You’ve heard of the word aperture but what is it, exactly?
Aperture is one very important part of what photographers call the exposure triangle, the relationship between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.
These three settings work together to control the overall exposure of an image. When one goes up, another must go down in order to maintain the proper exposure.
•What aperture actually is (in simple, easy-to-understand terms)
•How you can use aperture to capture artistic images
•How to choose the perfect aperture for landscape photography, portrait photography, and more
And plenty of other tips and tricks!
If you can master aperture, then you’ll gain a huge amount of creative control over your photography.
Ready to take your photos to the next level?
Let’s dive right in, starting with the most important question of all:
Aperture is the opening in the camera lens. A larger hole allows more light to hit the sensor, lightening your photos. A smaller hole allows less light to hit the sensor in your camera, darkening your photos.
Aperture is like the “pupil” for your camera system, which can open and close to change the amount of light that passes through. Note the nine blades in this lens, which form a diaphragm to block any light that tries to pass, except through the center.
When you walk outside on a bright sunny day, your eyes are being inundated with light. You’ll squint and hold your hand up to block the light while your eyes adjust, shrinking your pupils. Once your pupils are tiny little black dots, it becomes a little easier for you to see because less light is able to get into your eye.
The opposite occurs when you enter a dark room at night. With little light to help you see, your eye adjusts resulting in large pupils, which let in as much light as possible. After a few minutes, your eyes have adjusted and you can see more detail than you could when you first entered the dark room.
Keeping this analogy in mind, imagine your camera’s aperture as the pupil. Only instead of the aperture automatically adjusting based on lighting conditions like your pupil does, in manual shooting modes you must act as the brain for the camera and make the adjustments manually.
Aperture is measured in terms of f-stops, also known as f-numbers. Like this: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/22, etc.
As shown in the diagram below, the smaller the f-number, the larger the aperture hole:
As the f-number increases, the aperture size decreases.
Now, each full stop corresponds to a halving of aperture size. So when you go from f/2.8 to f/4, you cut the aperture in half. And when you go from f/4 to f/5.6, you cut the aperture in half again. (Of course, to double the aperture size, you just go in the reverse direction: from f/5.6 to f/4, and from f/4 to f/2.8.)
So f/2.8 is a much larger aperture than f/22. And f/11 is a much smaller aperture than f/4.
It can be confusing at first, especially because large aperture sizes correspond to smaller f-stop numbers and vice versa.
This causes a huge amount of confusion among photographers, because it’s completely the reverse of what you would expect at first. However, there is a reasonable and simple explanation that should make it much clearer to you: Aperture is a fraction.
When you are dealing with an f-stop of f/16, for example, you can think of it like the fraction 1/16th. Hopefully, you already know that a fraction like 1/16 is clearly much smaller than the fraction 1/4. For this exact reason, an aperture of f/16 is smaller than f/4.
How to Pick the Right Aperture
Now that you’re familiar with large vs small apertures, how do you know what aperture to use for your photos? Let’s revisit two of the most important effects of aperture: exposure and depth of field. First, here is a quick diagram to refresh your memory on how aperture affects the exposure of an image:
An illustration of aperture and how it affects exposure
As you may already know, exposure refers to the brightness of a photo. In general, the goal is to end up with a photo that’s not too dark and not too bright; instead, you want a shot that’s just right, one with lots of detail.
Aperture is one of the three key variables that affect your exposure. (The other two variables are shutter speed and ISO.)
So where does Aperture come into play in all of this?
Remember what I said above? By widening the aperture, you let in more light, which brightens your image. And by narrowing the aperture, you let in less light, which darkens your image.
So if you’re photographing a beautiful sunset and your photos keep turning out too bright, you can always narrow the aperture to darken down the image. (In fact, using a narrow aperture is often a good idea when shooting sunsets!)
And if you’re photographing a forest and your photos keep turning out dark and shadowy, you can always widen the aperture to brighten up the image. (As you might expect, this is a standard low-light photography practice.) but you could lose depth of field.
Of course, aperture isn’t the only variable that affects exposure. If you want to brighten a photo, you can also lower the shutter speed or boost the ISO. And if you want to darken a photo, you can raise the shutter speed or drop the ISO.
In terms of exposure, widening your aperture by a full stop has the exact same effect as lowering your shutter speed by a full stop or boosting your ISO by a full stop. A key consequence of this: different exposure variables can cancel each other out. Increase your ISO by a stop while decreasing your aperture by a stop, and you’ll end up with an identical exposure.
The point here is that, while aperture does determine exposure, you can’t think about it in isolation. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO work together to give you a well-exposed (or poorly exposed) image.
Aperture and depth of field
Aperture also affects the depth of field in your photos.
What exactly does that mean?
Well, depth of field (DOF) is the amount of your shot that is in focus. So a photo with a large depth of field will have most of the image in focus, like this:
Do you see how sharpness stretches from the foreground to the background? That’s thanks to the large depth of field.
A photo with a small depth of field, on the other hand, will have only a sliver in focus, like this:
As you can see, the effect is pretty artistic; you get a sharp subject but a blurry background. Neat, right? Because a blurry background helps the subject to stand out, this is an effect you’ll often see in portrait photography.
As for aperture, the wider the aperture (and the smaller the f-number!), the shallower the depth of field.
So an image with an f/2.8 aperture will have very little in focus and an image with an f/16 aperture will have all of the scene in focus.
What’s important to know is that the aperture offers you creative control as a photographer. Want to create a blurry background? Pick a wide aperture. Want to keep your shot sharp throughout? Pick a narrow aperture.
Of course, you also have to remember the effect of aperture on exposure, which is what makes things a bit more complex (but a lot more fun!).
Adjusting the aperture on your camera
Now that you’ve made it this far, you might be wondering:
How can you actually change the aperture on your camera? What do you have to do?
Fortunately, adjusting the aperture is easy. You just set your camera’s shooting mode to Manual or Aperture Priority. Then rotate the relevant camera dial to change the f-number. (The specific dial will depend on your camera model; if you’re struggling, consult your manual.)
When photographers first learn about aperture, this is a question that crops up constantly. But as you’ve hopefully learned from the sections above, there is no single best aperture that you can use all the time. Sometimes you’ll want a deep depth of field or you’ll want to darken down a too-bright shot, in which case you’ll need to use a narrow aperture. Other times you’ll want a shallow depth of field or you’ll want to brighten up a too-dark shot, in which case you’ll need to use a wide aperture.
There are apertures that get used consistently in certain genres. I’ll cover them briefly below, starting with:
The best landscape photography aperture
Landscape photographers gravitate toward small aperture settings, such as f/8, f/11, and even f/16.
When you’re shooting a sweeping photo of the land, sea, or sky, you often want to keep the whole shot sharp. That way, the viewer can appreciate every little detail of your majestic scene.
Plus, a deep depth of field makes the shot feel more real, like the viewer could physically step into the scene.
The best portrait photography aperture
In portrait photography, it can be handy to have your subject perfectly in focus but the background nice and blurry. That way, your main subject stands out and the background doesn’t become a distraction.
In other words, use a large aperture to ensure a shallow depth of field.
It’s a trick used by family portrait photographers, headshot photographers, fashion photographers, and more.
Hopefully, you now have a good understanding of aperture in photography and how you can use it to gain creative control over your photos.
But if you’re still a little confused, that’s okay. Grab your camera and do some experimenting. Find a subject – an apple works great! – and shoot it with different apertures. Watch as the depth of field changes.
Pretty soon, it’ll all just click. And your photos will never be the same again!
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