What is Aperture?
Aperture (also known as f-stop) is the opening in the lens that lets light travel to the sensor and is one of the most important camera settings to achieve sharp and in-focus images. In this guide we will cover how to understand aperture.
F-stop is a part of the three most important settings for correct exposure. The exposure triangle is made up of the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. The lowest f-stop number (f1.4) grants the most shallow depth of field. A larger f-stop (f/16) gives a deeper depth of field, making the whole scene equally focused
What F-stop Should I Use?
Choosing the correct aperture varies depending on how much of the scene and subject should be in full focus. The larger the area that needs to be focused, the larger the f-stop number needed.
If you are shooting a portrait with one subject then an aperture of 2.0 – 4.0 is perfect as it will give enough light to make a fast picture and create an amazing background blur. When there is multiple subjects like for a group photo then increasing the f-stop number to the amount of subjects in the photo will result in a sharp picture (ex. f/5.6 to f/11.
Choosing the right f-stop for landscape can be tricky starting out in photography. For landscape photography the minimum aperture for sharp photos is f/7.1. Finding the perfect aperture for a focused scene lies somewhere around f/11 to f/16. The trade off for these high f-stop numbers is that not a lot of light to reach the camera sensor.
Know Your Lens
The quality and type of the lens dictate the range of the aperture available. Faster lenses can achieve apertures as low as f/1.4. These lenses are typically prime lenses meaning that they have a fixed focal length.
A fixed focal length lens has fewer moving parts, making the lens faster and more light reaching the sensor. Lenses that zoom from wide to telephoto have multiple working parts that slow down the light needed to record an image. These lenses usually have a base aperture of f/2.8 and increase many f-stops when zooming into the max focal length.
Aperture Priority Mode
Aperture priority is a automated camera mode that enables you to choose the aperture while the camera picks the shutter speed.
This mode can be very useful starting off in photography as you can become familiar with aperture before having it adjust shutter speed and ISO along with it.
The mode can be found on the camera dial on most cameras as A (for Nikon) or Av (for Canon).
Aperture priority mode works well as long as enough light is present. In low light, the camera will choose slow shutter speeds that will make photos blurry.
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