Which aperture lets in more light

For some pictures—for example, a landscape—you may want a smaller aperture for maximum depth of field so that everything from near foreground to distant background is sharp. But perhaps in a portrait you will want a larger aperture to decrease the depth of field so that your subject is sharp but the background is soft and out of focus. Aperture settings are called f-stops and indicate the size of the aperture opening.

Each f-stop lets in half as much light as the next larger opening and twice as much light as the next smaller opening. From the largest possible opening to increasingly smaller ones, the f-stops have traditionally been those shown to the left.

Many high-end digital cameras have added one or two stops between each of the traditional ones. In the table to the left one-third and one-half stops are shown in red and blue respectively. In better cameras, the aperture is a series of overlapping leaves located between the glass elements in the lens. There are several ways this can be expressed in the camera specifications: maximum aperture, aperture range, maximum wide-angle and maximum telephoto apertures.

It is more useful to know the aperture range of a particular camera rather than the maximum apertures. A larger range gives you more flexibility in the kinds of shots you can take. Each lens has its own aperture rating. Telephoto lenses typically have a shallower aperture range than wide-angle lenses because longer lenses need proportionally more light. This is because they are gathering light from a smaller source, so larger apertures are needed to produce f-numbers which are consistent with shorter lenses.

Join over , photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current:. Quick correction. While an aperture opened to an F stop with a small number lets in more light than a larger one the relationship is related by a square. The authors statement that f16 lets in half as much light as f 8 is wrong. The normal progression of f stops found on most cameras is f1.

F11 lets in half as much light as f8 and twice as much as f Your email address will not be published. We are always looking for more interesting and insightful photography tips and techniques to share with our readers. We would love to publish an article by you if you are interested in writing for us.

See what we are looking for and get in touch. Like This Article? Don't Miss The Next One! Join over , photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current: Email Subscribe. Related Articles. Leon says:. Wednesday, May 14th, at am. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

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