Aperture
Aperture is simply the size of the opening inside your lens — but it's the control that decides how much of your photo comes out sharp, from a single eyelash to a whole mountain range. Open it wide and the background melts into soft blur; close it down and everything stays crisp, front to back. That creamy blur even has a name photographers love to throw around — bokeh — and here you'll learn to shape it on purpose. Five shoots, portraits to macro — and backgrounds stop being an accident.
5 lessons, easy to ambitious — free to read, free to shoot.
- 1Wide vs. NarrowIn Aperture Priority, shoot the same subject at a wide and a narrow aperture and compare them.
- 2Blur the BackgroundMake a portrait — of a person, a pet, a flower — where your subject is razor-sharp and the background melts into soft blur.
- 3Sharp Front to BackShoot a scene with depth — a landscape, a long street, a big room — so everything from the nearest detail to the far distance is sharp.
- 4BokehFind small points of light behind your subject — string lights, sun through leaves, distant streetlights — and turn them into soft glowing orbs.
- 5MacroGet as close as your lens can focus on something tiny — a flower, an insect, a water droplet, a coin — and fill the frame with its detail.
Shoot this tree, assignment by assignment.
A free account turns reading into doing — place your proof shots, earn the XP, and master Aperture for the Master of Depth badge.