{"id":49813,"date":"2017-10-16T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvephotography.com\/?p=49813"},"modified":"2017-10-15T20:00:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T02:00:22","slug":"how-to-set-the-f-stop-on-a-camera-for-any-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvephotography.com\/49813\/how-to-set-the-f-stop-on-a-camera-for-any-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set the F-Stop on a Camera for Any Photo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Older<\/a>
Older cameras had the f-stops marked on the lens barrel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The f-stop, or aperture, is one of the key camera settings every photographer must master because it controls two critical things: the amount of light going through the lens and how deep the field of focus (depth of field) goes in your image.<\/p>\n

The larger the opening of the lens, the more light hits the sensor, but the shallower the depth of field.\u00a0 The smaller the opening of the lens, the less light hitting the sensor but the deeper the depth of field.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pretty simple concept, but there are numbers involved, which leads to math, which make it seem more complicated than it really is.<\/p>\n

Along with your shutter speed and ISO setting, your aperture is part of the \u201cexposure triangle.\u201d\u00a0 Adjusting each of these settings can give you a variety of different effects.\u00a0 You can learn more about the interplay between f-stops, shutter speed and ISO here<\/a>.<\/u><\/p>\n

Each lens will be sharpest at a specific aperture, usually somewhere between f-5.6 and f-11.\u00a0 Some landscape photographers adjust their shutter speed and ISO settings to keep the aperture as close to that ideal as possible.<\/p>\n

Fun Fact:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The term \u201cstops\u201d comes from the early days of photography, when metal plates with holes of different diameters, called \u201cWaterhouse stops,\u201d were inserted into the lens to change the aperture.<\/p>\n

What are common f-stop settings?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The barn was far enough from the camera that I could have used f-8, or maybe even f-5.6 and still had everything in acceptable focus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you want to jump immediately to which f-stop you should use for a given situation, here are some examples.\u00a0 Every situation is different and your mileage will vary, so consider these some general advice.\u00a0 You can find a lot more information and examples in the Camera Settings Chart<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"With<\/a>
With the cactus only a foot from the camera, I needed a large depth of field and shot this at f-16.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Landscape:<\/strong>\u00a0 Generally, we\u2019re including something of interest in the foreground and in the background.\u00a0 Therefore, we want to maximize our depth of field and will shoot at f-11 or f-16.\u00a0 Why not f-22?\u00a0 Because of diffraction, the image quality degrades noticeably at that extreme aperture.\u00a0 Depending on how near and far away your subject, foreground and background are, you might even be able to shoot at f-8 or f-5.6.\u00a0 If everything is at infinity, any aperture\u2014even f-2.8\u2014will work.<\/p>\n

Details:<\/strong>\u00a0 You typically want a detail, like a colorful leaf on a rock, a butterfly on a flower, or a dew drop on a flower petal, to be in sharp focus, but the background can go soft.\u00a0 Depending on the distance from your camera, a setting between f-4 and f-2.8 could work.<\/p>\n

Portrait:\u00a0<\/strong> We usually want to isolate the subject from the background and shoot portraits between f-4 and f-2.8, depending on the lens used and the distance from the camera.<\/p>\n

Street Photography:\u00a0 <\/strong>Photojournalist Arthur \u201cWeegee\u201d Fellig was reputed to have said the secret to his success was \u201cf-8 and be there.\u201d\u00a0 F-8 gives a street photographer a good balance between decent depth of field and the ability to choose the right shutter speed for almost any situation.<\/p>\n

Sports and wildlife:<\/strong>\u00a0 In most situations, you\u2019re trying to freeze action, which requires a very fast shutter speed, and you\u2019ll be shooting in difficult lighting, so you\u2019ll often need a wide-open aperture, like f-2.8.\u00a0 Because you\u2019re typically a good distance from your subjects, the smaller depth of field of a wide-open aperture might help you isolate the buffalo or the running back from a cluttered background.<\/p>\n

Night and astrophotography:<\/strong>\u00a0 When you\u2019re trying to capture light from distant stars, you\u2019ll need to open up your lens to its widest aperture, f-1.4 to f-2.8.<\/p>\n

OK, I got it.\u00a0 Now what, exactly, is an \u201cf-stop\u201d?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The f-stop refers to the diameter of the opening of the lens, expressed as a fraction of the lens\u2019 focal length.<\/p>\n

For example, a 200mm lens with a lens diaphragm open to a diameter of 50mm would be f-4 (200 \u00f7 50 = 4).\u00a0 So, f-4 means the diameter is \u00bc of the focal length.\u00a0 A 200mm lens with a diameter of 25mm would be f-8.\u00a0 (200 \u00f7 25 = 8).\u00a0 So, f-8 means the diameter is 1\/8 of the focal length.\u00a0 Not so hard, right?<\/p>\n

One thing that trips up beginning photographers is that the larger the f-stop number, the smaller the lens opening.\u00a0 It seems counterintuitive.\u00a0 You \u201cstop up\u201d towards f-2.8 when you want to open up <\/em>the lens diaphragm and you \u201cstop down\u201d towards f-22 when you want to close down<\/em> the opening.\u00a0 It may help to remember that the numbers represent fractions, so 1\/2.8 is larger than 1\/22.\u00a0 Still with me?<\/p>\n

\"Lens<\/a>
An old Leica telephoto lens open to f-4.5 (left), f-11 (center) and f-22 (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In our earlier example the diameter of an f-4 lens is twice<\/em> that of the same lens at f-8, but it transmits four<\/em> times the amount of light!\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the amount of light is proportional to the area<\/em> of the diaphragm opening (which involves the square of the radius). \u00a0Hang in there, we\u2019re almost done!<\/p>\n

F-stops are typically given as 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22[1]<\/a>, but can go as low as f-1 or as high as f-64.\u00a0 Moving to the right, each \u201cstop\u201d transmits half as much light.\u00a0 For example, moving from f-5.6 to f-8 cuts the amount of light in half.\u00a0 Moving to the left, each stop transmits twice as much light, so moving to f-5.6 from f-8 doubles the amount of light.<\/p>\n

All <\/em>lenses set at f-8 will transmit the same amount of light to the sensor.\u00a0 An f-8 on a 15mm lens lights up your sensor just as much as a 50mm lens at f-8 or a 200mm lens at f-8!\u00a0 So, you can switch lenses and not have to change settings.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cstop\u201d has also been used to describe a doubling or halving of the amount of light let in by the shutter speed or picked up by the sensitivity of the sensor.\u00a0 So, changing your shutter speed by a stop means, for example, going from 1\/125 to 1\/250, effectively halving the amount of light let in.\u00a0 Going from 1\/125 to 1\/60 is also a stop and doubles the amount of light.\u00a0 Similarly, changing ISO from 100 to 200 is one stop and doubles the sensor\u2019s ability to record light.\u00a0 Going from 400 to 200 is also a stop and halves the sensitivity.<\/p>\n

F-stop and depth of field<\/h3>\n
\"A<\/a>
A shallow depth of field to isolate the tulip from the background required f-4.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Remember that we said the f-stop controlled both the amount of light getting to the sensor, and the depth of field?\u00a0 If you double the f-number (e.g. from f-4 to f-8), you double the depth of field.<\/p>\n

You can also increase the depth of field by going to a shorter, wide angle lens or moving back farther away from your subject.\u00a0 Halving the focal length (e.g. switching from a 50mm lens to a 24mm lens) yields a four-fold increase in the depth of field.\u00a0 If you double the distance between the subject and the camera, the depth of field increases by a factor of four.\u00a0 (Math again: in both cases the changes are proportional to the square of the focal length or distance.)<\/p>\n

If the depth of field is important to the impact and success of your image, then the f-stop is your friend.\u00a0 Find the appropriate f-stop that will give you the depth of field you want and then adjust the other settings.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t need a specific shutter speed to freeze or to blur movement, you might even consider using Aperture Priority mode on your camera.<\/p>\n

F-2.8 lenses or f-3.5-5.6 lenses?<\/h3>\n

Lenses have a maximum aperture, which is usually included in the lens description, like Nikon\u2019s Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 or the Nikon 18-55mm f-3.5-5.6 kit lens.\u00a0 In the case of the Nikkor lens, the f-2.8 aperture is available at all focal lengths.\u00a0 With the kit lens example, the largest aperture varies between f3.5 and f-5.6 depending on the focal length used.<\/p>\n

The constant aperture lenses, like the 70-200mm f2.8 in our example, are typically bigger, heavier, more expensive and sharper than variable aperture lenses like the kit lens.\u00a0 Many professional photographers need the constant f-2.8 aperture as they often shoot in low light. \u00a0Others value the lower cost and lighter weight of variable aperture lenses.\u00a0 Most major manufacturers make very, very good lenses of both types and you can even take very nice photos with a kit lens.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, there you have it.\u00a0 Now you can purposefully use your choice of f-stop to create the look you want in your images.\u00a0 And, as a bonus, you can impress people at cocktail parties with your knowledge.\u00a0 Now, if you can only work “Waterhouse stop<\/em>” into the conversation . . .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Why isn\u2019t the f-stop number series 2, 4, 8, 16, and so on?\u00a0 That\u2019d make it so much easier than things like 2.8 and 5.6.\u00a0 Because the area of the diaphragm opening involves squaring the diameter, doubling and halving the amount of light involves multiplying or dividing by the square root of 2, which gives you numbers like 2.8 and 5.6.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The f-stop, or aperture, is one of the key camera settings every photographer must master because it controls two 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