Lens aperture also affects how much in front and behind the lens focus distance will appear to be in focus in the image. This is called Depth of Field. The most common reason for wanting a narrow aperture (high f-number) is to have a very deep depth of field in which everything (or very nearly so) appears in focus. A very deep depth of field is almost always desired for landscape photographs. A wide aperture (low f-number) will create a shallower depth of field. The wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. One of the common uses for wide apertures is in portraiture, to isolate the subject from a distracting (possibly cluttered) background.

The last thing you want when taking portraits is cluttered, distracting backgrounds, that leads the eye away from the subject. The background appears out of focus, but not in a way you would blur in photoshop or some other photo editing software, but looks like circular or hexigan shaped blotches, reflecting the shape of your aperture. This is how you know whether the photography has been manipulated after a shoot or has been done in-camera.

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Aperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens that determines the amount of light falling onto the film or sensor. The size of the opening is controlled by an adjustable diaphragm of overlapping blades similar to the pupils of our eyes. Aperture affects exposure and depth of field. Just like successive shutter speeds, successive apertures halve the amount of incoming light. To achieve this, the diaphragm reduces the aperture diameter by a factor 1.4 (square root of 2) so that the aperture surface is halved each successive step as shown on this diagram.Because of basic optical principles, the absolute aperture sizes and diameters depend on the focal length. For instance, a 25mm aperture diameter on a 100mm lens has the same effect as a 50mm aperture diameter on a 200mm lens. If you divide the aperture diameter by the focal length, you will arrive at 1/4 in both cases, independent of the focal length. Expressing apertures as fractions of the focal length is more practical for photographers than using absolute aperture sizes. These “relative apertures” are called f-numbers or f-stops. On the lens barrel, the above 1/4 is written as f/4 or F4 or 1:4.We just learned that the next aperture will have a diameter which is 1.4 times smaller, so the f-stop after f/4 will be f/4 x 1/1.4 or f/5.6. “Stopping down” the lens from f/4 to f/5.6 will halve the amount of incoming light, regardless of the focal length. You now understand the meaning of the f/numbers found on lenses:Because f-numbers are fractions of the focal length, “higher” f-numbers represent smaller apertures.Maximum Aperture or Lens Speed

The “maximum aperture” of a lens is also called its “lens speed”. Aperture and shutterspeed are interrelated via exposure. A lens with a large maximum aperture (e.g. f/2) is called a “fast” lens because the large aperture allows you to use high (fast) shutterspeeds and still receive sufficient exposure. Such lenses are ideal to shoot moving subjects in low light conditions.
Zoom lenses specify the maximum aperture at both the wide angle and tele ends, e.g. 28-100mm f/3.5-5.6. A specification like 28-100mm f/2.8 implies that the maximum aperture is f/2.8 throughout the zoom range. Such zoom lenses are more expensive and heavy.

The next post will discuss how the aperture effects Depth of Field

If there are any points you would like clarifying please leave a comment and I will gladly address them.

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Exposure is based on three elements. shutter speed, aperture size and the ISO rating of the film being used (or sensor sensitivity). Assuming we are using an ISO rated film or sensor of 200. Lets say our light meter reading is 1/125 (shutter setting) @ F11 (aperture setting). This will give us the correct exposure. 1/250 @ F 8 will give us exactly the same exposure. Which exposure setting we use depends on other creative considerations. Such as whether we want to freeze the action or show movement. Do we want a shallow depth of field or have everything in focus?

Lets say we want to freeze an action shot with no movement visible at all. We would need to select a shutter speed of 1/500 or faster. Using the exposure example given above.( 1/125 @ F11), we would need to open the aperture up to F5.6 if we wanted to use a shutter speed of 1/500. This would balance the exposure. By speeding the shutter speed from 1/125 to 1/500 we are giving the exposure 2 full stops of less exposure. To ensure the same amount of light is passing though onto the film or sensor, we need to open or increase the aperture to allow more light through. Opening the aperture by 2 stops from F11 is F5.6. see the table below. All these setting give us the same exposure.

If there are any points you would like clarifying please leave a comment and I will gladly address them.

Aperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens that determines the amount of light falling onto the film or sensor in your camera. The size of the opening is controlled by an adjustable diaphragm of overlapping blades similar to the pupils of our eyes.

Aperture affects exposure and is part of the exposure triangle and depth of field (used to blur backgrounds). Just like successive shutter speeds, successive apertures halve the amount of incoming light. To achieve this, the diaphragm reduces the aperture diameter by a factor 1.4 (square root of 2) so that the aperture surface is halved each successive step as shown on this diagram.Because of basic optical principles, the absolute aperture sizes and diameters depend on the focal length.

For instance, a 25mm aperture diameter on a 100mm lens has the same effect as a 50mm aperture diameter on a 200mm lens. If you divide the aperture diameter by the focal length, you will arrive at 1/4 in both cases, independent of the focal length. Expressing apertures as fractions of the focal length is more practical for photographers than using absolute aperture sizes. These “relative apertures” are called f-numbers or f-stops. On the lens barrel, the above 1/4 is written as f/4 or F4 or 1:4.We just learned that the next aperture will have a diameter which is 1.4 times smaller, so the f-stop after f/4 will be f/4 x 1/1.4 or f/5.6. “Stopping down” the lens from f/4 to f/5.6 will halve the amount of incoming light, regardless of the focal length.

Hopefully you now know the meaning of the f/numbers found on lenses: Because f-numbers are fractions of the focal length, “higher” f-numbers represent smaller apertures.Maximum Aperture or Lens Speed The “maximum aperture” of a lens is known as it’s “lens speed”.

Aperture and shutter speed are interrelated via exposure (see exposure triangle). A lens with a large maximum aperture (e.g. f/2) is called a “fast” lens because the large aperture allows you to use high (fast) shutter speeds and still receive sufficient exposure. Such lenses are ideal to shoot moving subjects in low light conditions. Zoom lenses specify the maximum aperture at both the wide angle and telephoto ends, e.g. 28-100mm f/3.5-5.6. A specification like 28-100mm f/2.8 implies that the maximum aperture is f/2.8 throughout the zoom range. Such zoom lenses are more expensive to buy and more weighty.

Depth of field

As mentioned above, lens aperture also affects how much in front and behind the lens focus distance will appear to be in focus in the image. This is called Depth of Field. The most common reason for wanting a narrow aperture (high f-number) is to have a very deep depth of field in which everything (or very nearly so) appears in focus. A very deep depth of field is almost always desired for landscape photographs. A wide aperture (low f-number) will create a shallower depth of field. The wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. One of the common uses for wide apertures is in portraiture, to isolate the subject from a distracting (possibly cluttered) background.

The ‘theartofphotography.tv’ has an interesting video tutorial about the subject of Apertures, worth a look below

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Exposure is based on three elements. shutter speed, aperture size and the ISO rating of the film being used (or sensor sensitivity). Assuming we are using an ISO rated film or sensor of 200. Lets say our light meter reading is 1/125 @ F11. This will give us the correct exposure. 1/250 @ F 8 will give us exactly the same exposure. Which exposure setting we use depends on other creative considerations. Such as whether we want to freeze the action or show movement. Do we want a shallow depth of field or have everything in focus? Lets say we want to freeze an action shot with no movement visible at all. We would need to select a shutter speed of 1/500 or faster. Using the exposure example given above.( 1/125 @ F11), we would need to open the aperture up to F5.6 if we wanted to use a shutter speed of 1/500. This would balance the exposure. By speeding the shutter speed from 1/125 to 1/500 we are giving the exposure 2 full stops of less exposure. To ensure the same amount of light is passing though onto the film or sensor, we need to open or increase the aperture to allow more light through. Opening the aperture by 2 stops from F11 is F5.6. see the table below. All these setting give us the same exposure.

Exposure is controlled by three camera controls which are:

1. Shutter
2. Aperture
3. ISO

Shutter

If you think of the shutter as a tap on a water pipe, it controls the flow of water by opening and shutting at different speeds. The faster the tap is opened and shut the less water goes through it, the slower it is opened and closed the more water passes through it. So the shutter controls the amount of light passing through to the film/sensor. The faster the shutter is set (usually in fractions of seconds ½, ¼, 1/8. 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000) the less light passing through, this helps to freeze action, a slower shutter speed gives the subject more time to move and results in more blurry images. Each setting on your camera lets through ½ or double the amount of light than the previous setting so as we move through the sequence of settings 1/15, allows twice as much light as 1/30 (of a second) and half as much as 1/8 (of a second) and so it is with each of them.

Aperture

Using our water pipe metiphor, then the aperture is like the pipe diameter, a wider pipe allows more volume of water through it, a narrower pipe allow less water through it. The aperture is actually located in the lens and closes down the diameter of the lens to make the diameter that the light passes through, smaller and smaller as we go down in what is described as F-stops. The settings range usually from f2, f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f32 (these are fractions of the maximum diameter of the lens) so f2 is a biggest diameter, and f32 is the smallest in the examples given. There are wider apertures available than f2, but these are only available on the most expensive professional lenses. As with the shutter settings moving from one setting to the next halves or doubles the amount of light of the previous setting.  I will speak more in depth about this in a separate post

ISO

ISO refers to the sensitivity of the sensor (digital cameras) or film usually going from 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200. So 50 ISO is the least sensitive setting but provides the best quality image, and 3200 ISO is the most sensitive setting but provides the poorest quality image. Again going from one setting to the next doubles and halves the amount of light captured in the camera. ISO is usually the last resort change only when you are not able to make the necessary adjustments with either of the other two settings (shutter speed or ISO)

All three come into play to provide the right exposure for any given photo. The right exposure depends on the situation you are photographing, and what you want to achieve from the photograph. But assuming we want to move through the setting to achieve the same exposure for a particular setup this can be done by balancing one control with the other, see the table below to see how this works. We are using a starting exposure setting of 1/250, f11, 400 ISO highlighted. All setting provide the same exposure.

As we adjust the shutter speed to either let more light through or less, we need to balance the exposure with the aperture. If we let more light in via the shutter setting, we need to move the aperture to let the equivalent less light through (assuming we leave the iso unchanged).

Changing the ISO

As a professional photographer working in UK, the biggest problem we come across is being in situations were there is not enough light in a situation, say we are working in a dark church during a wedding, and need to get a shot of the action as the bride and groom are enjoying the ceremony. We may have the camera on a tripod but we cant really risk shooting an action shot much slower than 1/30 because the bride and groom might be moving and a slower shutter speed would result in blurring of the subjects. We might have the aperture open to its maximum to say f2.8, and we still might not have enough light hitting the sensor to get a bright enough exposure. In this instance we can use the ISO to help us out, if we move from 400 ISO to 800 ISO we have suddenly given ourselves double the amount of light we had previously, and if we move to 1600 we have double the amount again. This might be just enough to get a bright enough shot to add to the wedding album. Of course we can always use flash but usually this is not an option in a church during the ceremony.

Tell us what you want to learn

If there are any aspects of photography you would like to know more about please let us know in the comment box below, and thanks for dropping by.