Focal Length/Apperture Confuses Me

Hi everyone

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast. Let's say I'm taking a pictre of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length. Blurry Background? F4-F8. All focused F16-F20.

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Thanks!

You don't mention it but you're using a Fuji X-T20; right?

I think you really need to find a beginner photography class.
Your questions go way beyond simply focal length and aperture.

Zoba132 said:

Hi everyone

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast. Let's say I'm taking a pictre of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length. Blurry Background? F4-F8. All focused F16-F20.

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Might be good just to take multiple shots at multiple apertures until you get a feel for what works best for you. After all, what you think is good might not be what someone else thinks is good.

Also, the aperture is just part of the equation. Often of much greater importance is how far you are from the subject, how tightly you frame, and how far the background is from the subject. These factors most likely matter far more than aperture in most situations.

Zoba132 said:

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast.

Click to expand...

I don't mean to be harsh, but if you can't apply your experiment to everyday shooting then you didn't really learn much from it. The fact is that unless you carefully record all the factors involved, especially distance to subject as well as focal length and f-number, you won't have all the data you need for a full understanding … and if you do record all that you'll have too much data to sort it all out in your head.

This website is useful for visualising what all the variables do to a picture https://dofsimulator.net/en/ but it's too much to take in all at once.

Zoba132 said:

Let's say I'm taking a picture of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

Click to expand...

Well, the first thing is to make your own decisions about which of those matter most. I can't say whether you want full body or portrait but you do, so fix that. I can't tell how close or how far away you can get but you do. Allowing for the smaller size of a baby you can use the website I linked to work out the focal length needed on your camera (which I believe is 1.5 crop APS-C) for the framing you want.

Generally speaking a detailed background distracts from the subject of a portrait but (again) it's your picture so you decide. Use the website to choose an f-stop that gives enough depth of field that precise focus isn't crucial but not too deep.

The next factor isn't something you haven't mentioned - controlling motion blur. That limits your shutter speed. If you are using f-number as your key factor you use aperture priority and the camera calculates the shutter speed; but if it's too slow you need too increase ISO. That, of course, takes care of your question about the type of lighting.

Zoba132 said:

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

Click to expand...

Not really. There are too many variables for a simple list. That's why you need something like the website I linked. I've given one example of how to use it; for different types of picture go through the same decision tree each time.

What you say next has several misconceptions in it (which confirms what I said about your not really having learned much).

Zoba132 said:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length.

Click to expand...

This is meaningless. The factor that has most influence over whether a portrait is flattering is distance from camera to subject. This is often considered to be 10-15 feet (3-5m) or longer. With that settled decide on the framing you want - full face, head-and-shoulders, full body or whatever - and then use the web link to find out what focal length is needed. In portrait (vertical) orientation your camera would need focal lengths of from 200mm to 50mm for those examples - 35mm would have a small person surrounded by lots of open space.

Zoba132 said:

Blurry Background? F4-F8.

Click to expand...

The most important factor in background blur is the distance between the subject and that background. The more separation the more blur regardless of f-number. There's a related but separate factor called depth of field (DOF) that determines how much of the subject itself is sharp, For a portrait one often wants the whole subject to be sharp, which means DOF must equal the depth of the subjects body - about 2 feet (0.6m). The f-number for that is usually smaller than 4.

Zoba132 said:

All focused F16-F20.

Click to expand...

There are two problems here. First, a lens can focus at only one distance. Everything nearer of further away is out of focus to some degree and has an amount of blur. However, our eyes can accommodate a small amount of blur and still see things as sharp even when they aren't quite in focus. That means there is a range of distances from the camera where things look sharp: this is the DOF (see above).

So when you say "all focused" you mean "all (acceptably) sharp". I've put "acceptably" in there because DOF calculators like the one I've linked use a standard parameter to work out what the average viewer sees as being sharp enough - or acceptably sharp - to be within the DOF. If you haven't found it yet that link shows DOF at the bottom of the page.

Second, there is a phenomenon called diffraction that softens the light through small apertures. Ad DOF is measure of sharpness diffraction softening reduces DOF. The result is that there's no real benefit to going beyond a certain f-number; this depends on sensor size and for your camera is about f/11.

Zoba132 said:

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Click to expand...

As I say, it's too much for a single sheet but if you start by concentrating on just a couple of types of picture you can create your own sheet for each of them using that web link. If you stick to just a couple of things to start off with the settings soon become second nature; once you've achieved that for the first couple of styles move on to the next.

What makes learning all of this hard is trying to master it all at once. Do your learning in bite-sized chunks.

Zoba132 said:

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Zoba132 said:

Hi everyone

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

Click to expand...

Does the Sunny-16 Rule give what you're looking for? It gives you all three settings (shutter speed, aperture, ISO) for proper image brightness on a bright sunny day. From there it's a matter of counting stops in your head to keep all three settings balanced.

You could also put your camera into one of the PAS modes, then point your camera at the scene and half-press the shutter button - the camera will suggest some settings to start with. If you change one of the settings, the camera will count the stops for you.

The basis for all this is the Exposure Value system which has all the math used to calculate camera settings from the amount of light available to the camera.

That DOF simulator link is very helpful. Thanks for posting.

Great Bustard said:

Might be good just to take multiple shots at multiple apertures until you get a feel for what works best for you. After all, what you think is good might not be what someone else thinks is good.

Also, the aperture is just part of the equation. Often of much greater importance is how far you are from the subject, how tightly you frame, and how far the background is from the subject. These factors most likely matter far more than aperture in most situations.

Click to expand...

Excellent advice. I will be even more blunt: don't obsess on aperture. For "grab it now" shots just let the aperture be whatever is needed for the illumination and shutter speed. The background will take care of itself. That rule is for every day shots. When you have the time, and are in the mood, then have fun experimenting with creative apertures.

If you like books on this sort of thing, there are plenty to choose from -


Kelly Cook

Sorry for the late reply. Was a busy weekend

Zoba132 said:

You don't mention it but you're using a Fuji X-T20; right?

Click to expand...

You right, I'm sorry - I forgot to mentioned that . I do use the X-T20

Zoba132 said:

I think you really need to find a beginner photography class.
Your questions go way beyond simply focal length and aperture.

Click to expand...

I have a new baby at home, so time is a little bit precious at the moment. But - I'm assuming things will get more relaxed in the near future - and that's something I was already checking as an option.

Zoba132 said:

Often of much greater importance is how far you are from the subject, how tightly you frame, and how far the background is from the subject. These factors most likely matter far more than aperture in most situations.

Click to expand...

That's the reason I'm confused. Id often would like to get a picture with specific attributes, and I don't can't reach there without a lot of experiments, because there's so many options to take in mind.

Zoba132 said:

I don't mean to be harsh, but if you can't apply your experiment to everyday shooting then you didn't really learn much from it.

Click to expand...

I think that I did learned from it. But not to a point where I feel everything sits nicely in my head and I can do everything I want with this information. Your right, I didn't record all of those. I do plan to make another education trip with the camera soon, I'll try to record stuff better this time around.

Zoba132 said:

This website is useful for visualising what all the variables do to a picture https://dofsimulator.net/en/ but it's too much to take in all at once.

Click to expand...

That's a pretty good web-site! It's indeed a lot to take in, but I think it's a good tool for me to play around and play with. Thank for sharing!

Zoba132 said:

This is often considered to be 10-15 feet (3-5m) or longer.

Click to expand...

That exactly what I was looking for. Being able to know that for most portrait pictures I should be standing 3-5m away from he target is huge, because it's make focal length adjust easier for me (I don't need to wonder how far I should be from the target) and try couple of options.

Zoba132 said:

would need focal lengths of from 200mm to 50mm for those examples - 35mm would have a small person surrounded by lots of open space.

Click to expand...

My kit lens only goes around to 50mm and most and it force to use F8 as the lowest FStop option. I think I will be starting with that. Stand 3-5 meters away from the baby, frame a portrait around the 50mm - and go from there.

Zoba132 said:

he result is that there's no real benefit to going beyond a certain f-number

Click to expand...

Excellent - wasn't aware of that! Thanks for the detailed information Gerry. I learned a lot from your post. So if Diffraction makes everything less sharp - why do most cameras come with the ability to go above 11 Fstop? just force the aperture rings won't close around a certain point?

Zoba132 said:

Does the Sunny-16 Rule give what you're looking for?

Click to expand...

It solving some of the issues I have, thanks!

Zoba132 said:

or "grab it now" shots just let the aperture be whatever is needed for the illumination and shutter speed. The background will take care of itself.

Click to expand...

Before posting here I was sure all that the single things that effect blue is aperture. I will stop focusing it too much for now, and instead try to figure how far I stand from the target and how focal length do that for me. For the moment - my 'Grabi t now!' pictures are mostly in Auto, because I don't feel comfortable enough missing a critical moment just because I didn't noticed the picture is too dark.

Thanks everyone!

Zoba132 said:

Zoba132 said:

he result is that there's no real benefit to going beyond a certain f-number

Click to expand...

Excellent - wasn't aware of that! Thanks for the detailed information Gerry. I learned a lot from your post. So if Diffraction makes everything less sharp - why do most cameras come with the ability to go above 11 Fstop? just force the aperture rings won't close around a certain point?

Click to expand...

You were asking about portraits so I kept my answer to that.

Depth of field depends on subject distance, so for close-up and macro work it gets very thin.

This is at f/8, which for many subjects would give more than enough DOF, but look at the bottom of the picture.



This is at f/38 - way beyond the normal point at which diffraction over-softens things. Viewed as a picture at normal size it's fine - and that, after all, is what we take photos for.



But now look at 100% crops. For the parts that are in true focus the f/38 shot is visibly softer. For this type of shot, where the details are small in themselves but relatively large compared to the sensor it's a compromise worth making.

But for a landscape with grass and foliage it would lose a lot of the detail that makes the image look real.









--
---
Gerry
___________________________________________
First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006
[email protected]

I see. That's makes more sense. So many things to consider. Thanks again!

Zoba132 said:

Hi everyone

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast. Let's say I'm taking a pictre of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length. Blurry Background? F4-F8. All focused F16-F20.

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Actually, it's not the focal length that affects how people look, it's the subject distance.

If you are too close to a person the image usually won't look flattering. Some think the issue is the focal length, as they tend to move closer to the person when using a shorter focal length.

My advice is to start by choosing a subject distance. How far do your want to be from the subject. I advise being around 6 feet away. However, this is a matter of style. Too far away, and the photo loses intimacy. Too close, and the perspective is not flattering.

The focal length and sensor size determine your angle of view. Once you have decided how far you want to be from your subject, pick the focal length that gives you the framing you want. Do you want a tight shot of just the face? do you want waist up? etc.

In terms of aperture, that affects how much light enters the camera, and the depth of field. Smaller apertures (higher f-numbers) let in less light, and give you a deeper depth of field. Larger apertures (lower f-numbers) let in more light, but give you a shallower depth of field. Letting in less light either means a noisier image, or a blurry image due to a slower shutter speed. Too small an aperture, and you lose sharpness to diffraction issues. However, for a portrait you may not want an image that's sharp enough to show every pore of the model's skin.

Shallow depth of field can make a nice portrait. If the background is out of focus, the viewer's eye will naturally be drawn to the in-focus model. Of course, if the photo is of the model standing in front of a famous landmark, then you may want the background in focus. Be careful, with some lenses you can get too shallow a depth of field. You might end up with the tip of the nose in focus, but the eyes out of focus. When in doubt, get the eyes in focus.

The affect of the aperture isn't based on the f/stop (which is the aperture diameter relative to the focal length). The results from f/4 will vary with focal length and sensor size.

All in all, these are matters of style. The bottom line is that if the framing, model's pose and mode's expression are great, you likely will have an image that people will like.

Personally, with a full frame camera, I like a subject distance of a little over 6 feet. I tend to shoot between 70 and 135mm. I will shoot anywhere from f/2.8 to f/10, depending on lighting, and how far the subject is from the background.

I believe the X-T20 has a crop factor of about 1.5X. To get results similar to mine, you would shoot between 47 and 90mm and use an f/stop range of f/1.9 to f/6.7.

Just remember, getting a good expression on the model's face, and proper framing are generally far more important than the technical aspects of the image.

First of all, good for you for learning these fundamental aspects of photography by actually doing it! Just do a few more exercises like that and all will be crystal clear and second nature to you.

It's like you just learned some basic music theory and are now looking for a cheat sheet on what chords to use to create songs. Probably no musician approaches it that way. Same with photography. And just like with music, photography requires practice, not cheat sheets.

Aperture and focal length are tools used to answer these two questions:

1. What's the main subject?

2. What's the context around the main subject?

Zoba132 said:

Hi everyone

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast. Let's say I'm taking a pictre of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length. Blurry Background? F4-F8. All focused F16-F20.

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I would suggest you try a few DOF apps or take a look at this website: https://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

It's great that you are interested in the physics/math of photography, but it can get confusing. It was easier when lenses had distance markings. Also, we tend to not use manual mode as much anymore.

In the end, you'll find that you home in on a few distances, ISO's, and F:/stops. Knowing that DOF will help you compose a bit better.

KCook said:

KCook said:

Might be good just to take multiple shots at multiple apertures until you get a feel for what works best for you. After all, what you think is good might not be what someone else thinks is good.

Also, the aperture is just part of the equation. Often of much greater importance is how far you are from the subject, how tightly you frame, and how far the background is from the subject. These factors most likely matter far more than aperture in most situations.

Click to expand...

Excellent advice. I will be even more blunt: don't obsess on aperture. For "grab it now" shots just let the aperture be whatever is needed for the illumination and shutter speed. The background will take care of itself. That rule is for every day shots. When you have the time, and are in the mood, then have fun experimenting with creative apertures.

If you like books on this sort of thing, there are plenty to choose from -

http://photographyintro.com/portrait_books/

Kelly Cook

Click to expand...

Yes, as everyone knows, if you just ignore things, they will take care of themselves.

It's true of photography just as it is with oncology.

EmmaNems said:

KCook said:

EmmaNems said:

Might be good just to take multiple shots at multiple apertures until you get a feel for what works best for you. After all, what you think is good might not be what someone else thinks is good.

Also, the aperture is just part of the equation. Often of much greater importance is how far you are from the subject, how tightly you frame, and how far the background is from the subject. These factors most likely matter far more than aperture in most situations.

Click to expand...

Excellent advice. I will be even more blunt: don't obsess on aperture. For "grab it now" shots just let the aperture be whatever is needed for the illumination and shutter speed. The background will take care of itself. That rule is for every day shots. When you have the time, and are in the mood, then have fun experimenting with creative apertures.

If you like books on this sort of thing, there are plenty to choose from -

http://photographyintro.com/portrait_books/

Kelly Cook

Click to expand...

Yes, as everyone knows, if you just ignore things, they will take care of themselves.

It's true of photography just as it is with oncology.

Click to expand...

;-)

Zoba132 said:

Hi everyone

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast. Let's say I'm taking a pictre of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length. Blurry Background? F4-F8. All focused F16-F20.

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'd suggest you have a look at this site. It's a DOF simulator that gives some indication of what portraits with background will look like with various focal lengths. apertures and subject distances. This may give you a start to produce some simple guidelines for yourself.

Dave

Dave_J_E said:

Zoba132 said:

Hi everyone

So I was doing some reading on what Focal Length means, how Aperture works and how depth of field calculates into that - and went out to do couple of tests. I took a picture of my wife on different focal length (18, 20, 25, 35 etc) and checked out how her face/body change. I also tried taking picture of static object, and modified the Aperture to figure out how the depth blurs by using different aperture levels.

So this was interesting project to learn from, but I'm not sure how to apply that to daily photographing, as everything is much more variable and fast. Let's say I'm taking a pictre of my baby boy, and there's a lot of variability around - how far are the object behind him, do I want a portrait or a full-body photo? Is it day-light? do I want the background to be blurry, etc.

I wondered if there's sort of a beginner cheat-sheet to help me define a baselines of settings I can expand from there. For example - assuming there is not lighting problem and there's clean sky out:

- For Portraits, 35m is a flattering Focal length. Blurry Background? F4-F8. All focused F16-F20.

Right now what I do is going to the lower aperture when wanting blur, and highest aperture (F22) when wanting things in focus, and I'm assuming that's an overkill.

So the above is just example. There full body shots, landscape shots etc. I'm looking for a set of rules I can keep in my pocket, and start with "OK, this is a full-body shot. The cheat sheet suggested a focal length of Y, and if I want a blurry background an aperture of X.". I can set those settings, and tweak them based on the light on my need.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'd suggest you have a look at this site. It's a DOF simulator that gives some indication of what portraits with background will look like with various focal lengths. apertures and subject distances. This may give you a start to produce some simple guidelines for yourself.

Click to expand...

I know it can be laborious reading through a long thread (although this one isn't really long) but I posted the same link four days ago.

Gerry Winterbourne said:

Gerry Winterbourne said:

I'd suggest you have a look at this site. It's a DOF simulator that gives some indication of what portraits with background will look like with various focal lengths. apertures and subject distances. This may give you a start to produce some simple guidelines for yourself.

Click to expand...

I know it can be laborious reading through a long thread (although this one isn't really long) but I posted the same link four days ago.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, I missed that, sorry to repeat.

Dave

Zoba132 said:

..I do use the X-T20

..I have a new baby at home,

Click to expand...

..Congrats on your new baby!..

..the X-T20 is a 24mp APS-C sensor camera..

..for your indoors (no flash, don't want to hurt those baby blues) baby pictures, recommend getting & using a constant f/2.8 fixed or zoom lens..

..or can consider a f/1.8 fixed focal lens (actually works better than f/2.8 for indoors)..

..in terms of photography..

Aperture settings => controls depth of field.

..for indoors & low light situations, you really don't have much choice but to use larger aperture settings (example: f/1.8 & f/2.8), especially when flash is not used..

..for outdoors in good light, usually can use f/5.6, if need to can use f/8 or maybe up to f/11.. if use an even smaller aperture settings, can cause some image problems..

Shutter settings => controls the speed of the shutter.

..for indoors & low light situations, often times in order to take a pictures, may need to use a slower shutter speeds..

..the shutter speeds for low lights is closely tied in with the aperture setting (and also the ISO settings)..

..for outdoors in good light, can use anywheres from 1/320 to 1/1600 shutter speeds, depending on how much & how fast the movement of the subject(s) being captured..

..too slow shutter speed can cause motion blur in the images, and way too fast of shutter speeds can cause some image problems..

ISO settings => can go from iso100 to iso6400 and even much higher.

..usually folks likes to keep the iso as low as possible (for better image qualities)..

..sometimes in very low light situations, have no choice but to use higher iso settings..

..you will need to test & experiment the different iso settings for your camera..

..usually with your camera, being a more recent years model, should be able to use up to iso1600 with no problems..

..the more you take pictures, the more you will learn..

..photography is much like cooking, sure can follow the recipes, but most go by the experiences and by taste..

..always remember, photography should be about having fun..

..Cheers, John..

As a parent, I have to laugh at your hopeful "'m assuming things will get more relaxed in the near future."

Your life won't relax for at least 18 more years; but the good news is that taking pictures to chronicle your child's growing up will train you to become an excellent photojournalist.

Zoba132 said:

I have a new baby at home, so time is a little bit precious at the moment. But - I'm assuming things will get more relaxed in the near future - and that's something I was already checking as an option.

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