For example, a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 lets in twice as much light when compared to a lens with a maximum aperture of f/4.0. Why is large maximum aperture in a lens so important? Because a lens with a larger maximum aperture lets more light into the camera. Sometimes, they’ll pay hundreds of extra dollars just to buy a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8 rather than f/4, or f/1.4 rather than f/1.8. Typically, the “maximum” aperture of a lens, which is also often referred to as “ wide-open” aperture, will be something like f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2, f/2.8, f/3.5, f/4, or f/5.6.Ī lot of photographers really care about the maximum aperture that their lenses offer. At some point, the aperture blades in your lens won’t be able to close any smaller, or they won’t be able to open any wider. Unfortunately, you can’t just set any f-stop value that you want. Which F-Stop Values Can You Actually Set?
Physically, at f/4, your aperture blades are open much wider, as shown below: It also makes it easy to visualize why an aperture of f/4 would be larger than an aperture of f/16. If your f-stop is set to f/4, the diameter of the aperture blades in your lens will look exactly 20 millimeters across (80mm / 4), whereas at f/16, the diameter will be reduced to mere 5 millimeters (80mm / 16). (Or, more accurately, the diameter that the blades appear to be when you look through the front of the lens).įor example, say that you have an 80-200mm f/2.8 lens fully zoomed out to 80mm. When you substitute focal length into the fraction, you’re solving for the diameter of the aperture blades in your lens. Quite simply, the “f” stands for “focal length”. What Does the “f” Stand For?Ī lot of photographers ask me an interesting question: What does the “f” stand for in f-stop, or in the name of aperture (like f/8)? See the below diagram that shows different sizes of aperture to understand: As you can see, an f-stop like f/2.8 represents a much larger aperture opening than something like f/16. If someone tells you to use a small aperture, they’re recommending an f-stop like f/8, f/11, or f/16. If someone tells you to use a large aperture, they’re recommending an f-stop like f/1.4, f/2, or f/2.8. If you ever read an article online that ignores this simple fact, you’ll be very confused. A 1/4 pound burger is larger than a 1/10 pound slider.īy that same logic, an aperture of f/2 is much larger than an aperture of f/16. 1/2 cup of sugar is much more than 1/16 cup of sugar. An aperture of f/16 is 1/16 (one-sixteenth). An aperture of f/2 is equivalent to 1/2 (one-half). You can think of an aperture of f/8 as the fraction 1/8 (one-eighth). Why is your aperture written like that? What does something like “f/8” even mean? Actually, this is one of the most important parts about aperture: it’s written as a fraction. In this case, I’m using an aperture of f/8. These are just examples of different f-stops, and you might come across much smaller numbers like f/1.2 or much larger ones like f/64. Sometimes, it will be shown without a slash in between like f2.8, or with a capital “F” letter in the front like F2.8, which means the exact same thing as f/2.8. On your camera’s LCD screen or viewfinder, the f-stop looks like this: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, and so on. You might have seen this in your camera before. In very simple language, f-stop is the number that your camera shows you when you change the size of the lens aperture. If you did not understand that, don’t worry, because there is a much easier explanation of it for beginners. The f-stop, which is also known as the f-number, is the ratio of the lens focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil.
F stop chart manual#
That is why I only ever shoot in aperture-priority or manual modes!īefore you try it out for yourself, though, there are a few other things you might want to know.
F stop chart free#
You can adjust it by entering your camera’s aperture-priority mode or manual mode, both of which give you free rein to pick whatever aperture you like. For example, the two illustrations below have different depths of field, depending on the size of aperture:Īdjusting your aperture is one of the best tools you have to capture the right images. The other more important impact is depth of field – the amount of your photo that appears to be sharp from front to back. However, that isn’t the only thing that aperture affects. Aperture size has a direct impact on the brightness of a photograph, with larger apertures letting in more light into the camera compared to smaller ones. They will tell you to “stop down” (close) or “open up” (widen) the aperture blades for a particular photo.Īs you would expect, there are differences between photos taken with a large aperture versus photos taken with a small aperture. That is an important concept! Often, you’ll hear other photographers talking about large versus small apertures.
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