STEP BY STEP
Take creative control with Aperture Priority
1 Spin the dial
Head to your Mode dial and turn it to Aperture Priority, this is denoted by an A on the top of the dial. Now move your Command dial and you’ll see the aperture value change. This will also indirectly change your shutter speed as the Nikon works to correct the exposure.
3 Find the right position
Now you want to find the right position to take your shot from. Your first shot might have extraneous and unsightly objects in it, try and reposition so that they are obscured or completely framed out, one trick is to put the subject between you and the object.
5 Minimum focusing distance
All lenses have a minimum focusing distance. This is a distance away from the lens at which it can’t focus any closer. On our 50mm lens that was about 45cm, which we checked by placing our hand in front and seeing how close we could focus until it stopped working.
2 Depth of field
Aperture directly affects depth of field. If you want a small slice of your frame in focus (a shallow depth of field) choose a wide aperture like f/2.8. But if you wish to have lots of your scene in focus (a long depth of field) choose a narrow aperture like f/16.
4 Filling the frame
By framing unwanted objects out you’re creatively refining your photo. Take this one step further and get really near to your subject and fill your frame. Here we got in close and focused on the rock until there was nothing else visible through the viewfinder.
6 What settings and why?
Our final settings were f/8, ISO100 and because it was a bright day the Nikon chose a shutter speed of 1/500 sec to balance the exposure. We chose f/8 because the scene in front of us was undulating and we wanted a reasonable depth of field to keep it sharp front to back.