{"id":74719,"date":"2016-03-23T14:38:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=74719"},"modified":"2016-03-23T14:38:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:38:48","slug":"what-do-f-stops-do-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2016\/03\/23\/what-do-f-stops-do-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"What do f-stops do, anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rex Dolby<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_74720\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74720\" style=\"width: 330px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-74720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/LensfstopIllus.jpg\" alt=\"This diagram illustrates how the f-numbers are related to changes in size of the lens opening. \u2028(Photo submitted.)\" width=\"330\" height=\"220\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-74720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This diagram illustrates how the f-numbers are related to changes in size of the lens opening. \u2028(Photo submitted.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Van Wert Area Photography Club&#8217;s next regularly scheduled will be held on Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m.\u00a0\u00a0In the weeks till then, we&#8217;ll try to explain some\u00a0of the photography terms\u00a0in a way that might be\u00a0a little\u00a0easier to understand. For this week\u00a0let&#8217;s look at aperture, f-stops, and depth of field.<\/p>\n<p>Located inside the barrel of a lens is a mechanism called the\u00a0diaphragm.\u00a0 It changes the amount of light entering the lens as you turn a section of the barrel.\u00a0 <strong>Aperture<\/strong> is the term for how wide the diaphragm is set.\u00a0\u00a0The aperture numbers are ratios of the size of the actual opening in relation to the focal length of the lens (the distance between the lens and the point where the subject is in sharp focus) , usually in millimeters (mm).\u00a0 Each aperture setting (<strong>f\/stop<\/strong>) is shown as an <strong>f-number <\/strong>on the side of the lens barrel.\u00a0 The <strong>f\u00a0<\/strong>stands for <strong>fraction .\u00a0 <\/strong>The common aperture numbers in full stops are 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and 22.<\/p>\n<p>The main thing to remember is that when you open the aperture up one stop (move left to the next smaller number) it lets in twice as much light.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It will\u00a0make your image brighter, but less will be in sharp focus. When you close the aperture down one f-stop (move right to the next larger number), you halve the amount of light getting to the sensor. That makes your photo darker\u00a0but you increase the depth of field.\u00a0 <strong>Depth of field<\/strong> is the distance from the farthest point away from the lens to the point nearest the lens that&#8217;s in sharp focus.\u00a0When the f-number\u00a0is adjusted downwards to admit more light, selecting a <strong>lower f-number is termed &#8220;opening up&#8221;<\/strong> the lens. Selecting a <strong>higher f-number is termed &#8220;closing&#8221; or &#8220;stopping down<\/strong>&#8221; the lens.<\/p>\n<p>An example of the use of f-numbers in photography is the <strong>Sunny 16 rule.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>An approximately correct exposure will be obtained on a sunny day at the beach or in winter by using an aperture of <em>f<\/em>\/16 and the shutter speed closest to the reciprocal of the ISO speed set on the camera.\u00a0\u00a0For example, if you\u00a0selected an ISO 200\u00a0setting, an aperture of <em>f<\/em>\/16 and a shutter speed of 1\/200 of a second would be used.<\/p>\n<p>If this was new to you, I hope it was helpful.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rex Dolby The Van Wert Area Photography Club&#8217;s next regularly scheduled will be held on Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m.\u00a0\u00a0In the weeks till then, we&#8217;ll try to explain some\u00a0of the photography terms\u00a0in a way that might be\u00a0a little\u00a0easier to understand. For this week\u00a0let&#8217;s look at aperture, f-stops, and depth of field. Located inside [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cameraclub"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 22:25:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}