[j-star]

I'm taking a photography class this semester. I've read the manual but majoirty of the information is prioritized around automatic functions. My class requires for us to do it manually. So anyhow, I admit that i have a lot of problems working this sort of camera but my major crisis at the moment is dealingwith the whole exposure, apperature and shutter speed thing.

1. Are you suppose to be able to see the change in aperature when you change it while looking through the viewfinder?

2. Should you be able to see the aperature blades open and close when you stare through the lens?

3. Say that I definitely want a low aperature so I can get a shallow depth of field. and I'm taking a photo of something that isnt moving. Because I'm holding the camera, I'm shooting at 60 for the shutter speed. I press the shutter halfway and the meter thing lights up at 5.6. I turn the apperature to 5.6, but then what would i have to do when I know that i need that apperature to be at 1.8 while keeping the right exposure?

4. I've also been taking pics and noting down the shutter speed and apperature I've been using. However for some pics such as one with an aperature of 4 shot at a shutter speed of 60, everything still looks visible. Then in one picture, I shot at an aperature of 8 at 60 too, but when I foucused my lens on the object i wanted, through the viewfinder i saw that everything around that object was out of focus. So i question, should I be using my focal lens to get that depth of field that I want?


Those are my current worries and I'd appreciate any help I can get. Since I'm in college, I've gotta pay for all the materials i use and i wanna save on the money I'm buying for the rolls of film i use and instead use it to buy more printing paper. Thanks!!

[Tepper]

1. Yes and No, when looking through the viewfinder the aperture will always be at it's most open setting. -- if you push the aperture preview button which is normally near the lens release lock button or around the lens mount ring, you should see the image get dimmer in the viewfind because of a reduced aperture size.

2. If you're looking through the front.. sure you can try. Depending on how distorted the glass is you might be able to see the blades, if not just the thing just gets all dark.

3. Well, if you're shooting at 1.8 and it's telling you to shrink your aperture, that means there's too much light so instead of 1/60sec(because that's almost the slowest I would even try to hand hold at) try 1/125 or more until it's not being read by the light meter as an over-exposure level.

4. Kind of answered in #1? Well you're not going to be able to judge depth of field unless you press down that aperture lock button, everything gets dimmer but some things can come into focus in the preview. There should be notches on most lenses that show you the relationship of the f-stop to the depth of field, you can use that for a good approximation and fine tune through the viewfinder with the aperture lock.