Annoying problems at common aperture settings (and how to solve them)

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Problems with wide aperture settings

SUBJECT IS SOFT
Because depth of field is very restricted at very wide apertures it’s absolutely vital that you focus at exactly the right point – especially if you are shooting a very close subject with a long lens as depth of field decreases as focal length increases and subject distance decreases.

Solution
Make sure that the active AF point is over the most important part of the subject. In some cases you may find you are better off focusing manually. If possible, magnify the live view image on your camera’s LCD screen to get a really good view of the the target area and make sure it is razor-sharp.

BACKGROUND TOO SOFT
Shooting with a very wide aperture helps separate your subject from its surroundings by blurring the background, but sometimes the surroundings can be too soft and unrecognisable.

Solution
If you want to retain a little context try closing down the aperture a little even just one stop can make a huge difference.

IMAGE IS SOFT
Even if the focusing is spot-on, many lenses produce slightly soft results when they are fully open.

Solution
Close down a little and you’ll find the point of focus is significantly sharper.

IMAGE IS OVEREXPOSED
Opening the aperture right up means lots of light can reach the sensor so only a very short exposure is used. In very bright conditions it may not be possible to set a fast enough shutter speed and this will cause your images to be overexposed.

Solution
If you encounter this problem, the first thing to check is your camera’s sensitivity setting, you need to set the lowest value possible.

If the image is still overexposed use a neutral density (ND) filter on your lens to reduce the amount of light that enters your camera. ND filters are grey filters that cut out light and don’t produce any colourcast.

Problems at wide aperture settings
Problems at middle aperture settings
Problems at small aperture settings