Ryan Estrellado

The Canon G9 Series is a group of posts that discuss digital photography techniques and their application on the Canon G9. Feedback, especially from new and veteran G9 users, is welcome.

The first discussion in the Canon G9 Series is about Aperture Priority Mode, noted as Av on the camera’s mode dial.  Much of the information in this post is likely applicable to other point-and-shoot cameras that have Aperture Priority mode, but also includes some specific behaviors I’ve observed when using this mode on the G9.

Before we get into how this mode works on the camera, we’ll first need to define aperture.

What Is Aperture?

Digital Photography School has a very simple and well-presented discussion about the concept of aperture and how it affects the way photographs look:

Put most simply – Aperture is ‘the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken.’

When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene you’re wanting to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.

Aperture is measured using f-stops.  A lower f-stop indicates a larger opening in the lens and a higher f-stop indicates a smaller opening in the lens.

What does this mean for your picture? Aperture is used to manipulate depth of field, or how far back your camera will bring objects into focus. When the aperture is at its widest setting on your G9, f/2.8, your photo will only bring specific objects into focus while defocusing everything else. When the aperture is at its narrowest setting on your G9, f/8, your photo will not only focus on what is in front of it, but on most of what is behind it as well.

Examples

Let’s look at some photos that demonstrate the different effects achieved when using Aperture Priority mode.

Here’s a picture I took at the widest aperture allowable at that focal length:

Aperture: f/3.5, Focal Length: 18.9 mm

Notice that the object of focus, the toy, appears sharp while everything behind it appears blurry.  The wider aperture allows you to isolate your subject when focusing.  The effect is to draw attention to it while drawing attention away from everything around it.

Here is a picture I took with the narrowest aperture allowable at that focal length:

Aperture: f/8, Focal Length: 7.4 mm

In contrast to the picture of the toy, the flowers in the foreground of this picture are in focus, as are the man in the red shirt and the mountains in the background.  In this way, the long depth of field gives a feeling of vastness to the photo.

When To Use Aperture Priority Mode

With any photo, the depth of field, appearance of motion, and sensitivity to light will be affected by a combination of the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings.  When you want to control the depth of field in your photo, the Aperture Priority setting on the G9 allows you to manually set the aperture while letting the camera automatically decide which shutter speed will provide the best exposure for the aperture you selected.  Want to shoot a portrait of your daughter with a sharp image of her face and a nice blurry background?  Use Aperture Priority mode to force the widest aperture possible.  Capturing the vastness of the grand canyon on a family trip?  Set your aperture to the narrowest setting possible to keep everything in focus and let the G9 do the rest.

Aperture Priority on the G9: Things to Think About

There are some other things to keep in mind when using this mode on the G9.  If you are shooting indoors and want a very short depth of field, shooting at a wide aperture such as f/2.8 will result in the camera struggling to find a fast enough shutter speed to prevent motion blurring.  You’ll know this is the case when you see a small icon of a red camera appear on the LCD.  To counter a blurry image, you can select a higher ISO (I suggest no higher than 400 to avoid excessively noisy images) to brighten the image and a tripod to steady the camera for the shot.

You’ll also notice that the G9 will change the maximum aperture possible as you zoom in.  At the shortest focal length, you will be able to shoot at an aperture of f/2.8.  When you zoom in, the camera will change the maximum aperture setting to f/3.2, f/3.5, f/4.0, and f/4.8 as you do so.  This is presumably to reduce the amount of shaking that happens when longer focal lengths are used.

Conclusion

Depth of field is not the only element to consider in a good shot, but it can add a lot of dramatic effect to your photos.  I shoot on Aperture Priority mode often, as it allows me to control the depth of field and makes the Canon G9 automatically do (most of) the rest of the work.  In this way it doesn’t take the spontaneity out of your shooting, as the “no holds barred” approach of Manual mode can sometimes do.  In order to maximize the use of this mode on the G9, practice shooting the same subject while adjusting the aperture, your physical distance from the subject, and the amount you zoom in.  Take note of which factors do what, and which combinations yield the photo you are looking for.

More Reading

Looking for more information?  Read on:

Wikipedia Entry on Aperture

Digital Photography School’s Post on Aperture

Photo by *nathan

I’ve seen it mentioned on Flickr, alongside out-of-focus photos of laughing hipsters or lonely armchairs in someone’s disorganized living room.  The photos have a spontaneous look characterized by everyday subject matter, lots of saturated blues and greens, and the signature vignetting darkening the corners.  Interested, I did some online research and found lots of fun reading about the history, culture, debate, geeky equipment specs, and tech tutorials surrounding Lomography.

Started in the early 1990s, the Lomography philosophy is grounded in a set of simple rules, found on the official website:

1. Take your camera everywhere you go
2. Use it anytime — day or night
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
4. Try the shot from the hip
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don’t think (William Firebrace)
7. Be fast
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
9. Afterwards, either
10. Don’t worry about any rules

If you’re a fiddler of settings (as I am) and your shooting tends to be slowed down and premeditated (as mine does), this approach might inspire a different perspective or add variety to your photography experience.

Here are more interesting Lomography reads:

The Lomography Official Website (including Lomo cameras):

http://www.lomography.com/

The Lomography Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomography

A critique of the Lomography movement:

http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/lomography/

Flickr photos tagged with “Lomography”:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=lomography&m=tags

A tutorial for simulating the Lomo look using Photoshop:

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/lomography.html

A common problem that emerges for digital shutter bugs is photo organization and data management.  Bringing home 3,000 photos from a family trip and wanting to have them stored and accessible on multiple computers can lead to a lack of control over the media and even some risk of data loss as you move files back and forth.

Specifically, my own problem was not having a way to manage two Macs with active iPhoto libraries and 8,000 photos.  To complicate things, the 8,000 photos were spread across the two Macs with each computer sharing an unknown quantity of duplicates and some degree of tagging and editing.  My goal was to move all of the photos to my desktop computer, reduce or eliminate duplicates, and retain all of the metadata.

Fat Cat Software’s iPhoto Library Manager has generated some buzz over it’s effectiveness to wrangle unruly photos across multiple library files, so I took it for a spin.

Here’s the set up I used to try this out:

• Dual G5 Power Mac
• Intel Core Duo Macbook
• Mac OS X 10.5.2
• iPhoto Library Manager 3.4 (purchased version – $19.95)

I purchased and installed the software on my Power Mac.  Once it was set up, the application was able to find both my Power Mac’s iPhoto library as well as my Macbook’s over my home network.  From there I was able to bring all of the photos from my Macbook’s library over to my Power Mac’s library with all the metadata intact.  As it imported the 3,000 photos from my laptop, it identified potential duplicates and prompted me to make a decision about whether or not to import.

As I reviewed my freshly imported photos on my Power Mac, I noticed that there were some duplicates that were missed by the application, but I found myself unable to complain considering that I thought the job at hand would be far more frustrating than it actually was.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for what iPhoto Library Manager is able to do.  Other features include splitting large libraries into smaller ones, syncing photos from multiple libraries with your iPod, and the ability to allow multiple users of a computer to share the same library on one machine.  Feel free to comment here on your experience using any of the other features.

You can read more about the features of both the free and purchased version at Fat Cat Software’s website:

Fat Cat Software

You can read other reviews of this application here:

Macworld Review

Apple Matters Review

Digital photography blog Photojojo did a great post on taking pictures of food. Along with the sky and your office space, food is one of the few things you can count on being in the presence of most days of the week. I find this makes it a readily available subject, which works to my benefit when I can pull it off. Unfortunately the law of averages guarantees that for every appetite-inspiring food photo in my collection there are several that would decorate the cutting room floor at even the most modest of eating establishments. I would do well to heed Photojojo’s advice described in list item number ten:

10: Don’t Shoot

Know what not to shoot. Some things will just never look delicious, no matter how hard you try.

Meals that are all the same color and brown sauces are best left alone. And tasty though they may be, we defy you to make a haggis look good.

I still reflect fondly on the scoop of ice cream I shot while out for dessert with my wife. The half-eaten fish taco at the food court? Not so much.

Photojojo: The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips

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