fstops and shutter speeds

I am finally learning some things about my new camera! As you can see from the above picture, I am learning how to focus on 1 object while blurring out the background. My model was so cooperative!! Sophie was not too happy that her toy was taken away for a brief moment though!!

Camera terminology:
shutter speed- refers to the amount of time your shutter is open. 1/4,000 of a second is the fastest time on my camera. It can stay open for as long as 30 seconds, maybe even longer. The longer it stays open, the more light gets in. So for dark areas, you need a longer shutter speed. In order to freeze moving objects, you need a very short speed such as 1/500 of a second.

f stops- f stops are a number located in the lens, can be anything from 1.8, 2.8, 3.5, 5.6 all the way to 40. The smaller the number, the less things you have in focus. For example, if your f stop is 2.8, you may have 2 things in focus. If your f stop is 32, you may have 32 things in focus or infinity (pretty much everything).

aperture- the opening allowing light in. This goes along with f stops. f2.8 is a big opening, allowing much light to come through. f32 would be a small opening, allowing a little light to come through.

depth of field- area in focus. The larger the f stop, the more depth of field. The lower the f stop, you will have a more shallow depth of field.

In order to get the blurred background, you want to have a low f stop The above picture was taken at a f stop of 5.3 with a shutter speed of 1/25 in manual setting.

As your shutter speed gets longer, your f point gets higher. So you want to have a relatively short shutter speed if possible.

Also, do not put your subject right in front of the background if possible. The monkey was about 10 feet away from the trees. I was as close to the monkey as possible. With a further away background, you can blow more of it out of focus. A close background is hard to blow out of focus and you must have a really small f stop.

Anyway, this is my camera knowledge for the day. Who knows if I even know what I am talking about! Hopefully some photographer will come across this and correct me where I am wrong or add to it! But I doubt it........