"LooksLikeRain" wrote in message ups.com...
I am a relative newbie to photography, and I have been trying to read
some good books to teach me the basics of exposure as well as
Photoshop CS2 tips and tricks. One question I have is regarding the
lens aperture in respect to the camera aperture. If my lens is only
rated for 3.4-5.6 aperture, then will it do me any good to set my
camera aperture to say f/11 or f/22 or is that just going to use the
minimum aperture the lens will allow of f/5.6?


Hi LooksLikeRain,

You don't say whether you're using film or digital, and this affects whether f22 might be appropriate. The reason is that at that
level, even a full-frame 35mm image starts running into diffraction effects.

If you're using a DSLR with a smaller sensor, then you really need to open the aperture up by a corresponding amount to keep within
those limits. For example, if the image looks OK at f22 on a full-frame 35mm SLR, but not at a smaller aperture, you wouldn't want
to go below f14-f15 on a DSLT with a 1.5 or 1.6 FOV crop. In simple terms, you can divide the minimum acceptable f-stop for 35mm by
your DSLR's crop factor to get the corresponding minimum acceptable f-stop for that format.

Cheers
--
cmyk