How to Use Shutter and Aperture in Photography

Shutter and aperture are camera devices that control light. Each affects how you make photographs differently. The differences can be used together to produce various results. Aperture controls depth of field, shutter speed can create blur, and other combinations can create great foreground detail and other interesting uses of focus.

Instructions

1. 

   Maintain focus and increase shutter speed. Also, increase aperture diameter to admit equal amounts of light. The same amount of light will be admitted with an F-stop of f/22 and 1-second shutter speed. The small aperture will create great depth of field and sharply detailed background, caused by slow shutter speed. Rapidly moving objects will be indistinct.

2. 

   Set aperture at f/16 and shutter speed at a half second. With an enlarged aperture and and increased shutter peed, background will be less sharp than with a smaller aperture and slower shutter speed. However, rapidly moving objects, such as a flock of fluttering birds, will be more distinct.

3. 

   Adjust aperture and shutter speed to f/11 and a quarter second. You will sacrifice nearly all detail in the background. The foreground and rapidly moving objects will be quite clear.

4. 

   Bring sufficient film to play with shutter speed and aperture. Adjust settings in various ways, making notations. Get a visual sense of the different ways that shutter speed and aperture affect creative potential for subjects, foreground and background.

Resources

• Shutter Speed and Aperture
• Camera Basics