Videos

Mike Browne treats a zoom as a set of primes, photographing Natasha in a street at 10, 20, 35, 70, 150, 250 and 500mm, stepping back so she fills the same frame, showing how focal length changes the environment behind her and how wide lenses pull her face forward.

Mark Denney reviews five aperture mistakes from his early landscape photography, starting with shooting everything at f/11 because professionals did, which left close foregrounds out of focus. He urges deciding the vision before choosing settings, and describes testing a lens across its aperture range to find its sweet spot.

Jana Williams demonstrates how aperture priority mode on a DSLR helps produce soft, flattering portraits. The short tutorial explains why a portrait photographer might hand shutter speed to the camera and concentrate on aperture alone, with the chosen opening shaping how softly the background falls away behind the subject.

Andrew Boey explains why aperture priority produces blur when its shutter slows in dim light. His Nikon fix: enable auto ISO sensitivity capped at ISO 6400 with a minimum shutter speed, then switch auto ISO off, set ISO 100 and re-enable it so the camera raises ISO instead.

Mark Wallace photographs Nesli Avci before an aqueduct in Istanbul to demonstrate what controls depth of field. He shoots at f/1.4 then f/16 to blur and sharpen the background, compares 50mm and 21mm Leica lenses at the same aperture, and moves closer and further with a 35mm at f/2.

Paul from Photo Genius photographs puppy Boo with Canon and Nikon DSLRs in aperture priority, showing beginners how to blur a background: open the aperture to its widest, f/3.5 on an 18-55mm kit lens, and zoom in or fit a telephoto, noting kit zooms close to f/5.6 when extended.

Dylan Bennett uses diagrams to explain depth of field: the field is the zone meant to be in focus, its depth how far that zone extends. He traces light rays through lens to sensor, showing why sharpness falls off, then demonstrates how subject distance and focal length control it.

Andrew Boey defines depth of field as the zone of sharpness along a scene's depth axis, then shows its uses: separating subject from location, including or excluding people, and keeping everything sharp above f/8 for groups and events. He demonstrates the DSLR preview button and previews the factors governing it.

Andrew Boey answers ten aperture questions: f/2 to f/4 for portraits, f/11 or f/16 for daytime landscapes, f/5.6 to f/8 at night and f/8 to f/22 for macro and still life. He explains his ISO-first setup order, why cheap zooms lose aperture when zoomed, and the full-stop f-number series.

Paul from Photo Genius introduces aperture priority as a step out of auto: set the aperture and the camera handles shutter speed and ISO. He shows an 18-55mm kit lens losing its widest aperture when zoomed, contrasts constant-aperture primes, and explains how aperture affects light and depth of field.