Creative Aperture – Stardom effect

A month ago we saw the first Creative power of the Aperture: The Depth of Field The Aperture is a very powerful factor of the exposure triangle, and in this episode, we see how it can even transform any light source into a sparkling star. First, we need to understand how the Aperture mechanism is made inside the Lens. As a matter of a fact, there is a diaphragm inside a Lens (which acts like the iris of the human eye) which is made of little blades, from 2 to eight usually, that, by the twist of a dial on the modern DSLR or on the old manual Lens, close to each other or spread open.

The shape formed by the blades closing on each other is what gives us the Stardom effect.  To achieve this effect you obviously need a high f-number such as f16 and above. Below are 3 sample exposures taken at f7, f16 and f22. You can clearly see how much the star shapes up as you increase the F-number, subsequently narrowing the Aperture:

Note 1

Since I use the lowest ISO value throughout the experience, I knew the exposure time was bound to be quite slow and since the experience consisted of increasing the Aperture value, subsequently the exposure time was going to slower down even more. Hence, I needed to use my steady tripod and my Shutter cable release.

Note 2

Since the exposures were long ones, you can clearly see another effect of the Creative power of the Shutter: the Light Trails. I will do an episode on it in a near future. It is important to remain creative in your Photography. Photography is an art even if all you are trying to achieve is reproducing or capturing what Mother Nature lays before you. Nature is the most Creative force on Earth, and it is not because you did not see the Stars in this street of Edinburgh that there weren’t bound to be any. What do I mean? Well, as a matter of fact, this scene is very deep, just like any Landscape and in order to capture it right you need to have a deep Depth of Field ( to avoid the farthest part of the scene to appear blurred) and as a consequently, you were bound to use a narrow Aperture in your exposure, something beyond f11. Therefore you had to obtain the stars in your exposure.