Ahoj there! This is Zdenka Darula. If you are saying, OMG she just said Ahoj at
the beginning of the video now too. No, I'm not a pirate of YouTube. Given the
circumstances of what's happening in my life right now, but I'll talk about it at
the end of the video... first, first, let's get going and learn something new
together. Tons of people are getting into photography these days and maybe you are
one of them which is bought brand new camera. Pull it out, snap some photos here
and there but you shoot only in automatic mode... you know that AUTO mode.
Maybe you already tried to go manual but you find it way too difficult. Maybe
you just don't feel comfortable with it. It's not there yet. I know how it feels.
Trust me, I know. I've been there. So, you might want to stick around for today's
video because we will be talking about aperture mode which is a bit more than
automatic but a lot less than fully manual.
Why on earth do I want you to get out of the automatic mode? You know what? Let the
photos speak right now. Here is a photo I took in the automatic mode and here are
some photos I took in the aperture mode.
The automatic mode will give you kind of that general looking snap like looking,
tourist style photos as I call it, because the camera has no clue what feel
you want to get out of the photos. The camera doesn't know that maybe you
want that face beautifully sharp and blurry background. Or if you're taking a
group photo, a group photo of people, that you want the people to be nicely
sharp and the background blurry. The camera will calculate the settings
to be safe so your photo is not blurry. That's all. Aperture mode is a
semi-automatic mode. In simple words, you will choose your aperture and ISO, if you
wish and the camera will choose the right shutter speed for you. What is an
aperture? I'm gonna grab a lens. Gotta clean it up a little bit. Well do you see
that hole in that lens? That hole let's light in into the camera. If I'm changing
the size of the lens I'm making that hole smaller and bigger. I am changing
the aperture and it's measured in f-stops. You know what, let's just grab
the 15 - 45 mm lens which is right now attached to Canon EOS and 50
and let's look at the aperture. F/3.5 - 6.3. This is
F/3.5, this is the widest I can get. This is the most light I can
get in. F/6.3 is the narrowest I can get. This is the least
light I can get in. Here is something you have to remember. The smaller the F
number, the more light you get to the camera. The bigger the F number,
the less light you will get in. It's exactly the opposite and that's why it
gets confusing for new photographers. Also, keep in mind that if you're
shooting indoors, you want to have that F number as smallest as possible. That's
why I always say before buying another lens to save up and buy very good lens
which has very small f-stop. Because that way, when you are shooting in low-light
conditions indoors, you will get a lot more light in
onto your image sensor into your camera. Another very important thing about
aperture is that it controls depth of field. That means, the smaller the
f-number, the f-stop, the more of a blur in the background you will get. The
higher the f-stop, the more sharpness. The more of the scene will be in focus... more
of the scene will be in focus .....yeah..... Anyways, here are some sample photos with
different knife stops to make you understand what it is when I'm talking
about the depth of field. Just take a look at it.
Did you see the difference? For example, if I'm taking a portrait, photo of a face,
depending on the lens I'm using, I go as low as I can. So F/2.8 or F/3.5. I just
really really put it down. If I'm taking photos as I used to do real estate I
used to do virtual tours so if I'm taking photos of interior and exterior I
keep it at F/5.6 to make sure I have a little bit more sharpness over the scene
and then let's say you go take photos of a landscape, you crank it way up, like at
F/15, 16, 18, 22 just to make sure everything is in focus. You have very much
everything in focus, sharp, focus. Enough of theory. Let's grab a camera. In my case
it's Canon EOS M50 and let's switch it from automatic modes to the AV which
is aperture mode. Now it's time to choose your aperture. Do you want very blurry
background or are you shooting in a low-light conditions? Then put it to
F/3.5. If you're outdoors and you want everything in focus and you have a lot
of lights then crank it up. Maybe put it to F/11, 12, I don't know even higher. Next
we need to choose an ISO. For those of you who just want to practice the
aperture, you can set the ISO to automatic temporarily and that will be
it for you we just start taking photos at this point. It is good to also mention
that if you are shooting in conditions when the light is changing constantly, it
is actually a good idea to keep the ISO on the Auto mode. It will make your life
way easier. If you are ready to play with the ISO, ISO measures the sensitivity of
the image sensor. In other words, choosing the ISO number will depend how much
light you have in the scene you want to capture. For example, if I'm shooting
outdoors and it's fully sunny you want to choose the smallest ISO possible
which is 100 or 200 if it's not that sunny. If it's overcast, you might want to
do something like 400, 500 or 600. If you're shooting indoors, you might
start at ISO 800 or even more. Well, the last step would be checking your shutter
speed. Your camera will choose the right shutter speed based on what Aperture and
ISO you selected. You just have to keep an eye, so the shutter speed is not too
slow, like this. That will be slow. If you are shooting handheld you don't want to
go anywhere below 1/60th. 1/100th would be great and up. If it goes below
1/60th, you just have to increase the ISO number higher or you need to
bring down the aperture number low which would be smaller and getting more light
in. When I take photos, I don't look at the numbers anymore. I just kind of
listen to the camera and this is what it should sound like.
That's fast. The more you shoot, the easier is gonna get. I actually have a
few extra tips for you and it comes to shooting in aperture mode. If you are
shooting in a conditions when the light is changing all the time and your focus
is set up on the single point autofocus you want to change it to multi. The
big area. If you would have it set up on the single point autofocus, it will be
aimed at all kinds of colors and textures so within few seconds you will
get very different looking exposures. With multi autofocus, the camera will
check the light from the whole scene and give you the exposure based on that,
which is way better, Auto white balance is also your best friend, if you are
shooting any conditions when the light is changing non-stop. I would still push
you to choose the right white balance if you would have very steady conditions
but if you don't and if it's changing all the time, then it's the easiest to
switch it to auto. Plus if you shoot in RAW, you can always change it in a post.
Exposure AE lock can help you in light situations as well. You can lock
your exposure with this AE button. And that would be all, when it comes to
Aperture mode and lesson in today's video. I hope you liked it, please give it
a thumbs up, don't forget to subscribe to all future videos.
Hit the bell notification button to know when the next video is up. If you have
any questions, comments, simply want to say hello or suggest a topic for a future
video, please do so in the comment section below. Well, before I say I'll see
you next month, Cau.. Ahoj... What really happened past few
days? Well, at first I didn't know if I want to talk about it here, but then I
thought, its kind of photography related and we are family... kind of big family
here on this channel, on this community and the YouTube and it's kind of a
therapy for me to get it out of my system. So what really happened. This
Sunday it was kind of my apocalypse day. Honestly, it was a very big
difficult day. That's why if my lip looks a little bit different, I've got big cold sore
but thanks God for the makeup it covers it up. Lot of stress, lot of stress.
I was taking a photo on a farm of a family. First of all, I woke up in the
morning I look out of the window and I saw this. Snow everywhere. So I thought oh
great the family's gonna have beautiful spring photos with the white scene and
snow. I got to the farm. Started taking photos indoors.
I had my studio lights, so I was flashing quite a bit as I was taking photos.
Looking through the viewfinder with my right eye, every time I took a photo and
the flesh was going off, it was like somebody's stabbing into my right eye. It
was just enormous pain so I tried to do it with my other eye. It
didn't go that well. So I had to kind of switch back to the right one. Finished the
shoot, got home and went right away to walk-in clinic because unfortunately
there's something going on for a while with my right eye. About a month ago when I
was skating because I do figure skating I noticed when I'm skating and I look at
the white ice I started seeing floaters in my right eye. So that means like this
little kind of like looking like like strings. First there was one. Last week
I noticed I already started seeing few. So with that also the pain in mind,
and scratchy and itchy I thought maybe I got some bacteria or something like that
so I went to check it out. Got to the emergency clinic. The doctor
looked at me, she said right away, no there's no bacteria happening in your
eye. She told me a whole bunch of bad things I didn't want to hear. Something
like something is detaching in my eye and so on and so on so I crashed all the
way on Sunday... because it's just like your vision as a photographer it's the
main thing... right?
didn't want to cry... but anyways let's turn it into the happy mood again and
joke a little bit because that's what I'm all about. And I love to laugh, and I
need it now more than ever, so send me some fun jokes. Write them in a comment
section below, make me laugh. Anyways, before I become the one-eyed pirate of
YouTube or one eyed Zdenka. Anyways, just one one thing I want to say.
Since we work as photographers, please protect your eyes. If you're outside on a
Sun always wear sunglasses. We get lot of irritations, lot of light in our
eyes and for sure if you are doing it for a long time like me for 13 years
you're gonna probably damage your eyes you're gonna probably have some problems.
So, try to stay away... stay away from computers, phones, light sources as much
as you can. Save your eyes... anyways … that's all for today.. big virtual hug, fist bump,
high-five ...whatever... Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next
one. Cau.... Ahoj....