ABAngie BirminghamYellowstone and Grand Teton trips for wildlife photographers

MASTERING PHOTOGRAPHY: The Ultimate No.1 Tips to Elevate Your Game

2 Jul 2024 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:49

In this instructional segment, the presenter outlines a systematic thought process for choosing aperture settings in photography. They explain that a wide aperture (e.g., f/2.8) creates a shallow depth of field with pleasing bokeh, making the background indistinct. A moderate aperture (around f/8) is recommended for landscape shots to achieve a deep depth of field, keeping foreground and background in focus. Finally, they suggest using smaller apertures (f/10–f/16) to produce starburst effects from point light sources, encouraging viewers to experiment creatively with these settings.

Chapters

Tip number 1. This would be my thought process I go through for every shot that I take. First, I choose my aperture. A larger aperture, also referred to as wide open, for example f/2.8, would get you the nice bokeh background, the nice blurred background so you can't really tell what's in the background. A smaller aperture like f/8 is great for landscapes so you get that nice depth of field so you can just see on forever. Then you can always try to tap into your creative side of the brain and try out some starbursts by setting your aperture at say f/10 to f/16 and that'll get you some nice starburst effects.