Aperture is one of the most significant settings in photography. In fact, it’s where the magic happens in photography. So in this article, I want to talk about the following subjects:
- What exactly aperture is
- How you can use aperture to capture artistic images
- How to choose the perfect aperture for different situations and subjects like landscape, portrait, etc.
By mastering the aperture you will take control of a big part of your photography. I will start with the most important question:
Table of Contents
What is the aperture?
The aperture is a hole in the lens that allows light to hit the sensor. The amount of light has directly related to the size of this hole. That means the large hole lets more light hit the sensor, and the photo will be brighter. So a smaller hole does not allow light to hit the sensor, and the photo will be darker.
Keep in mind, by changing the aperture in the camera setting, you will specify the size of this hole.
The basis for calculating the aperture is f-stops. It’s like f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, etc.
Look at the below image. As you can see, whatever the F-number is smaller, the aperture hole is bigger.
Note that each f-stop halves the size of the aperture. For example, if you go from f/2.8 to f/4, the aperture will cut in half. And if you go from f/4 to f/5.6, you will cut the aperture in half again.
So the f/8 is a much larger aperture than f/11, and the f/16 is much smaller than f/5.6.
Does sounds logical, right? It can be confusing at first, especially since a large aperture size corresponds to a smaller f-number and vice versa. But don’t worry, you will get used to it.
What effect does the aperture to your photos?
So far, you know what is aperture and how it determines the amount of light by changing the settings. But what does aperture actually do and how does it affect your photos?
In general, aperture directly affects two things:
- Exposure
- Depth of field(DOF)
Aperture and exposure
As you may know, exposure refers to the brightness of the photo. Generally, we don’t wanna take too dark or too bright photos. We want to capture a photo with the right aperture and more details.
As I told you before, in a higher aperture, you let in more light which brightness of your image. By narrowing the aperture, you let in less light which darkness your image.
So if you want to take a picture of a beautiful sunset, you have to point your camera directly to the sun and you should close the aperture to control the light.
And if you are photographing a forest, and your photos keep turning out dark and shadowy, you can always widen the aperture to brighten up the image.
Aperture and depth of field
Aperture directly affects the depth of field. It means based on the f-number, a range of your image will be in focus. So in a photo, with a large depth of field, almost all parts of the photo will be in focus. Look like most of the landscape photos that you see every day.
On the other hand, a photo with a small depth of field will have one part in focus. The focus part can be in the foreground or background.
The depth of field effect is very artistic, and all the time, you will have a sharp subject with a blurry foreground or background. The blurry background helps the subject to be the center of the attraction. this is an effect you’ll often see in portrait photography.