What is Aperture?

This post is a part of the series of posts on Photography Basics.

I’ve been reading about it ever since I decided on nurturing my interest in photography. And, the more I read about it, the more I feel the need to read about it. Of course, experimentation follows reading – in fact, experimentation trumps reading – but it is always good to know things before you try them. And, hence this post.

In photography, what is aperture?

In simple terms, it is the hole/space through which the light (and hence the image) travels through the lens onto the imaging sensor and, if available, through the viewfinder. The aperture is one of the most important points to consider while capturing images. The other important points are the focal length, the ISO, and the shutter speed.

Basically, it is the right setting of the aperture that helps you bring either everything into the focus or only the subject by blurring the background. But, how does that happen? That happens because the aperture controls the amount of light entering into the lens and onto the imaging sensor. And – unfortunately – here’s the catch! A large aperture doesn’t mean more light onto the sensor. In fact, it is the opposite; A small aperture means that the lens is open wide enough to pass abundant light onto the imaging sensor.

How does the aperture affect the depth of field?

You can control the light entering the lens using a diaphragm. A diaphragm is a device (if that is the right word) that functions much like the pupil in a human eye – Diaphragm controls the diameter of the lens opening. The structures within this diaphragm are called stops. Each stop represents are definitive number that defines the opening of the lens.

The lens aperture is typically written as an f-number, which is also called f-stop. This f-stop represents the ratio of focal length to the opened aperture diameter. The following picture, which is taken from the Wikipedia page for aperture – which I think best describes the concept – represents the range of aperture. Remember that lower the aperture number, larger the opening of the lens.

Image Credit: Wikipedia
Lens exposure per f-stop: Wikipedia (Image Credits) best describes the concept of aperture. Look how the aperture settings change for each f-stop

 

Wikipedia mentions, “Reducing the aperture size increases the depth of field”. This means that you will choose a smaller aperture number when you want to cover everything between the subject and the photograph’s actual plane of focus, with the subject and the plane of focus included. For a shallower depth of field, and to isolate the subject from its plane of focus (Yes, for that creamy bokeh!), you will use a large aperture – typically something like f/4.

Let me make it simpler for you:

  • If you want the entire picture in focus, use the following formula:

Entire Area in Focus = Greater DOF = Smaller Opening in Lens = Higher f-stop

(f/8 through f/16)

  • If you want only the subject in focus, use the following formula:

Only Subject in Focus = Shallower DOF = Larger Opening in Lens = Smaller f-stop

(f/5.6 through f/1.4)

You can have f-stops that are smaller than f/1.4 and larger than f/16, but I am only using those figuratively here – to give you the idea.

How does the understanding of aperture affect my photography?

Switch from the automatic mode on your camera. If you are using a DSLR, switch to the “A” mode from the “PASM” modes available. For those who are new to this setting, the DSLR allows modes other than the two at the extreme ends of the spectrum – the Automatic and the Manual modes. The PASM here stands for Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual Mode. For those of you who are using a point and shoot (P&S) camera, use the manual mode and set the aperture. You will have to dig into the menus, because every P&S has its own style of menus.

Select Aperture Priority as the mode for shooting. Aperture Priority is like a semi-automatic mode of shooting – but with a difference. Based on the aperture you set, the camera calculates and chooses the best possible ISO and shutter speed. You can use this to practice and master your understanding on aperture. Once you are habitual with the change in the shutter speed and ISO based on the aperture you choose, you can experiment with the Manual Mode, while changing any of these elements – Experimentation, as I said, trumps theoretical knowledge.

Do “fast” and “slow” lenses have anything to do with aperture?

A little background before we come to that question… Lenses come with either fixed aperture or variable aperture. For example, the 70-200mm f/2.8 denotes that across the focal length of the lens (70mm and 200mm, respectively), the lens will maintain fixed aperture of f/2.8; and the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 means that at 70mm, the lens will get you f/4.0 aperture and at 300mm, the lens will get you f/5.6 aperture.

Let us go back to the basics now. The lens aperture, as we discussed, denotes the lens opening diameter (managed by the diaphragm). A larger opening – which means a smaller f-number – will help you capture a lot of light, and a lot of details in your image. So, for a smaller f-number, opt for faster shutter speed. If this is too technical, read how simply Wikipedia defines this for you, “The aperture is proportional to the square root of the light admitted, and thus inversely proportional to the square root of required exposure time, such that an aperture of f/2 allows for exposure times one quarter that of f/4.”

Note that for both the fixed and the variable aperture lenses, we consider the maximum aperture opening as the most useful. This value of the maximum aperture opening is also called the lens speed. Lenses with aperture openings equal to or wider than f2.8 are called faster lenses. These lenses will give you faster focusing (usually, in combination with sharper picture, better detail retention, and faster shutter speeds). And, because you can focus faster with these lenses, they are called “fast” lenses. The lenses, though, are typically expensive.

I hope I have understood the concept of aperture, and that I was able to reproduce my knowledge correctly. I’d like you to let me know if there are any improvements.

Happy clicking!

What are the Advantages of DSLRs over Point and Shoot Cameras?

This post is a part of the series of posts on Photography Basics.

From all the question I’ve had on the subject, this one was perhaps the most common: What’s the advantage of a DSLR (or a mirrorless) over a Point and Shoot digital camera? This post lists down the points I gleaned.

Though it is true that the new Single Lens Translucent Mirror (SLT) or Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras (MILCs) are technologies that are different from the DSLRs, for the purpose of the post we will consider those as part of the DSLRs. I could have used the Interchangeable Lens Cameras (ILCs) as the differentiating category, but the sensor size is smaller than the commonly used APS-C in the popular SLTs and MILCs by Sony. And, the sensor does make a difference to the picture quality.

If you are a novice, and are yet to explore the limits of your Point and Shoot (P&S) digital camera, I recommend that you to look into the controls other than the Automatic mode to learn photography. This will help you learn about the things that your P&S is capable of doing, other than clicking pictures and shooting videos.

So, here are some of the advantages of DSLRs over P&S cameras:

Speed: I use a P&S. And, I’ve noticed that those of my friends who use a DSLR are able to start their cameras and shoot pictures, while my P&S just starts and focuses correctly. I’ve noticed a considerable difference in the focus speeds, too. In fact, the time lag between the shots is considerably lesser in a DSLR. The time lag is on account of the processor writing the captured data into the memory card.

Focus and Auto-focus: Though today’s P&S are equipped to focus faster, there’s still no way you can manually set a focus point. Of course, there are settings like spot metering that can help you restrict the area of focus, but setting focus manually can help you get shots even when something stands in front of your subject. Also, you cannot lock the focus point once the focus is set correctly. With DSLRs, you can do that, too.

Lens: I know how frustrating it is to not be able to change the lens. And, the basic-level P&S do not provide enough zoom, too. Besides, even if they do, I would compromise because of the variable aperture (and hence on the low-light photographing capabilities, if any). And, not having the capability to change lenses means that you can neither upgrade the lenses that you use on those cameras nor can you experiment with your photography.

Large Depth of Field (DOF): The P&S can never provide a shallower DOF, unless you are using the advanced P&S, which still are no match for full-frame DSLRs as far as the beautiful, creamy bokeh is concerned. The lenses on a P&S are designed to provide you zooming capabilities. But, because those lenses are fixed and come with the in-built variable aperture, you cannot manually set the parameters of the camera to capture images.

Lack of Controls: A P&S has lesser controls on the body. Of course, the controls are still there, but are limited and are rolled into the menus. So, for each shot, you have to dig into the menus to change the settings. This is time consuming.

Image Quality: This is purely subjective to opinions. Some say that the quality is more than enough. In fact, I am one of those who stand by this argument. But, the truth is, the sensor size is perhaps too small to capture the details. And, all the copper wiring and circuitry in the sensor is placed just too close to receive enough light to capture the details. This affects the image quality, mostly negatively, and pixels and white dots appear in the images that are capture in insufficiently lit conditions. And, that is why I will not go for the advanced point and shoot or the interchangeable compact system camera (CSC), because irrespective of how good my lenses are, I will not be able to get good quality low-light images. After all, there are, and will always be, some images that I would wish to capture in low light.

Should I go for a DSLR?

Big question. And, to answer that, we must break the requirements in parts. What are the requirements: Events and Weddings or Casual and street photography? If you are serious with photography, if you have tested the limits of your current P&S (and feel that it is time for you to upgrade), if you think that you can invest more money into the ecosystem (for example, batteries and chargers, external flashes, tripods, memory cards, and remote release cables), and if you have interest (or want to make money capturing) events or weddings, go for a DSLR.

What all should I buy?

It depends on your requirements. Consult a pro. I am an enthusiast photographer – this in one way increases my challenge with what equipment I buy, because I love experimenting with my equipment. I will probably never take up this hobby as a profession. Consequently, I do need a high-end camera. I might go for a full frame camera. But, I will certainly buy one macro lens, one fixed aperture zoom lens, one prime lens, a tripod, a shutter release cable/remote, a couple of filters (UV and ND), and – may be – a tele-converter. But, this is not a definitive list; I might skip one or two things. I think the question zeros in on what your requirements are. A pro knows what industry or vertical they specialize into, so they will go for equipment and lenses that deliver quality in only that vertical. But, for people like me, the sky is the limit. Or, maybe not.

Right, so back to where we started. I hope I have been able to help you find an answer to your question; I hope you now know what you can and might buy. I would love to hear from you!

What are “full frame” cameras?

This post is a part of the series of posts on Photography Basics.

I like to share what I learn. And, photography is one topic that I talk about quite often, these days. Here’s the answer to one question I researched for, recently…

As this skilful artistry of photography evolved after the invention of the camera, for some unknown reason, the 35mm became the standard size for all film cameras. All the film cameras, like the Yashica I used when I was a kid, contained film rolls that sized a picture at 35mm (width) and 24mm (height). And, this trend continued as we moved over from the film cameras to the digital cameras.

Based on the timeline, it is somewhere back in 2002 that the first digital “full frame” cameras were introduced. And, because the Canon’s marketing guys needed everyone to get attracted with a larger sensor on a camera, they chose to refer to it as “full frame.” Although, “full frame” is not technically correct, because there may be a time when a new sensor develops with larger dimensions.

There are different sensor sizes available on different cameras. Some of the commonly used ones, in the descending order of the sizes, are (in WIDTH by HEIGHT):

  • 35mm “full frame” format, which contains a 36mm X 24mm sensor
  • The “cropped sensor” APS-C size, which contains approximately a 23.5mm X 15.7mm sensor
  • Micro Four Thirds, which contain approximately 17mm X 13 mm sensor

What difference does the sensor size make?

The simple answer is: The bigger the sensor, the more light it captures. And, the more light a sensor captures, the better your photograph looks; even in low light. But, just having a bigger sensor does not make either your photographs better or you a better photographer. There will still be the other elements and the skilful artistry that unique to only you.

A full frame sensor gives you about 84° angle of view on a 24mm lens. But, an APS-C sensor will give you about 1.5 times of the same image, and consequently about 63° angle of view on the same lens. This means an additional zoom-in into the subject. Such image sensor sizes are popular amongst the wildlife photographers, who would like to zoom closer to their subjects.

On a micro four third sensor, if the lens is compatible, a 24mm lens will deliver almost twice the zoom. Consequently, the 84° angle of view will look like 42° angle of view, and will produce an output of about 48mm.

Does the sensor size impact Depth of Field?

Yes, it does. The simple rule is: Depth of Field (DOF) is in an inverse proportion to the image sensor size. So, you get a shallower DOF for a larger image sensor.

What are the advantages of a “full frame” sensor?

From what I’ve read, there aren’t any advantages other than the following:

  • In comparison to the other, smaller sensor sizes, such as the APS-C, a bigger sensor captures more light. And, more light means more details. However, the image quality is a combination of the sensor size, the pixel count, and the sensor circuitry and image read-out mechanisms.
  • We read that DOF is inversely proportional to the sensor size. This means that for a 24mm lens, the DOF will be different for APS-C and full frame cameras.

Photography Basics

Lessons for the Novice Photographer in Me!

Photography has long been a subject of interest to me, and I will – someday – like to test the limits of my knowledge on the subject and the equipment (that is a camera). I would like to call myself a hobbyist photography reader, and not even a hobbyist photographer, because I hardly get to experiment with my currently owned point-and-shoot camera.

Based on what I have learned on the subject, I am bringing this new series of posts on Photography. I hope you will like reading posts from this thread. In this thread, I will talk on different topics – from what I learned or have read on the Internet.

Happy reading.

Once upon a Time in Technical Writing

Stories are the commonest way the ethics, histories, information, insights, and knowledge have passed on to the younger generations. Through its multiple forms, storytelling focuses on building touch points to get messages across: Something that we too do as technical writers. I try to find the threads that storytelling shares with technical writing. And, here’s what I find as I try to delve.

Five Common Inventory Management Mistakes

This post is part of the series of the ad hoc content writer (#AdHocCW). It was first published as an e-article, where it appeared with minor additions that contained information about the company.

Arguably, inventory management is one of the most important things in the manufacturing industry. It is the movement of the inventory from raw materials to finished goods and from items to products that create the flow of money. But, what if you weren’t managing your inventories well? We list the five commonest mistakes.

No Tracking of Inventories

Not tracking what comes in or goes out: This is perhaps the worst of all mistakes. But, it only worsens when you have more than one location to manage. There might just be situations when you would have days before the requests for replenishments reach you.

Solution? Get an ERP. A good inventory management system can help create tracks for raw materials, intermediate items, and finished goods. And, you can track down every single item right on your desktop. There are two important things that a good inventory management system can do for you: track the required replenishments and record the finished goods turns.

Lack of Inventory Forecasts

Efficient organizations know that customer-satisfaction indexes directly link to meeting production schedules and delivery deadlines. But, an absence of the required vision and knowledge may become an impediment.

Inventory management systems can help forecast the finished goods requirements based on trends, demands of finished goods, and production schedules. In fact, it is perhaps the need of the hour for you to adopt an inventory management system to keep up the pace with today’s fast-paced, competitive environment.

No Automation

Gone are those days of pens and (piles and piles of) papers. Go paperless! Get an inventory management system for real-time display and analysis of inventories. If you are still using either a manual method or the basic computer-based spreadsheets to manage your inventories, chances are you will run into trouble sooner or later.

Inventory management systems negate the possibilities of human errors. Also, those computer-based spreadsheets may only be good for creating tables, it seems. Today’s inventory management systems can store millions of records, which you can use to search, retrieve, and print the required information and reports in practically no time.

Besides, you cannot edit or manage manual records when you are running out of time. That’s because multiple users can access an inventory management system to record and access real-time information on the inventory statuses for multiple products, requirements, and locations. Now, that’s the efficiency you want in today’s environment.

Lack of Data Integration

Inventory management systems integrate seamlessly with your current databases. This helps create and manage information that flows easily from one module to another, just like the flow of raw materials from receipt bins through production facilities and to the shipment area. And, then you can multiply the benefit of seamless tracking and enablement for every location that you have.

Resistance to Adopt New Technology

Imagine businesses that see large volumes of incoming and outgoing inventories. How difficult would it be for them to manage the volumes efficiently? Now, imagine that scale of inventory management for more than one product, more than one warehouse location, and more than one business operation. It is easy to lose count and track of inventories.

Inventory management systems can help you manage such loads easily. You can even use your handheld devices to track inventories. Such systems can help you with operations like physical count, raw material and intermediate-product management, and storing packaging and finished goods items.

Conclusion

Today’s inventory management systems are equipped to provide a comprehensive inventory-management solution. You can use the systems to track the requirement for raw materials, consumables, and intermediates; create and manage intermediate items; and keep a log of how much finished goods items you have in the inventory. These reliable systems can greatly reduce the possibilities of mistakes and consequently improve your operational efficiency.

Using ERPs to Improve Productivity of Manufacturing Units

This post is part of the series of the ad hoc content writer (#AdHocCW). It was first published as an e-article, where it appeared with minor additions that contained information about the company.

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is not only a tool to automate business processes and their underlying transactional data, but also a methodology to streamline and improve the operational efficiency of those business processes. And, manufacturing is indeed one business process where the impact of the use of ERP can be critical. Let us explore how does the use of ERP systems contribute to improving the productivity of manufacturing units.

Data and Decision Integration

ERP systems typically cover all business operations across a business unit. Consequently, the biggest impact of implementing ERPs lies in the integration of information. Such an integration is critical from the point of view of the survival and success of a business unit. That’s because decisions are time and resource critical. Any change or influence from the internal (controllable) and external (uncontrollable) factors can affect the decisions. And, having information at fingertips can always improve the effectiveness of the time-and-resource-critical decision making. Such decisions, though taken at different levels of different departments, will still be cohesive and move the organization in the same direction.

Vision Implementation

Businesses are as much about “tomorrow” as about “today”. Therefore, it is important for us to plan things much in advance. ERP systems can help us graduate data into facts, facts into information, and information into insights. These insights can lend us the vision, which is important to our success. An ERP system can also bring in the additional capability of analysis. We can use the reports and dashboards from millions of the stored data to come up with plans that can help us view the everyday business operations, such as demand and supply, way ahead of time. This capability is indeed important for the manufacturing units.

Organizational Management

One thing that ERP does, and does good, is operational management. We can use the information from ERP systems to help optimize our manufacturing activities. We can use ERP systems to switch people and tasks, based on the knowledge that the systems gather for us. That way, we can manufacture more in less time, with perhaps the best person and tool acquiring the best time slots.

Reduction of Losses

Just as we can forecast demands and supplies or transform data into insights, we can track and optimize our workforce, too, to make sure that we adhere to plans, budgets, and time constraints. This means a lot of time for us to adjust to changes, if any, in plans. But, a greater benefit of implementing ERPs is the reduction of losses. When we ERPs to optimize our manufacturing capabilities, we use our tools, people, and resources in ways that can help us predict, avoid, and, if required, overcome shortages and losses.

ERP systems can help us with some key areas of business operations, such as assuming timeliness in deliveries of orders, improving the quality of our processes and products, optimizing and reducing the product costs in the long run, reducing the downtime of manufacturing units on account of either lack of raw materials or failure due to overloads. But, the biggest benefit is still in reaping a higher sense of certainty in the overall functioning of a manufacturing unit.

The Ad hoc Content Writer

This month has been really exciting for me at the office. That’s because, from the first day, I played only a technical communicator. But in this month, I added some more feathers to my tech-comm cap – Newsletter and Blogs!

I delivered a big project at the start of this month: Administration, installation, and user guides; a CHM help; and a couple of utility documents. And, all that as the only writer for the project. Another project on the professional timeline, so I thought. But, the company had other plans for me. As I waited for other projects to start, my company gave me this opportunity to take part in the first-of-its-kind project, the company newsletter.

We decided it to be on the online platform, and in only about a couple of weeks, came up with the first draft of the newsletter. It must have been our efforts (and some luck) that we got the draft approved WITHOUT A SINGLE CHANGE. The newsletter is now live, but because it’s for only internal circulation, I cannot share the link with you.

My manager knows that I have a blog and that I contribute a fair amount of time to it. So, he assigned me to work with the content-writing team lead, and come up with blog posts for the company’s online presence. The efforts are to be a part of the company’s India marketing campaign. And, I am excited about this new ad hoc role of a content writer. Of course, I am still pitching in with the usual technical-communication efforts, but putting in efforts into the marketing side of things seems more like re-reading some old pages from my past.

In the coming weeks (or days, perhaps) I’ll share some of the blog posts I wrote for the company’s online presence. I hope you will like reading them. For ease of reference, I will hashtag those posts as #AdHocCW. Do let me know how good I do as the ad hoc content writer. One last thought: It has not been difficult for me to play the roles of technical communicator and content writer. I have always thought that technical communicators can excellently double as content writers; just that now I can say that more confidently.

What questions do you ask to SMEs to begin with technical documentation?

During a recent online conversation, someone requested for a list of questions I would typically ask to a subject matter expert (SME) to prepare technical documentation for a topic. Of course, the parameters may vary, but there is still a list of questions that apply across all sizes or complexities of projects. In this post, I share with you the list of questions that I shared with them…

TechComm and Content Disruption

Vinish Garg recently posted on the content’s role in Disruption. In his post, he shared what the experts had to say on the role that content has to play/currently plays. Here’s my opinion:

What is Disruption?

Let me first take you back in time. This started when the marketing and branding industry opened the corporate gates to the world of consumers. And, by opening the gates, I mean it transformed its value proposition from “this is what I have” to “this is what I can do”.

This is when the small brands started becoming revolutionarily big by using the power of content to reach people. Gradually, the brand communication transformed from advertisements to jingles, to sports, to brand personification, and to emails. But, this inherent idea of associating brands with emotions continued to lose its value as the size of content continued to become unmanageably big.

Today, we have a lot more touch points to reach to our consumers, yet we are far less effective in reaching the right audiences. Reason? The consumers are lost in the enormity of content. In the race of creating more content, we have forgotten to make it effectively personal. Today, the consumers have a lot of options, and each of those options is trying to be different. But, when everyone tries to be different, no one is different.

It is important to disrupt this clichéd template of communication to help consumers make informed decisions. It is important to keep consumers at the focus to design communication strategies that transform the value proposition from “this is what I can do” to “this is what I can do for you”.

This disruption is to bring back the consumers from the point of “I am being pushed” (with the product/service) to “I am being heard”. And, only such a disruption can help us engage better, listen better, and do better.

And, how can technical communication/technical communicators play a role in Disruption?

I think it is about the consumers, and not about the product. We exist because the consumers (and their needs) exist. We help build this communication ecosystem. We communicate products in an undistorted, unappealing form. But, we do connect the features and benefits. We can help our consumers answer the “what’s in it for me” question. Of course, we may not sell. But we can at least help them buy.

I look at it this way: If organizations were chemical equations, technical communicators would be the catalyst. We communicate. And, we help communicate. The information passes through us. So, it is up to us to transform that information into its utterly simple, memorable, and usable form. In fact, we can equate customers’ requirements with the developers’ intentions.

We can align tools, methodologies, and the technology while we bring clarity, insights, oneness, and simplicity (not in that order though). But of course, that all sums up as the easy-sounding commonsensical task. And, making common sense truly common is perhaps the disruption.