In tandem with shutter speed and ISO, aperture is one of three fundamental exposure parameters that grant you the technical and creative control over your images that you bought a specialized camera for in the first place. If you are new to photography and wondering what aperture is and how it works, check out this great video tutorial that will give you a practical guide to using it for taking better control of your photos.
Coming to you from Mango Street, this excellent video tutorial will show you the ins and outs of aperture and how it affects your photos. While it complements shutter speed and ISO in the exposure triangle, aperture has arguably the greatest creative impact on most photos. This is the reason you will often see professional photographers shoot in aperture priority mode, which allows them to choose the aperture appropriate for their creative vision and leaves the camera to choose the correct shutter speed and ISO to make a technically balanced image. However, like all fundamental photography parameters, there are tradeoffs involved. Using a wider aperture lets in more light, but decreases depth of field (the amount of the image that is in focus), while a narrower aperture results in deeper depth of field but needs longer shutter speeds or higher ISOs. Mastering aperture is one of the first things you should work on as a new photographer. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
