Pixiq

Seeing as the site is called Small Aperture, we thought that we’d give an explanation of the concept of a small aperture. Aperture is fairly important in terms of photography, but it isn’t exactly straightforward as altering the aperture can have a dual effect on your pictures. So, here’s our guide to the small aperture.

Aperture and light

Aperture means ‘hole’ or ‘opening’. In a photography sense, the aperture is the gap that allows light to pass through the lens. The bigger the opening, or the aperture, the more light passes through. That’s pretty intuitive. So if you’re taking pictures in low-light settings, a bigger aperture will help you to take a photo where you can see something. If you’re taking pictures in bright sunlight, using a smaller aperture will help to prevent the image being one mass of white.

With me so far? Excellent!

Aperture and depth of field

However, aperture also has another pretty nifty effect on pictures: it alters the depth of field of an image. That means that the aperture controls how much of the image is in focus. Use a small aperture and you’ll have a greater depth of field, meaning that things in the foreground and the background will be in focus. A bit like this, really:

Using an aperture of f/8 meant that the varder (or pile of rocks) is in focus, as well as the mountains in the background.

If you want to take a picture that includes lots of detail, you’re probably best using a small aperture. And yes, that’s why we called the site Small Aperture. We wanted to look at photography with a greater depth of field. We wanted to bring lots of different things into focus.

Well, we thought it was groovy.

An aperture of f/5.6 meant that lots of the boats were in focus, not just one or two.

Measuring aperture

So, how do we measure aperture? That would be in f-stops, which doesn’t tell you very much, does it? Well, when you hear people throwing around numbers such as f/1.8, or f/22, they are referring to aperture. F/1.8 is a very big aperture and f/22 is a very small aperture.

Does that seem a bit confusing? Maybe it’ll help to think of like this: those numbers correspond to fractions; the fraction being how big the aperture – or the opening – is. F/4 corresponds to a quarter and f/8 to an eighth. An eighth is obviously smaller than a quarter; this means that it is a smaller aperture, it lets in less light; and gives a greater depth of field.

And now, after all that, you probably want to know what these random fractions are fractions of. They’re fractions of the length of the lens you’re using. The aperture of a 28mm lens at f/1 will be 28mm. Similarly, the aperture of a 50mm at f/4 will be 12.5mm. The bigger the f-stop, the smaller the aperture.

How about a quick summary?

Aperture means hole, gap, or opening
A smaller aperture lets in less light, good for shooting on sunny days
A smaller aperture also gives a greater depth of field, so you can see lots of detail in the picture and the background can be in focus
Aperture is measured in f-stops
F-stops correspond to fractions
The higher the f-stop number, the smaller the fraction, and the smaller the aperture

You know what, go out and take some photos altering the aperture value on your camera. Then you’ll see what we mean!