- One of the best ways to take better photographs
is moving out of auto mode.
And in this video, we're gonna talk about
how you can improve your own photography
by learning how to use aperture priority mode.
In just a few steps
you can go from taking your photographs in auto mode
Hi everyone, I'm Adrian Rankin.
And I'm here with the best tips and tools
to help you improve your own landscape photography.
So I'm really excited to share with you your first step
in moving out of auto mode
into taking better photographs using aperture priority mode.
So let's break down what I'm going to cover off today.
We're going to cover off why you should consider
using aperture priority mode.
How to actually go about using it,
a really simple step-by-step guide.
A couple of bits of pros and cons around using
the aperture priority mode,
as opposed to say manual or staying in auto mode.
Basically everything you need to know to get started today.
So perhaps the first question you're thinking to yourself
is what is aperture priority mode anyway.
So in simple terms,
aperture priority mode is you as the photographer decide on
the aperture you'd like to select while the camera's
selects the shutter speed and say the ISO.
It helps you speed up your workflow
and make decisions more quickly.
And starts to give you really creative control
over the images that you're trying to create.
So aperture is essentially the F-stop on your camera.
So depending on what type of camera you have.
I'd actually have a doll it shows you, but the higher,
the F-stop number say F-16,
which is usually useful for things like landscapes
and seascapes that we want everything in focus
from front to back, the higher the aperture or the higher
the F-stop in this case F-16 you'll achieve that.
Whereas the opposite is also true.
So if you use a lower aperture, say F 0.28,
which is the lens I have here,
you'll have certain elements within your scene in focus.
So you'd probably be familiar with this.
We'd say portraiture,
you've seen photographs where the model themselves
or the person the subject is in sharp focus and falls away
or melts behind you to get that really creamy bouquet
look in the background, which really people like.
I guess also, the other thing, if you looked at Instagram,
you would have seen, or online,
you would have also seen examples of landscapes
where perhaps it's a photo of a field with some cows
or something in the distance.
And the grass in the foreground has been blurred out.
And that's been achieved by using a lower apron.
So it's a great decision you can make.
And that's why it's really important as you move out of
auto mode into say, aperture priority mode, you actually get
to take control of these credit decisions as a photographer.
The other big benefit I see is that when the light is
changing quite quickly in your scene.
So thinking sunrise, sunset,
the only season you've got to make is the F-stop
or the aperture you're putting into the camera.
The camera's going to decide the shutter speed and the ISO,
and adjust accordingly as the light changes.
So as well as the, you are thinking about,
and you can focus on getting the image.
All right, so I've come out to the backyard.
So it's a good way to show it you two can get started
learning aperture priority mode straight away.
So the first thing we need to do is mount our camera
So we'll just change the dial.
So now you can see on the screen here, we've got F11,
the camera is still choosing a shadow speed of
one over 125 and ISO auto.
We're going to leave an auto white balance.
So you can see that's listed here.
So back button focus on, but we'll just focus on the center
of the flower at that shot now.
So we're going to make sure that because the cameras made
those decisions for us, let's have a look at the histogram.
So again quite dark we haven't blown any of the highlights
as well, so which is fantastic.
So then let's make sure it's in focus.
So at F11 we can see here look how sharp
that is perhaps we might use a lower F-stop.
So we might go down to F 2.8 to show you the difference
by you being able to select the aperture.
We're dropping it down now.
F2.8 again hasn't changed shutter speed, ISO still auto.
So we will take that photo now.
I'll just make sure we focus correctly
and just check her histogram.
I haven't looked at the highlights as you can see here
everything's probably slightly underexposed,
but anyway we can fix that in a moment.
So again difference between this one the other one
is by using a shallower aperture.
You can see here it starts to fall away
from the edge of the flower.
It leaves it blurred out a bit.
Especially that last image potentially the image
was a little bit underexposed.
So perhaps we need to brighten it.
So there's one way you can do it in aperture programmers
worth talking about it's called exposure compensation.
So you've probably got a button or a dial on your camera.
So on the Sony we have a dial here which I'll show you
in a moment.
Which enables us to increase the amount of light
or decrease the amount of light entering the sensor
using exposure compensation.
So for example the last photograph we took let's say
we want to keep the aperture at F0.28.
We're happy with the shutter speed and we have
with the ISO but we know it's a little bit dark.
So we can add some light
by increasing the exposure say one stop.
So we just moved the dollar around here up to plus one
and now we're trying to take the photograph as well.
So I'll show you the back of the screen
as well what it looks like.
Okay, so now I've done the extra one stop
or plus one of exposure compensation you'd see here
no longer a balanced exposure.
So we've still got the same aperture F0.28 starts
to be still one over 125 and ISO is still auto.
But plus one and we haven't blown out the highlight
but we've made the image a bit brighter.
So let's take that shot as well and have a look.
Check out our histogram it automatically says
it's a bit brighter and we can see it now falling away.
Behind the screen we'll just check the histogram anyway.
So it's a bit more balanced, still haven't blown out
the highlight and it's exposed probably.
So let's talk about handheld shooting because perhaps
you don't want to use a tripod, need to have a tripod,
it's dark outside or your subject's moving quite quickly.
And how do you go about using aperture priority handheld.
However it's important to realize that
as the camera selected the shutter speed and depending
how fast or slow that shutter speed is you still
may get blurry images even with image stabilization set on.
So then what's the answer.
So auto ISO.
So you'll just see in the clip that I showed a moment ago
outside the camera was automatically selecting auto ISO.
Each camera is different.
So depending on your particular
setup in the Sony we have the option to set the auto ISO
and the minimum shutter speed to ensure that we don't have
blurry images when we're using aperture priority.
So without over complicating it
and there's a little bit of science behind it.
The minimum shutter speed I'd recommend is say one over 100.
Except where potentially you're photographing sports
or wildlife then you're gonna need to go higher
than one over 500 to ensure you still get sharp images.
So I just want to give a word of warning around a couple
of techniques that are not suitable
for aperture priority mode.
So things like I say panoramas or focus tagging say
with a pano giving you taking multiple photographs
across the scene, the lights actually changing.
So using aperture priority mode wouldn't give you
the right exposure reading across the entire scene.
So you wouldn't use it for that.
So the other technique you might want to think
about the other type of subject you would want
to consider not using aperture priority modes.
Things like astrophotography taking photographs
to save the milky way.
Again you would need to use manual mode.
So I just wanted to point that as you're heading out,
you're thinking about giving it a go there's some
of the limitations to be aware of as well.
Aperture priority is really a great first step
in learning more advanced techniques within your camera,
taking some more control of your your settings
and ultimately give you more creative control
over the images that you're creating and the stories
that you want to tell.
So if you're interested in learning more composition tips
for say forest and woodland photography and trying
your aperture priority mode I'll leave a link
in the description below to a playlist
that I've got put together.
I'll also put on the YouTube card just up there as well.
Thanks again for checking out this video.
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I'll see you in the next video.
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