I've been using digital cameras for years, but with the camera almost always determining the exposure. ; I'm in the process of learning manual exposure settings. ; I'm understanding the concepts and have been testing them for the last few days. ; I have some really nice all white and all black jpegs created during my tests Can someone explain the benefits to using a low aperture/fast shutter speed verses a high aperture/slow shutter speed? ; It would seem like, if done correctly, both would have the same result. ; I've been testing this by taking pictures of my backyard. ; I just took a picture with an aperture of F8.0 with a shutter speed of 1/100 and another with F3.4 and 1/250 and both look nearly identical. I understand anything moving would certainly blur with the slower shutter speed. ; Are there any benefits to the higher aperture settings? Thanks, Bob
Aperture affects depth of field. ; A larger aperture results in less DOF, smaller aperture more. And with digital you have to be worried about loss of sharpness due to diffraction at the smaller apertures as well (usually around f/16).
Yes, there are multiple shutter speed/aperture combinations that will produce a technically correct exposure. ; Tim wrote a good article describing the relationship of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. ; Here's the link: ; http://www.themagicinpixels.com/index.php/2008032313/Photography-101/Exposure.html
Ding...as above, the depth of field will be the big difference in otherwise equal exposures between small aperture/slow shutter, and big aperture/fast shutter.
If you prefer visual examples, try http://www.ppsop.com/tips.aspx. ; "Creatively Correct Exposure part 1" shows the effect of aperture on depth of field, while "Creatively Correct Exposure part 2" shows the effect of changing shutter speed with a moving subject. My best advice is to experiment and read the Photography 101 articles.
