help me with apature again

my caemra goes from 2,8 to 8 whats the best setting for the average pic.people have tryied to explain it to me before but im still confused .in day time out side lighht what would ya use? can i leave it at 8? all answers will be helpfull im going with dad in am to look at some small condos and i take pics to review for latter

Think of it as the size of the hole, letting available light into your film or sensor. The smaller the number the larger the hole. F2.8 will be best for lower light levels if you are not using flash. If you are using flash or it is bright enough then F8 will be better than F2.8. You will keep more things in focus at a higher aperture (f number).

The aperature has several effects. It has to be adjusted to work with the speed of the film and the shutter speed.

Look for a text on taking pictures with 35mm cameras and you'll probably get a goo d dicussion of depth of field and picture grain.

In general, set the aperature to as small (higher numbered f-stop) as you can and still have the light meter tell you it's OK. This will have the widest focus area. If you have a film camera and it's just for pictures of rooms, then by all means pick up ISO 800 film. That will let the shuttter run faster and the aperature smaller.

Daniel

Raggie, aperture controls two things. The amount of light that the camera allows in as people have explained and depth of field. The smaller numbers (f2.8 in your case) which actually indicate a greater lens opening will allow the most light in but also give the shallowest depth of field. In other words your subject only will be in focus, not stuff in front of it or behind it. The larger numbers (f8) in your case allow less light but give a greater depth of field. In other words, besides your subject, stuff in front and behind it will be in focus. Having said that because of the tiny lens size of your digicam, by default almost everything will be in focus. You probably can just leave it in auto mode without any problems.

Most of the fixed cameras used a 5.8 aperture for a balance between film speed, available light and lense. Gave a good balance and depth of field.

A lot of the old 110 cameras were set at this.

You can take some shots...I have seen some of yours...try bracketing if you're not sure about a shot you really want...try it at several speeds and or apertures.

ahhhh. So you're gonna take that selfportrait huh Raggs? and want to get it just right......... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

maybe thats why my pics taken at 2.8 on a sunny day on a lake came out blurry.or my sisters new car in bright sunn light?

More likely camera shake. Check your shutter speed. For me I don't handhold well below 1/60 of a second and really like even faster.

Raggie- Here is an easy way to remember.

1.Take your film ASA speed and put this same number into your shutter speed. So, if your film ASA is 200 then turn your shutter speed to 200.

2. Now adjust your aperture to the light....

Snow or bright sand is f16 or f22

Sunny day would be f11 to f16

Less sunny day would be f8

Cloudy day would be f5.6 to f8

Darkening outside or bright inside would be f4

Inside bright f3.5

Inside slightly dark f2.8

Really dark would be f1.4, f1.8, or f2

If you need to change your shutter speed, just remember that when the shutter goes UP one stop, the aperture goes DOWN one stop. If the shutter goes UP two stops, the aperture goes DOWN two stops etc etc. And vice-versa.


So if you have f8 at shutter 1/200 and you need to go up to shutter 1/250 then....Turn the shutter up to 1/250 and the aperture down to f5.6.

Hope I haven't confused you.

Outside in the daylight you can't go badly wrong with 250 at F8. Better depth of field is the main reason to use small aperature.

For fast action 500 at F5.6 works well.

I can't reallyt comment on indoor shots. My Sony FD90 is all auto so I don't know what it does. And my 35mm camreras use flash units, and generally shoot 1/60 at f4 or f5.6.

It being a digital cammera, it don't cost much to experiment....