To begin, let’s define “aperture”. An f-stop is a measurement of the Aperture. For example, f/1.4, f/2.8, f/5.6, f/8, etc. These numbers are a measurement of how wide the camera lens’ diaphragm opens up in order for light to pass through. Because these are fractions, the smaller numbers are actually the biggest openings. In the list above, f/1.4 is the largest aperture. Choosing the right aperture is important for two reasons:

1) The aperture affects the Depth-of-field, and

2) The aperture controls how much light enters the lens.

In regards to depth-of-field, large apertures such as f/1.4 have a very shallow depth of field. A shallow depth of field is great for portraits because it creates beautiful bokeh, which is a blurred background. Portrait images tend to look better when the focus is on the subject, and the background elements are blurred or not distracting. Although a large aperture is great for portraits, the photographer must be careful to make sure that the depth of field is adequate for his subject and the effect he is trying to achieve. Because group photos require a greater depth of field to make sure everyone is in focus, a slightly smaller aperture such as f/4.0 would usually work best.

Choosing the right aperture is very important with portraits. (In this case, an animal portrait). The depth of field is often very minimal in portraits. Focusing on the eyes, the depth of field extends from the neck and to the end of the giraffe’s mouth in the photo above. Depending on the lens and how far away you are, the f-stop setting would change. Let’s pretend the photographer was using an 85mm lens on a full-frame camera body, 20 feet/6 meters away from the subject. A good starting point would be to set the aperture at f/4.0. Be careful not to overdo it though! A low depth of field needs to have pinpoint accuracy when focusing.

What Exactly Is Aperture?

Aperture is what people will represent as an “f’ number. When people say they are setting their cameras to f/2.8, f/5.6, or f/22 among the many others, the aperture is represented by the “f” symbol. As such, “f” means the regular aperture.

When you say you’re setting your camera at a given “f” value, what you mean is that you want the braids in the lens to either open or close down a lot.

The f-number means that the braids in the lens should open or close down to a certain extent that is represented by the value e.g. 4, 5, 6 etc. So, when people say that their photos were shot at a certain aperture such as f-1.8 or f-4, it means that the hole and the lens are going to be very wide open. This lets in more light in the image while at the same time decreasing the depth of field which means the subject and the distance behind and before it will be more out of focus than if you set it at f-18 or something bigger.

On the other hand, when people say they are setting their cameras at let’s say f-22, it means that the hole is going to be very small and thus will let in very minimal light. It will also give more depth of field with the image being more focused.
In our video here, we have a photo of a guy standing in the office and the first photo will be taken at f-4/3.5 thus making it more blurry but then if you were to take the same image at f-22 or f-16, the image will have more sharpness in the background. This therefore represents how light will come in and affect the quality of your image.

Just to represent how much light will comes in, we have another image where there is a bright sunny scene with the light directed towards the camera. Just as your eyes will react, this is what the camera will do as well. When you step into a bright sunny scene, your camera and eyes will close up. With the eye closing in, your pupil becomes very small and this allows you to decrease the light coming into the eyes which in turn blinds you when you are looking at a bright scene.

If your eyes were to stay the same as this will be at around f-16 or thereabout and you step into a dark scene, with your lens at this value, things will look very dark and you can only see a little bit of hotspots here and there. So, what you can do is to let your camera open up to more light so you have a wider aperture. This is what is represented as f.4 or f-4.6 which gives you an image that is a little bit clearer.

So, these are the basics of aperture and what they do to your image. There is whole lot more very technical and in-depth ways to look at aperture but this is basically what they do to your image. You can check out on other photography videos from Sleeklens.com YouTube channel or visit the site for more resources of photography.

Happy shooting!

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