Aperture explained — Camera Basics
Are you struggling with blurry & unsharp photos? Are you missing that crispy touch in your photos or that amazing creative Bokeh? Then a correctly set aperture might help.
Aperture is one of the three camera basics you need to understand before you can start taking amazing photos. If you know how the aperture works, this article is not for you. 👋
This is the second article in the Camera Basics series, stay tuned for “ISO explained” and the “Dream team of photography” and checkout the previously published “Shutter speed explained” article.
The aperture
The aperture is built with a bunch of blades that are located inside your lens “trying” to form a perfect round circle, which is almost impossible in reality except for some high-end lenses that are almost able to produce this effect.
How is the aperture measured
The aperture value is measured in F-stops. The lower the aperture F-number, the more light is let through your lense. But wait what? The smaller the number the larger the hole? Yeah it’s actually true. #stupid
A possible aperture range on your lens or in your camera could be:
f/1.4 - f/2 - f/2.8 - f4 - f5.6 - f8 - f11 - f16 - f22
But what does this mean for you when you change your aperture from f/1.4 to f/2? It’s quite simple: For every step you increase your aperture, you decrease the amount of light let through your lens by 50% and vice versa.
on f/1.4 we have 120'000 lux of light coming through
on f/2 we have 60'000 lux of light coming through
on f/2.8 we have 30'000 lux of light coming through
The more expensive lens you buy the lower minimal aperture value you will have and therefore more light on your camera sensor. 💸
A lens that offers very low aperture values is called a fast lens
Low vs High aperture value
The aperture is the “creative element” you have at hand to make your photos stand out from all the rest. Let’s continue and compare the different aperture values.
What does a low aperture do to your photo?
You might have overheard creative people talking about Bokeh. Bok… wuat? The definition of Bokeh: “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”
Does that make any sense to you? If not, let’s just forget about this word and replace it with “a nice intended blurred background”. Makes more sense right?
The lower you set your aperture the more blurry the background behind your focus point gets. This allows you to shoot creative portraits or product photos.
What does a high aperture do to your photos?
Since we know that a low aperture gives you an extremely blurry background you might wonder what a high aperture value gives you. It’s in fact the complete opposite, the higher the aperture value the sharper the background behind your focus point becomes.
In other words, if you shoot on the highest possible aperture value, pretty much every single pixel in your photo will be sharp. Sometimes you want to take a photo where every element is sharp, e.g. when taking a landscape or skyline photo where you intend to capture all the small details.
Learnings
Now we know that by changing the aperture value we just move the blurry layer of your photo back and forth.
Watch out !!!
If you struggle with getting crisp and sharp photos make sure you are not shooting on a low aperture value, since it’s getting harder and harder to focus on a subject the lower the aperture is.
Try to use all the help your camera offers if you want to get a portrait with amazing Bokeh on a low aperture value.
Don't shoot with manual focus activated. Pretty sure your cameras Autofocus calculations are better than your eye sight.
Use focus peaking
How to set your aperture
Most system cameras and certain point-and-shoot cameras have a menu dial which lets you chose the Aperture-priority mode.
Depending on the brand of your camera the letters or symbols might differ. Check your manual for Aperture-priority.
After selecting the Aperture-priority mode you should be able to adjust the aperture with your dial or knob or whatever input device the camera offers. If you are shooting with an older manual lens you have to turn the aperture wheel on the lens itself.
If you are shooting in Aperture-priority mode the camera tries to compensate your aperture up to a certain point by changing the shutter speed, in order for you to snap a correctly exposed photo. If you don’t want your camera changing your shutter speed you should go with the all “Manual Mode M”.
Go explore & practice
Like everything in photography it takes time and a lot of practice to get good results. Make sure you are familiar with your camera and you know how you can adjust your aperture before you start shooting, your camera manual might be a good goto source or good old Google.
If this article was helpful to you, I’d love to get a clap or a comment below. Feel free to share your learnings or questions.
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