Aperture Basic Training

Click here to download the WEEK ONE pdf!!

One of the most necessary but oftentimes least understood parts of photography is Aperture.
The size of the aperture, or f/stop, of a lens determines how much of your photograph is in focus. Generally, when you hear someone talk about f/stop, they are referring to aperture -- the terms are often used interchangeably. The f/stop on a lens can go from 1.2 to 22 or sometimes higher. (It's not really important to this class for you to understand the mathematical basis for the numbers, but instead, to understand what they mean to your photography.)

F/stops can be confusing at first. The f/stop numbers refer to how open or closed the aperture on the lens is. The wider the opening of the lens, the greater the amount of light that enters your camera at one time -- which means that when your aperture is wide open your focus will be shallower and fewer things in your photo will be in focus.

Take a moment to study photo #1 of an open aperture on a 50mm lens. The WIDER the aperture, the more light that comes through the camera -- because a lot of light is flowing through the aperture opening LESS of your photo will be in focus.(A low f/stop, such as f/1.4 or f/2.8, is considered a wide-open aperture.)

The smaller the opening on the lens, the smaller the amount of light that is allowed to enter your camera at one time -- which means your focus is deeper and more of your photo will be in focus.

Now look at the second photo above for an example of a closed aperture on a 50mm lens. The SMALLER the aperture, the less light allowed -- because there is very little light flowing through the aperture MORE of your photo will be in focus. (A high f/stop, such as f/22, is considered a closed aperture.)

The confusion for most people arrives when you try and put the f/stop number with these scenarios. In terms of aperture openings, f/1.2 would be a wide-open aperture on most high-end lenses, whereas f/22 would be a virtually closed aperture. This causes most people no end of consternation (including Joanna, but not Mark because he's a walking textbook.)

Basically, when you use a low f/stop, less of your photo will be in focus. When you use a higher f/stop, MORE of your photo will be in focus.

COURSEWORK:
We strongly encourage you to download the WEEK ONE pdf that corresponds with this article. Not only does it include the above information in a nicely-designed and more readable format, but downloading it also enables you to print out and store all 12 weeks of coursework so that you can read and review it at your leisure. PLUS, the pdf includes a discussion and examples for this week's photography challenge, as well as a Question & Answer section based on questions you provided to us. Honestly, it's just prettier. So print it.

Weekly Challenge:
Speaking of the weekly challenge, the most important part of this course is learning how to use your camera. So now that we've covered the basics on Aperture, we invite you to join in on this week's weekly challenge for some hands-on learning.

Weekly Discussion Thread:
Look for a thread on the photography message board where we'll field your comments/questions/thoughts on Week One.

Coming Next Week:
In ideal lighting conditions, it's easy to play around with your aperture settings to create a variety of different images based on how much of your photo is in focus. Problems can arise, however, when you find yourself in a low-light situation and have to use a low aperture for a photo where you want the majority of your subject(s) to be in focus. This is where shutter speed and film speed (ISO) come into play with aperture, and we'll address this relationship in next week's lesson on advanced aperture.

Suggested Reading:
For a technical explanation of Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed, check out this article.
Look here for the definitions of different Creative modes (including aperture priority).
Finally, check out this article on Aperture by Kim Heffington

Credits:
The lens photos that appear here are courtesy of istockphoto.com.
The 2peas digital kit items & fonts used to create various pdf & article elements are linked below.

written by Mark & Joanna Bolick