Aperture Tutorial

By understanding the aperture, you can completely change your photographs! From parts of focus and the amount of light hitting your sensor.

An aperture is simply a hole placed inside of your lens. It could be theoretically placed anywhere in front of the sensor, but modern, digital cameras, have it in their lenses. You can open it or close it, thus, allowing more or less light to hit the sensor. More expensive lenses can have bigger apertures, especially prime lenses - with only one focal length.

Many cameras have 'Av' or 'A' modes where you only control the Aperture, but to get the best out of your camera use it in 'Manual mode' (which means that you have to understand other things, like ISO, Shutter Speed etc.)

1. What does it look like

f/1.0 f/1.4 f/2.0 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 f/32

Aperture f/1.0 is the widest on the list, while f/32 is the smallest. It may sound confusing that a bigger number means a smaller lens, but that's how it is. The widest aperture in a lens was made by Carl Zeiss and it was a f/.07, made specifically for a movie shot, where a simple candle was the only source of light. There are other brands with slightly smaller apertures, but prices are very expensive.

2. When to use certain apertures

You can read tons of articles but if you will not go out, none will help you. So let's pretend that you are outside, with your DSLR and a beautiful flower in front of you. Which aperture to use?

f/16 - This is a really small aperture and therefore, a lot of your photograph would be sharp. Now, if you're photographing a flower and your whole background is sharp, it would not look nice. But it would be useful for landscape and group shots!

f/2.8 - A very wide/big aperture, so less will be in focus. Now the flower is in focus while everything else is blurred; so the flower stands out even more.

The difference between f/16 and f/2.8 is very, very big.

- Use small apertures like f/8+ when photographing landscape, group shots, landscape etc.

- Use apertures wider than f/5.6 when photographing portraits, flowers.