learning how to use aperture

[smurfette]

My little one and I went to the pond across from our house yesterday, and I took some pics, trying to use the aperture mode on my camera. Here are a couple. Please tell me what you think (I know they are not great, just hoping they're not horrifying either!)

[smurfette]

And the second....

[Frog]

It all depends on what your purpose in using 'aperture priority' is.
Did you want to increase/decrease your depth of field?

I like the shallow dof in the first one. The soft background lets the duck stand out.
The second one does not have that shallow of a depth of field and the flowers don't stand out as much.

The wider your aperture, the shallower your depth of field. But you also have to take into account how zoomed in or how close you are to the subject.
I use aperture priority when I'm going to be doing quick shots of various subjects when I don't have time to adjust shutter speeds.

Good that you are experimenting.

[smurfette]

Thank you Frog. My main purpose was to figure out how to use my camera. I have a Nikon P90, which is a really fancy point and shoot. I had never even played with any settings until this week.

I guess I should research when and when not to have a shallow dof. And how much blur (I think that's called bokeh?) is appropriate.

[OldClicker]

The amount of blur depends on what you want from the shot. The more blurred the background (or foreground), the less distracting it is (generally).

Also, to me, bokeh is not just blurring the background, but making that blur an artistic part of the image. In other words, it not only doesn't detract, it adds to the image.

Terry