Aperture: Creative Use

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The Details

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Where Do You Want Me to Look?

We’ve already talked about the technical side of aperture. Aperture controls the size of the opening in the lens. Big opening, more light. Small opening, less light. But that’s only half the story. Because aperture isn’t just a way to control light. Aperture is a creative choice. And one of the most powerful things it lets you control is Depth of Field.

Depth of Field Controls the Viewer’s Eye

Think about what happens when you look at a really nice portrait. Your brain sees the person’s face. It’s sharp. Clear. Detailed. And then it automatically starts discarding all that blurry stuff in the background. You don’t need to consciously tell your brain: “Ignore that tree. Ignore that wall. Ignore that lamp.” Your brain just does it. Suddenly… It’s you and your subject.

That’s one of the powers of Depth of Field. You can use it to help tell the viewer: “This is what’s important.” And… “This isn’t.”

Let’s Try a Ladybug

Imagine you’re in a garden. You find a ladybug sitting on a leaf. That’s your subject. But look around. There are flowers. Leaves. Branches. A fence. Maybe a shed. Maybe a house. Maybe a whole garden full of stuff. You want me to see the ladybug. But do I really need to see every detail of the garden behind it? Probably not. In fact, all of that detail might actually distract me from the thing you want me to see.

So what if instead of seeing every leaf and flower in the background, I see something like this: a creamy blur of green shapes. Maybe a soft blob of red from a flower. Maybe some warm sunlight. I know there’s a garden there. I know where the photograph was made. But I don’t need to see every individual leaf. The background becomes context instead of competition. That’s a creative use of Depth of Field. You’re using aperture to help tell me a story.

What Is Important?

That’s really what we’re doing. We’re making choices about what is important. Photography is full of tools that help us communicate with the viewer: composition, light, color, shutter speed, aperture, Depth of Field. They’re all tools. And aperture gives us a particularly useful way to control where the viewer’s eye goes.

You can make something stand out. You can separate a subject from its surroundings. You can simplify a complicated scene. You can remove distractions without physically removing them. You’re not changing the world. You’re changing how the viewer experiences the world you’ve photographed.

This Isn’t New

Depth of Field isn’t some fancy digital photography trick. Photographers have been using it since the early days of photography. The masters understood this concept very well. Two of my favorite photographers are Yousuf Karsh and Joe McNally. Both are masters of their craft, and both are incredible examples of photographers who understand how to use aperture and light to control what we see.

If you’ve never spent some quiet time studying Joe McNally’s work, I highly recommend it. Find one of his books. Find a quiet corner. Get yourself a cup of coffee. Or, if that’s your thing, a nice whiskey. And don’t just flip through the photographs. Study them. Look at what is sharp. Look at what isn’t. Look at the light. Look at the background. Look at what Joe decided to show you. Then ask yourself: Why? That’s how you learn to see.

Now Let’s Talk About Landscape Photography

Here’s where things get interesting. I’m a landscape photographer. And my needs are often very different from those of a portrait photographer. When I’m photographing a landscape, the entire scene may be my story. If something is in my frame, it’s probably there for a reason.

That rock in the foreground? It’s there for a reason. That tree? There for a reason. That distant lighthouse? There for a reason. Those clouds? You better believe they’re there for a reason. And if I’ve decided something belongs in my photograph… I want you to see it. That means I generally want it to be sharp. Really sharp.

So my creative use of aperture is often very different from the way a portrait photographer might use it. A portrait photographer might say: “I want the background to disappear.” I might say: “I want you to see the entire story.” Neither approach is right or wrong. They’re simply different stories.

Aperture Is Just a Choice

This is one of the biggest things I want you to take away from this lesson. There isn’t a correct aperture. There is only the aperture that helps you make the photograph you want.

If I want to isolate a subject, I might use a larger aperture. If I want the entire scene to be sharp, I might use a smaller aperture. If I want to create a starburst around a point of light, I might use a very small aperture. Aperture is just a choice. And the better you understand what that choice does, the more control you have over your photograph.

Go Test Your Lens

Here’s something I do that might sound a little silly. Every once in a while, I test my lens. Not because I think there’s something wrong with it. I just want to remind myself what it can do. You can do the same thing.

Find a scene with lots of things at different distances. I have a great test right in my backyard: a fence. The posts and pickets give me lots of objects at slightly different distances. Perfect. Set up your camera so the fence runs through the frame.

Now start at f/22. Take a photograph. Then open the aperture one click. Take another. One click. Another photograph. Keep going. Work your way through the available apertures. Don’t just take the pictures. Look at them. Really look at them. Compare f/22 to f/16, then f/11, then f/8, then f/5.6, then f/4, and so on.

Look at the individual fence pickets. Look at what is sharp. Look at what starts becoming soft. Look at the background. Look at how the photograph changes. You’re not trying to discover the “correct” aperture. You’re learning what your lens does. And that’s important, because your lens is one of your creative tools.

Try It With a Subject

Now do the same thing with a subject. Find a flower. A toy. A coffee cup. A person. A ladybug, if you’re lucky. Put your subject at one distance and make sure there are things behind it at several different distances.

Now work through your apertures. Watch the background change. At a large aperture, the background may become a soft collection of shapes and colors. At a smaller aperture, more of those shapes start becoming recognizable. Eventually, you may have so much detail in the background that your subject doesn’t stand out nearly as much.

Ask yourself: Which photograph tells the story better? Not: Which photograph has more detail? Those are two very different questions.

Starbursts

Now let’s have some fun. I love starbursts. When you stop your lens down to something like f/18 or f/22, the aperture blades inside the lens move into a very small opening. The shape created by those blades can cause bright point light sources to produce rays or “stars” in the photograph. Think: headlights, taillights, city lights, streetlights, the sun, the moon.

Those little points of light can suddenly become visual elements in the photograph. And once again… you’re using aperture creatively. You’re not just controlling exposure. You’re creating something.

Go find some lights. You don’t need an expensive studio for this. Go to a flower garden. Go to a park. Walk around your town. Find some bright point light sources. Try different apertures. Look at what happens. And don’t stop at one photograph. Experiment. Try f/8, f/11, f/16, f/18, f/22. Look at the shape of the light. Look at how the starburst changes. You’re learning what your lens can do.

The Trade-Off

Remember our favorite phrase: Nothing is free. Aperture gives you creative control over Depth of Field. But changing aperture also changes exposure. A larger aperture lets in more light but gives you less Depth of Field. A smaller aperture lets in less light but gives you more Depth of Field. And very small apertures can introduce diffraction and reduce overall sharpness.

So don’t fall into the trap of thinking: “More Depth of Field is always better.” It isn’t. And don’t think: “Blurry backgrounds are always better.” They aren’t. The question is: What does this photograph need?

The Real Lesson

Aperture isn’t about numbers. It’s about communication. You are deciding what the viewer sees. You are deciding what gets emphasized. You are deciding what gets softened. You are deciding what gets included in the story and what gets pushed into the background.

A portrait might say: “Look at this person.” A macro photograph might say: “Look at this tiny creature.” A landscape might say: “Look at this entire world.” Same camera. Same lens. Same aperture control. Completely different decisions. And that’s the fun of photography.

You aren’t just controlling the camera.
You’re controlling the story.

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