For me it\'s never about habit. I shoot at f8 when outdoors doing walkaround photography. Why? It happens to be a convenient balance between dof, shutter speed, and sharpness when snapping shots.
Shooting with strobes? Set ISO, shutter speed, then dial in aperture to whatever necessary. This is when I use the intermediate apertures most often.
Macro? I can get a feel in my mind for roughly how much dof I\'ll have at f8, f11, f16, f22, and f32 and adjust accordingly. I\'ll dial in what I want and just start shooting. Maybe it would benefit from a slight twiddle of the aperture, but no big deal. When chimping, full stops give me enough of a change in dof to be sufficient.
Landscape? f8 is a good rule of thumb. I don\'t regularly shoot the wide angle shots that require f22 or f32. The only time I use those apertures are if I\'m shooting moving water and want the longer shutter speed, or if I\'m shooting landscapes with a telephoto and need the deeper dof. f25 or f29? Sure. It may save a little sharpness due to diffraction. It\'s easy enough to take a shot at f32, back off a bit and shoot another. Aperture bracketing in a sense. Pick the best shot.
Oct 12, 2008 at 02:58 AM
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