a "best aperture" to get optimum image quality, the value of this varies from lens to lens and focal length to focal length

I choose the aperture I want to get the shot right
 
Richard King said:
I choose the aperture I want to get the shot right
Click to expand...

:agree: Only way to do it!

I checked the metadata in over 22,000 shots in my current Lightroom catalogue and my most commonly used one is f/8 with f/3.5 second then f/2.8. I suppose that reflects the kind of work I do. Most of the f/8 shots were with the 24-70 and the wider ones with the (80) 70-200mm
 
My camera sits in the bag with my 17-70mm attached and is usually set in Av mode with iso100 and f8 most of what I shoot is landscape/scenary type shots and these settings will generally allow me to grab my camera and get the shot I want. Obviously I'll change this up or down if required portraits are generally about f4 if I've got my tripod out for a landscape I'll up it to f11 etc.
 
Yep, agree with the above, whatever the shot needs. Will be interesting for me to go back through my pics in lightroom though to see what my most used is.

I use my Siggy 24-70 for almost all my shooting now (mainly of people) and love using it at f/2.8. and have to when photographing friends at gigs.
 
As said depends on the shot, but for some reason I mainly go for 5.6 as I like this generally, I should probably shoot alot lower most of the time but its just personal pref for DOF.
 
AliB said:
f2.8 here. Cameras set to that as a default. :)

Change up to f8 for shallow group shots and f11 for deep ones. Then back to f2.8. :)
Click to expand...

Pretty much what Ali said for me too.

I shoot wider when I've got a prime out. I love to shoot wide as I love to see lovely blurry backgrounds - it's a great way to focus the viewers atrention on the subject.

I'll stop down to F4 occasionally and even smaller when shooting groups of people. But big appertures are my preference.



I feel a flaming coming on

:coat:
 
I like big apertures too, but depends what you are shooting - you won't get many successful landscapes at f1.8, and you certainly won't get lovely blurry backgrounds at f16.

You need to think first how much of the subject you need in focus, then choose your aperture, and adjust your iso to get a suitable shutter speed. Then be prepared to accept more or less depth of focus, or use a tripod, or accept noise, etc, etc, so that you still get a shot if conditions do not allow the combination you want.
 
Whatever the shot requires or one that'll give me the shutter-speed I need.
 
david357 said:
I like big apertures too, but depends what you are shooting - you won't get many successful landscapes at f1.8, and you certainly won't get lovely blurry backgrounds at f16.

You need to think first how much of the subject you need in focus, then choose your aperture, and adjust your iso to get a suitable shutter speed. Then be prepared to accept more or less depth of focus, or use a tripod, or accept noise, etc, etc, so that you still get a shot if conditions do not allow the combination you want.
Click to expand...

Can we have a suck eggs Smilie please??

;)
 
F/8 when the light allows it, just to keep the quality up, otherwise i would be shooting wide open at f/5.6 with two of my lenses. Hopefully with the new tamron i'll glue that to f/2.8. Oh, and the nifty fifty usually operates between f/2.2 and 4 to give the desired DoF.
 
Depends on too many variables to generalise. Rarely wide open and equally rarelt stopped right down. Mainly in the f/5.6 - f/11 range, probably (depending on lens, light, wanted DoF etc.)
 
Pick your aperture then choose your SS to what you need and then you just have to change your ISO to suit the lighting, don't get any easier than that :shrug:
 
If you do pretty much the same photography ALL the time you aren't going to change aperture much, it's a question too big to ask really because you use the full range of apertures from f2.8 (or 1.4 if you got expensive glass) right through to f16 and higher for blur in daylight shots, it's a minefield !!
 
F2.8 mostly on all lenses (17-55, 70-200, 10.5mm) or F4 for big groups - I'm usually shooting groups as wide as poss (hence often at 17mm) as there's rarely any space, but if there is space a longer focal length from further back - the DoF in each case is wider than the group is - hence I don't need f8 (and nor do you probably :))

f1.8 sometimes in prep on a 50mm

f1.8 - f8 for landscape work (f8 mostly for optimum IQ as the DoF is there anyway :))

DD
 
Landscapes generally f16-F22 (on a wide lens)

Portraits generally f2-f5.6
 
Obviously depends on the shot, but I'll tend to default towards whatever the sharpest bit of the lens is if that will end up workable. So 24-105mm I'd say 8(ish) but Sigma 50mm more like 2(ish). Etc.
 
I really don't know, I use whatever I need/want at the time and then my brain forgets. If I were to hazard a guess I would say somewhere between f2.8-5.6, must get that lightroom plugin and have a look sometime.
 
My photography leads me towards using wide open apertures most of the time. I switch to F8 or 11 for most portrait work - even outdoors with the right backgrounds. For quick street work and improv shooting, I switch to P mode and let the camera decide unless I want to fiddle - which isn't often.
 
I mostly shoot landscapes with subjects coming as close as 3 feet away, so I'm stuck between f/8 and f/11, iso at 100 and adjusting the shutter speed accordingly. f/16 is still ok but it would be pushing the envelope for my taste.
 
MrCraigBerry said:
I know that you should change the aperture for each shot, as a different aperture can provide different outlooks on the same image, but do you guys often find that most of your shots are taken with a certain aperture?

I haven't really messed about with mine, and tend to keep it around 4, and may increase to 8/11/16 if I want a longer shutter time.

Just looking for any tips and advice.
Click to expand...

or depth of field??

my camera only does f8..i use it when i need it...normally i check out the speed part...to match my focal length
if my P readings give me f5.6 and around 1/100 for wide angle then i am ok for non deep shots

aperture is a function of how you want your shot to look...

there is a wonderful site which lets you actually see what your f no is doing at different lens focal lengths...so you can begin to appreciate that apertures can be adjusted accordingly giving you the much desired shutter speeds for hand held photography
 
I'm generally shooting at F4 for sharpness but do a lot of work at 2.8 and 1.4 if I can control the DOF, vs the light. Some gig photos work well at 1.4 but on the flip side portraits are only good if you just want the tip of the nose in focus! :thinking:

Sum up!
I like to shoot at F4 on a 2.8 lens because it does seem to give the most pleasing results. As it also seems to on the 50mm :love:
 
1/50 @ f8...... ;)
You need to have grown up with film to know that one

Or, find the sweet spot on you lens and try and shoot close to that. F2.8? nah, too big for me.

Theres a good book around called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Its worth getting as it gives you lots of tips on using the correct aperture for different subjects and effects.

Allan
 
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How long is a piece of rope?

This is a question that can't be answered without context.
It depends on the amount of light available, DOF wanted, available apertures of your lenses, etc etc. And sometimes it isn't really important. i.e. if you're constrained by shutter speed, or don't mind about any of the above.

-Barry
 
allanm said:
1/50 @ f8...... ;)
You need to have grown up with film to know that one

Or, find the sweet spot on you lens and try and shoot close to that. F2.8? nah, too big for me.

Theres a good book around called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Its worth getting as it gives you lots of tips on using the correct aperture for different subjects and effects.

Allan
Click to expand...

But if you just shoot at the lenses sweetspot (F8 ish) your images will all look very samey. Fine if you don't want the separation between subject and background or if you're shooting in bright light all the time. But if you're in gloomy conditions the sweetspot ain't so sweet :D
 
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