manual settings for the shot below:
ISO – 1250 (inside, in the evening, under just the lights from above the kitchen table)
aperture – F 2.2 (needed light and i wanted the blur factor)
shutter – 1/160 (slow, but not too slow that my wiggly guy is out of focus)
lens – 50mm 1.2L
camera – canon 5D mark II

Then I change my perspective and look down on my other little guy from above. I wanted to tell the whole story of how this little guy plays. He loves bananagrams. :)

manual settings for the shot below:
ISO – 1250 (inside still, same table, same lighting)
aperture – F 2.5 (needed light but not quite as much as the light was reflecting off the table a bit)
shutter – 1/160 (slow, but not too slow)
lens – 50mm 1.2L
camera – canon 5D mark II

TIP #25: Set your aperture based on the number of people you’re photographing.

Again, your aperture is the hole or opening in your lens that lets in light. The size of the opening determines how much light comes into your camera as well as how sharp or blurry the background is going to be in your image. But…aperture can be tricky and you shouldn’t just keep it at F 1.8 or F 2.8 all the time. The number of people you’re photographing makes a difference. Unless you’re doing something creative you probably want all of the people in your image to be in focus. If you’re shooting pictures of a large group of people and you have your aperture set at F 1.8 they may not all be in focus. I have a few recommendations for that. Just some tips that have worked for me.

• If you’re shooting pictures of one child, by themselves… then try F 2.8 and focus on their eyes and let other things behind them be out of focus
• When photographing two or more persons sitting together try F 3.5 or F 4.0 to be sure that they’re both in focus and sharp.
• When photographing a larger group of people try F 7 or higher. I usually recommend basing your initial aperture on the number of people. For example, if you’re photographing five people then set it at F 5.0 or higher. When photographing nine people move it up closer to F 9.0 or higher.

The higher aperture numbers will close up the lens a bit and allow for more things to be in focus even if they are not on the exact same plane.

This shot below was photographed with an aperture of F 2.2

TIP #17: If your background isn’t ideal, open that lens up wide and make it soft, blurry, and beautiful.

The other day my little boy and I were having a moment. This is my little guy who sticks out his tongue at the camera, is hardly ever serious, and watches tv upside down on his head (literally). Well, he and I were having a sweet moment in the backyard at home together. He wasn’t wiggling. He wasn’t sticking out his tongue. He was just being sweet and we were enjoying each other. I had my camera because I was taking some pics of my nephew and I started taking a couple of pics of my little guy. I wasn’t about to ask him to move to a “prettier spot” cause that would change the moment for sure. Instead I opened my aperture up to 2.2 so that the background would become more blurry and look prettier than it was. The left side of the background is my neighbor’s house and roof. The background also consists of the typical backyard fence and some plants. And now it’s blurry enough that it doesn’t bother me. Instead I love this picture. Try it. Take your aperture down to a really small number. Try 2.0 or 2.2. Get in somewhat close to your subject and shoot. See what you think.

My manual settings for this picture were:
ISO 100, aperture F 2.2, shutter speed 1/400 second, 50mm lens

TIP #2: When setting up your manual camera settings, set your aperture second.

When you have your camera on manual [M], and after setting your ISO  first, I would recommend setting your aperture second. Aperture is the hole or opening in your lens that lets in light. The size of the opening determines how much light comes into your camera as well as how sharp or blurry the background is going to be in your image.

The aperture setting is also known and referred to as “F-stop”. These terms can be used interchangeable. The smaller the F-stop number, the more light that will be able to enter your camera. For example, F2.0 will allow a lot more light to come into your camera than the setting F16. You can keep learning about aperture more here.

Aperture is what you use to control and create that blurry loveliness behind the subject, often referred to as bokeh. This picture below was taken with an aperture of F2.8 and the leaves and sunlight have become blurry and soft behind the little girl.

And here are my manual settings for a couple of pictures inside my home. This was taken at 11:00am in my kitchen with an overhead light on above the kitchen table and bright morning light coming in from behind him through the windows. And my manual settings were:

ISO – 1250
shutter – 1/100 second
aperture – F 2.5
lens – 50mm 1.2L
camera body – canon’s 5D mark II

Now my settings were exactly the same for both of these pictures. But notice the bottom picture has much more blur or that bokeh that we all seem to love where the background and sometimes foreground just kind of fall away in a blurry glory. :)  Well, the settings on my camera were the same so the only difference is the distance between me and my subject. In the first picture above I am across the table from my little boy. On the second picture below I am leaning in real close to focus on the letters in the book so the distance is much less and the blurriness in turn, is greater. Just a tip to point out to you. Distance matters. :)  I go over that and lots on aperture in my Learn Your Camera workbook.  Keep on shooting and practicing!

My manual camera settings were:
ISO – 200 (sunny day but in full shade)
shutter – 1/640
aperture – F 2.5 (wanting his eyes and face in focus but the rest to fall away a bit)
lens – 50mm 1.2
camera body – canon’s 5D mark II

Notice the blur on the back lines of the bricks? Well that’s due to the aperture settings, the F 2.5 is what creates that look. Try it!  :)

My manual camera settings (for the shot below) were:
ISO – 200
shutter – 1/250
aperture – F 4.5 (when photographing more people at a time I prefer to use a higher Fstop, a larger number for a larger focus area)
lens – 85mm 1.2 (I was farther away from them)
camera body – canon’s 5D mark II

Here’s a picture that I took in Las Vegas at the WPPI (wedding and portrait photographers international) convention this past week. We were inside a mall at night and these fun lights were from a store front.

My manual settings for this image were:
ISO – 1250
aperture – F 2
shutter speed – 1/100 second
lens – 50mm 1.2
camera body – canon’s 5D mark II

My manual settings for this shot:
ISO – 200
shutter speed – 1/400 second
aperture – F 2.8

These two pictures below are taken at the aperture (also known as f stop) of 2.2. That means the hole in my lens is open up really wide, the hole is big. So, my depth of field behind my subject is shallow, creating a blurry background. The background is not sharply in focus. Right? So that’s a shallow depth of field. Make sense? These two pictures were taken with the same settings but a different focus point. When taking the picture on the left I focused on my little boy’s eyes. In the picture on the right I didn’t change any of my settings, but instead I focused on the donut. :)

My manual settings for this shot were:
ISO – 800 (inside the donut shop)
aperture – 2.2 (open pretty wide open for light and for a very shallow depth of field)
shutter speed – 1/250 second

ISO – 400
aperture – 2.8
shutter speed – 1/320
lens – 50mm 1.2

ISO – 250
aperture – 2.8
shutter speed – 1/250
lens – 50mm 1.2

Did you notice that both of these images have the same aperture (the same f-stop)? They are both set at 2.8. But they look quite different. In the first picture the background falls off (blurry) much more than the second picture. In the second picture you can at least tell that it’s grass under her. Why are they different when they both have the same aperture setting? Well, my distance to the subject is different in these two pictures and that makes it appear different. I’m really close to the little girl in the first picture and so the background falls off much more. There is a lot more distance between my lens and the little girl in the second picture and so much more is in focus below her. Does that make sense? Hope so! Happy practicing. And…. guess what, one more workshop will be opening up in the Fall. I said I wasn’t doing any in the Fall, but I lied (or changed my mind). I’m giving in (a lot of you lovely people have been asking). Let’s do one more Saturday. More info soon. Look for it here…