Aperture Priority I Finally Figured It Out!
I got a Sony Alpha DSLR for my birthday last year, and quite frankly the thing scares the pants off me. I LOVE the pictures it takes, but trying to figure out how to use the thing has been a down right PITA. I haven’t figured out much except it takes great pictures on Manual, which hasn’t motivated me much to move beyond that. Now mind you I know nothing about photography I wouldn’t know an f-stop from an ISO if it bit me in the butt. It’s not the camera’s fault one bit, it’s my own ignorant fault for not studying more and trying to learn it all better. Also, I have a history of killing expensive cameras, I guard the thing with my life putting it carefully back in it’s case after every shoot. The one thing my kids know is “don’t touch mommy’s camera!”
So, I am proud to announce that this weekend I figured out not only what Aperture Priority is but also how to use it! If you know nothing like me. Long story short. Basically one of the things the aperture does is sets the depth of field on your camera. Low aperture only the things closes to your focal point are in focus. Higher aperture all the things in your viewfinder are in focus. Now this term scared me to death until I figured out that what it means is YOU the photographer get to adjust ONLY the aperture to manipulate the depth of field, and that fancy camera with all it’s fancy senors and programing goes ahead and figures everything else out for you! Now how is that for fancy beans? If you are a busy mom like me and get lots of great pics of your kids with lots of fugly background, this is a great feature b/c you can put your camera on Aperture Priority, then set the Aperture low (on the Alpha roll the dial in front of the “shoot” button) and you will find you suddenly get some striking pics of your kids with a very nice blurred out background. I have only tried this two times. The first was last night and the light was so bad I had to use the flash and the pics were yuck yuck! I used it today at the soccer game on my first few shots, and I was so pleased with the results!
No she didn’t just win a goal she’s mugging for the camera, practice hadn’t even started… little diva!
These are with the kit lens Aperture around 5-5.6.
I can’t wait to get a good 50mm lens!
09/3/07, 3:44 AM |
OOh nice work! Really great! You should look into the NIkon 50mm 1.4, I have heard it is an incredible lens and I am pretty sure it is compatible with Sony right????
09/3/07, 9:06 AM |
Sony bought out Minolta, which makes the “zeiss” lenses. Those are conisdered to be the highest quality lenses. I’ve looked into some 70mm and longer distance lenses, just haven’t made the plunge yet.
With other brand lenses it’s all about the mount, and I know you can get adaptors. I’m not sure if a Nikkon lens would fit the Sony straight up.
Tanya