What is aperture
Think of the aperture as the pupil of the eye. The pupil of a person controls the amount of light that enters. As the pupil becomes larger, more light enters, and smaller pupils cause less light to enter. When people switch between bright and dark environments, their pupils will also become larger or smaller. The pupil of the camera is the aperture. You can control the amount of light entering the camera by controlling the size of the aperture.
On the camera, the size of the aperture is represented by a number starting with "f", such as "f/2", "f/3.5", "f/16" and so on. You can find this aperture mark on the camera’s LCD screen or on the viewfinder.
Aperture affects exposure
One of the main functions of the aperture is to affect exposure.
- Large aperture, more light coming in, make the photo brighter
- A small aperture, less light coming in, darkens the photo
With the same shutter and ISO settings, the larger the aperture, the brighter the photo, and vice versa.
The numerical value of the aperture is: f/1.0, f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, etc. The aperture value increases by √2 times, the aperture is reduced by one level or one level.
Aperture affects depth of field
Another important effect of aperture is depth of field.
What is depth of field? Depth of Field in English is DOF (Depth of Field), which refers to the clear image presented in the range before and after the focus after the focus is completed. This distance range between the front and back is called the depth of field. In other words, it is the range that can be clearly imaged in the photo.
- Large aperture, shallow depth of field, and blurred background.
- The aperture is small, the depth of field is large, and the background is clear.
Aperture size
The relationship between the size of the aperture and the f-number is inversely proportional. At first, many students did not know the difference. It is not that the larger the value, the larger the aperture, but the smaller the value, the larger the aperture.
- The smaller the f-number, the larger the aperture
- The larger the f-number, the smaller the aperture
How to choose the aperture correctly
Aperture affects exposure: If it is at night or in a low light environment, you may need a large aperture to get as much light as possible.
If you have selected the aperture, don't worry about the photo being too bright or too dark, you can adjust it through the shutter or ISO.
- The smaller the f-number, the larger the aperture, the more exposure, and the shallower the depth of field
- The larger the f-number, the smaller the aperture, the less the exposure, and the greater the depth of field
Maximum aperture and minimum aperture
Each lens will have a maximum and minimum aperture range. The lens configuration will be marked in detail. For us, we need to pay more attention to the maximum aperture, because it indicates the maximum amount of light that this lens can enter. For the minimum aperture, the minimum lens of each lens can achieve f16 or above, and we basically don't use such a small aperture in daily shooting.