A Guide To Understanding Aperture for Better Images

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[@billbaker9623]

Great explanation of aperture. This may be beyond the scope of this video, but it is important to understand what diffraction is and how it affects image quality at very small apertures. Some viewers may think they need to stop down to the smallest aperture to get the sharpest image, when in fact this may actually degrade the image quality. A good rule of thumb is to stop down 2-3 stops from the widest aperture to find the sharpest f stop. Doesn't work for all lenses, but it's a good place to start. Thanks again, Alex.

[@tedbrown7908]

It does depend on the lens. I did a test on one of my lenses and found that it was pretty true at all stops. Then I did it on another lens and it was horrible. I got maybe 2-3 center F-stops 7.1 - F 10/11 and that was it. The rest of the F-stops were so blurry.

[@L.Spencer]

Huh, so the smallest isn't the sharpest?

[@billbaker9623]

@@L.Spencer The smallest aperture will produce the greatest depth of field in most instances, but the image may not be the sharpest due to diffraction which can make the image look softer. That is a discussion that is beyond the scope of a simple reply in this forum. Maybe Alex could cover it in another episode if he hasn't already or you could search different photography forums and do a search for diffraction. Or do a simple Google search for "What is lens diffraction?" Hope this helps.

[@Auhana50]

Every lens has a sweet spot need to throw your camera on a tripod and test it out.

[@nekopunk]

@@L.Spencer no. Actually the narrower the aperture the more diffraction you get from the blades of the diafragm. So you get the most depth of field and everything will be focused but not as sharp as you might get with a 5.6 or 8

[@JerryRW3750]

You’ve taken a technical topic and still managed to turn it into a discussion of art. Beautifully done and simply incredible. This is why your channel is one of my favorites.

[@lerssilarsson6414]

"If numbers aren't beautiful, I don't know what is." -- Paul Erdős " ƒ/8 and be there" -- Weegee

[@patrickmckeag3215]

Great video. Just a hobby photographer here. When I first started with an ILC camera, and got my first f1.8 lens, I began shooting portrait shots wide open to get the most background blur. It didn't take long before I learned to stop down to get the person's whole face in focus. I now have determined that f2.5 seems to work best for me shooting family gathering photos of my kids and grand-kids.

[@terrymcgovern6846]

I see that "bokeh" has now completely evolved from meaning the way a lens rendered out of focus highlights to mean any blurred background, in the same way that "macro," which once meant 1:1 ratio, now means "closeup."

[@thethirdman225]

These days it’s just an excuse for showing off expensive, large aperture lenses. It doesn’t contribute much, other than provoking discussion about the out of focus effects…which is kind of not the point of a photograph, as I see it…

[@markandrewhoran]

I think this video was the one that I FINALLY came to an understanding of aperture, how it's used most effectively and what the aperture scale looks like. I'm a newbie film photographer and this channel has been an absolute godsend. I especially love how you can take very technical things and explain how one can use them to achieve an artistic and creative goal, which is the whole reason I got interested in photography in the first place. As a musician, I find that understanding aperture is to a great photo what learning scales and chord structure is to a great song. To me, music and photography share a common way of thinking about things. Thank you for the great videos!

[@henrywilliam8506]

Another outstanding vlog. To help my students understand aperture and make it easier for them to understand, I explain that the smaller the f\stop number, the smaller the depth of field and the higher the f\stop number, the higher (deeper) the depth of field. My students seem to understand the concept more easily. What are your thoughts?

[@pilarpsp127]

Just discovered your channel. It's about photography itself. Not about the gear. Thank you!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Awesome, thank you!

[@jamesmonahan9408]

DOF is an important aspect i've come to learn. Wide open is cool and all BUT as you said, DOF is razor thin. Learn to get all of what you want in focus. Those middle F- stops are huge if you know how to use them. Great video.

[@ankerwiedemann]

You're really good at explaining aperture and exemplifying it in simple terms. Wonderful examples of what you mentioned

[@mongini1]

very easy recipe for me: i set my shutterspeed that suits the movement (or lack there of), choose my aperture that creates the look i want, and let auto ISO handle the exposure. if i need it darker, i use exposure comp instead of fiddling with ISO manually - thats it ^^

[@_HMCB_]

If you’re not shooting moving objects, what shutter speed should be used? It depends on tripod or no tripod? And then after setting that you choose the aperture? I’m rather new to all this.

[@mongini1]

@@_HMCB_ if you use a tripod, you can use any shutter speed. If not, use a shutterspeed that's equivalent to your focal length (calculated for full frame) and 2 to 3 stops slower if you have stabilization. So my non stabilized 35mm i use 1/50s. If i use my 55-200 at 200mm i can get sharp results at 1/100s or even 1/50.

[@MrRayritchie88]

@@mongini1 Thanks man

[@prodj.mixapeofficial6431]

For streets, fix aperture, iso and shutter do the work but mostly shutter. This is how I setup.

[@wanneske1969]

Contrary to what newbies believe, DOF is not just affected by the f-number, but a lot more by the focal distance and the distance to the subject. If you photograph a group of people with a 35 mm lens and a few meters of distance, you don't need f11 to get everybody sharp, probably f 5.6 will do ! The benefit is you don't need longer shutter speeds or higher Iso.

[@Texray1]

As many Aperture videos as I've seen, almost no one really explains what Depth of Field really is. Once I realized it's simply how deep your focus area is, front to back, it made everything much simpler to understand.

[@USGrant21st]

Autofocus plays a trick on many people trying to get deep DOF. Most cameras would focus on the closest subject, so your DOF will suffer because the closer you focus the shallower it is. By focusing behind the closest object (or hyperfocal distance) you can get a deeper DOF with acceptable sharpness even of the foreground as well.

[@nickguzman1734]

Would love a video exploring basic editing properties. For example, the difference btw exposure and brightness, what clarity, vibrance does etc.

[@aaronsuek]

Great video. Also maybe worth mentioning that aperture's impact on DoF varies significantly according to focal length and the focus point relative to the effective hyperfocal distance. f/2 at 14mm might have pretty much everything in the frame still in focus depending on the focus point, whereas f/2 on a 50mm might have most out of focus if the focus point is well ahead of the hyperfocal distance. One needs to understand that relationship for it to become somewhat second nature.

[@bustaubie]

This is the best explanation of aperture settings I've ever seen. Thank you!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@tedbrown7908]

I've come to think that Aperture is compared to a Cinematic lens. Where the wide open gives you more Bohke but the narrow Stepping down remains in focus. Great explanation on Aperture and Focus Alex !

[@rgbooys1686]

Absolutely great explanation. Thanks a million.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Awesome thank you

[@stoffi]

You are such a good teacher! Thank you for your work.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@CristopherYusuke]

As I beginner in photography I always was looking for more and more light and the blurriest background possible, even tho I knew the theory behind the aperture this video make it more clear for me realize what is my subject and the best f-stops to use

[@darrinyo-mamakimble7002]

This is excellent advice, I basically learned how to run my camera and the exposure triangle and all the other fun photography titbits that I could gather from KZbin. This explanation on aperture is exactly where I ended up, the math quite frankly with digital cameras is kind of useless but playing around and learning the different focal lengths and adding in aperture adjustments makes it fun and interesting the artistic end of things is about learning how to feel what you’re doing. For lack of a better term I guess.

[@jpdj2715]

Appreciated and noted the disclaimer about what you don't discuss here. I don't think it necessarily has to be scary - as implied by the word "mathematical". The word "aperture" literally means "opening" - in my language we more commonly reference the "mechanism" that delivers the opening rather than the opening itself. That mechanism is called "diaphragm". As the number for the aperture or diaphragm is written as f/number, the "f" in f/number is the focal length of the lens we use. That should be the actual focal length. And the "number" in f/number represents the diameter or radius of the aperture. And in our communication we leave the f/ bit away. This presents us with a couple problems. Because f/number is just the geometrical relation between focal length and diameter of aperture, this says >nothing< about how much light comes through the lens. Replace the glass elements of a lens by almost black glass and you could still get the same f/number. This is why "we' have the "T-stop" that represents actual light transmission. For example, a 1.2L lens of brand C may have a transmission of 1.5 T-1.5 at f/1.2 and a 1.4G lens of brand N also has a T-stop of 1.5. In all walks of photography where we do not measure light through the lens, this is relevant. (And when you shoot with a leaf shutter in each lens then these shutters add to the deviation that you need to figure out and internalize.) The second problem is that classical lens designs have a fixed array of lens elements and when we focus closer by than infinity, the focal length increases and the image gets narrower. We call this "focus breathing" but the T-stop effect is much more important. As we do not change the diaphragm when focusing closer by, and say we extend a 50mm lens to 60mm, this means the f in f/number is no longer 50, but 60. This means that aperture f/2 now has become f/2.4 and that is a ~serious darkening of your image. IMO, the aperture breathing is uglier in cinema than focus breathing. This means that the Depth of Field (DoF) that we attribute to the f/number is not a hard number cast in concrete. For most lenses in the world, the f/number is as flexible as soft rubber. Enter "cinema lenses". As a director of photography does not want a take to get darker when the focus puller changes focus from far to close by, lenses got developed that have no focus breathing - i.e. no change of image angle, and so these have constant focal length, and constant f/number. Well, if such lenses are developed as "prime" then optically, these lenses are subtle zoomlenses that precisely counter the effect of focusing closer by than infinity. That is why they have more elements. As more elements give more internal reflection, generally, these lenses are not so good in contrasty backlight. They'll give glare and flare, easily. You want sun-trails? Take an older design cine lens and even the ones selling for 10,000 or 20,000 currencies will do it. Easily. That does not work for most photo-/video-graphers and so new lenses have been developed with many more elements than their focal length ever had, but with so little glare/flare and other optical problems that you may need to add a sun-trail in post. Or keep an old lens on the side, or rent an expensive cine lens. Which triggers another DoF problem. Yes, it is a function of real focal length, distance and real f/number, BUT that's not the complete picture. There are several parameters in the DoF formula that we can bundle in one parameter: "Circle of Confusion" (CoC). CoC bundles these following parameter values: - size of presenting (printing, displaying) your image - make it larger and CoC gets smaller, DoF shallower. - distance of watching the presented image - make it larger and DoF gets deeper because CoC gets larger (watch at 200% in LrC on a 4K display at 30cm/12" distance and CoC gets small causing DoF to be shallower) - resolution of sensor or film - more resolution makes the CoC smaller and hence DoF shallower - resolution of lens - more resolution makes the CoC smaller and hence DoF shallower - resolution impact of processing - do it better and CoC gets smaller so DoF shallower (this applies both to processing of film as per chemistry and processing digital) - presence of an anti-aliasing filter in the digital camera - having one reduces contour sharpness and makes CoC larger, DoF deeper And this all means your DoF calculator app is probably worthless if it gives the same DoF if you change camera and other things. Most of them abstract viewing distance away, presentation size away, camera away, etc. and actually do not have good enough data on differences between lenses. So the numbers are "ballpark" and the assumptions about what is abstracted away must be understood if you want to take the data from these apps seriously. One of my very recent and very modern design lenses has its DoF guesstimate calculated and can display that in its display (on the lens). This takes camera, sensor, AA filter, into account but not viewing and presentation size aspects. There's easily a full f-stop change in going from infinity to closest by with this lens. And while the real f/number for the real focal length is indicative for DoF, resolution and sharpness are really critical too. A soft f/1.2 lens from one brand may have more DoF than a very sharp f/1.4 from another brand (ceteris paribus). I remember moving from an older 1.8 to a very sharp 1.4 and all of a sudden I could no longer use single point AF plus recompose because the eyes would be out of focus, just from the marginal distance changes following from a bit of rotating of the camera when recomposing. And, what looks blurred at 200% on your perfect 4K display may look pretty sharp when you print that image to a 5"*7" paper format or export it to something JPEG of that effect. The moral of the story is that irrespective of math, you need to really make test shots with subjects that are representative of the work you intend to do in all cases where DoF is a critical aspect of your work. If you need a depth of field so shallow that in a portrait one eye will be sharp, and not the other - for example to blur less healthy skin in camera already - then you really need to test that for the distance (i.e. effective focal length), the aperture, the camera with ISO setting and the lens you will use and include presentation size and distance, as well as processing (think sharpening, clarity, texture) and note that one post-processing app may do a lot better than another in these respects. But this can go the other way around too. You can make your lens softer by closing down aperture completely. From and beyond f/11, lenses generally get softer (full frame format and very good lenses). But you want a blurred out background. Well in a studio that background may be evenly colored seamless paper. But your effect (light) on the background becomes too sharp. Well, if you have an optical spot, just defocus the effect pattern in the spot, rather than the camera. Or shoot the background separately at the desired blur aperture and swap backgrounds in post - that's very easy in a controlled environment. As Alex says in the video - test it. Forget the math, just be aware of the parameters at play and how these interact. And test again if precision is called for. Until you get to the 10,000th time and don't need to think about it anymore.

[@ChrisHunt4497]

I love the images you choose.

[@musicmachineplayer]

Very well explained I truly had forgotten about f.4 and above but will definitely change things around. Great video for the beginner.

[@brsaravia]

Thank you very much for this great and detailed master class!!!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@SOLIDSNAKE.]

It's an incredible feeling being able to walk away with knowledge everytime I watch a video from this channel

[@robertmccutchan5450]

Finally! I am kinda tired of so many people thinking you don't have "professional" gear unless you have a 1.4 or 1.2 lens. My favorite is my 50mm 1.8 (I own two!), and I RARELY shoot at 1.8. Most of the time I start at 2.0 or 2.8 and stop down from there. The great thing about it is that the so called non-profesional lenses are MUCH cheaper than their counterparts. Thanks for posting!

[@iaunn]

I love your conversation. Thank you for these videos.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@codm_fire820]

Imagine how many images one would have to go through to pick such mag one's, simple yet entertaining video. Enjoyed it

[@Black_Jesus3005]

The more I learn about photography the more I am amazed at what we can do with it. Thanks for the video.

[@MrMASSEYJONES]

The f stop is determined by the focal lenght of the lens, divided by the aperture (the size of the iris). Thus, an 80mm lens, with an aperture of 10mm, is f8. Sometimes written as f8.0 The f is always writtem in lower case. It’s referred as “the f stop” An F in upper case indicates the focal length of the lens Been in the photontrade for 60 years. Nice video, by the way.

[@nsuresh91]

This is incredible. I'm a music professional getting into photography; the way you taught aperture in this video has made me rethink certain things about mixing music as well. I've seen tons on videos on this subject, but no one who's been able to relay information in such a practical way without making overly generalizing statements that might not hold true for every situation. The way its explained here really lets me use this tool to in a wider way. Thank you.

[@nsuresh91]

Also looked up Fan Ho after you brought up that picture. Damn, clicks he's taken are epic.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Cool, thank you for watching

[@MaxP374]

This chanel inspire me to go out and take photos.

[@carlosdias1940]

"This is why 'Maverick' is such a brilliant pilot!" Well done and brilliant video! Cheers

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@PaulCresswellcom]

I love your videos. Thank you. I have learnt so much.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

You are so welcome!

[@wisecanadianwoman]

This really made the whole apature concept so clear to me. The technical discription has always blocked my mind, but your visual explaination really helped me understand it. Thanks so very much for this, I have had my camera stashed away for sometime and now I want to start exploring photography all over again.

[@siddelly]

I am new to photography and just bought my first camera, Canon EOS M, and I really appreciate this simple visual explanation of what I previously thought was cult wizardry. Thank you so much for the epiphany!

[@littlemissprickles]

Perfect timing! I accidentally left my camera on f/3.5 for a group photo the other day and half of us are out of focus 😭

[@JimRandolph]

Someone to me to think of f stops like fractions. So 1/2 is obviously “bigger” (more light) than 1/22 (smaller/less light) and that stuck. Thanks for another great video!

[@hurleygreen927]

EXCELLENT TUTORIAL ON APETURE...THANK YOU!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

You are welcome!

[@robertchaneybaxter5498]

I used my depth of field preview button on my manual camera to check depth of field when I was learning. I still use it for macro shots, but on the whole, I use experience to judge depth of field now.

[@batsonelectronics]

for F Stop, put a 1 where the F is to understand why smaller numbers is actually bigger. 1/1.8 is much larger than 1/8 which is larger than 1/16.

[@emotown1]

Or put an F where the F is. Then f/1.8 is much larger than f/8, which is larger than f/16.

[@russelldavis9318]

Alex, very excellent explanation of the concept of aperture and the use of different f-stop. Like all your videos and being following your channer for a long time and I think the there no one that can express the concept of photography like you do. Keep up the outstanding a very educative work creating there video clips of information about the photographic world.

[@CyclingOffToSomewhereIDK]

Well said, good stuff. I especially love the long street photo when you got to the smaller apertures. That's my home town, Albuquerque, New Mexico. I graduated from a high school 2 blocks off screen right of the photo, a couple lights up from Carlisle. Injured my shoulder badly riding a mountain bike down the opposite side of Central Ave (That's the long one that heads into the photo) AT Carlisle. Wow, the memories. I've always loved this photograph for so many reasons. Thanks for using it, it's a great illustration of your small apertures point. Cheers🙂

[@NJintheImagination]

Thank you for this video! This sis something I have been struggling with for some time and this will help. I really do appreciate you directly and immediately addressing the issue ins the title of the video. Too many You Tubers take too long, if ever, getting around to talking about what the title of their video purports to be. I get impatient and just turn off the video . this time, you immediately got to the subject at hand which is great and so much appreciated.

[@seasidelife9742]

@7:31 the fly that is flying around your head made me chuckle. Great video so far. Thank you!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

😂 thanks for watching

[@Paulus449]

I absolutely love your channel. As relatively new photographer I find all your videos so helpful and the style and skill in which you present them is just perfect. Liked and subscribed

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Awesome, thank you!

[@donnathomas-moses8250]

A master speaks……………… and every detail is artistic inspiration

[@adambaileyshow361]

I find this video to be incredibly helpful.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mixiepalms8338]

plane of the focal point is what makes this work!

[@peoplewithpixels]

Another thing to keep in mind besides what was mentioned here is that the camera type also matters a lot. Photographing the same thing at let's say F2.8 will yield various DoF depending on the camera type as well. Crop, full frame, medium and large format will have different depth of fields at the same F stop number.

[@radiologistanonymous2353]

For a beginner or newbie like me having only a single camera and single lens, what he teaches us; is fine. Point by point. Yes, for mid level of pro level photographers; it matters and they must be knowing this stuff too.

[@peoplewithpixels]

@@radiologistanonymous2353 Totally agree. I only mentioned it because it’s quite easy to get a MF camera these days and it can be quite surprising when you stumble upon these things.

[@radiologistanonymous2353]

@@peoplewithpixels Agreed. The way mobile photography has grown, I hardly use my DSLR for 2-3 times a year. For single day short tour, so many times combination of iphone and 5 x zoom of samsung has been enough for day time photogrpahy in last 2-3 years.

[@peoplewithpixels]

@@radiologistanonymous2353 yeah, this is something i also don’t like. Convenience kills photography for me. Best photos (IMO) I made were with an inexpensive film camera, manual focus. Struggling gets me in the zone and it keeps me there.

[@radiologistanonymous2353]

@@peoplewithpixels Fully agree. Learning curve and process make the things fun and interesting. When I had simple point and shoot camera without much option, I also had legendary Nokia 808. At least there are 8-10 manual combinations to make the mobile photography fun too. But not much now. I still remember when i clicked 48 MP pic of around 70 people grouped together, and everybody can identify themselves very neatly. And 1st time when I click proper portrait from my DSLR, and came to know that what exactly DSLR can do. Thanks for your little time.

[@bala1000mina]

Thank you so much Alex for the great tutorial on Aperture!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@stucarter]

Good. I will explore more those forgotten apetures

[@StarskyUA]

Thank you so much for the explanation!😊

[@ThePhotographicEye]

You're welcome 😊

[@wayneshum]

Thanks this great tips on aperture choosing!

[@CDeeez94]

Thank you so much for this. When I finally got my upgraded camera and lens I was so excited to go out and just shoot wide open, get as much light in the lens as possible, and get that beautiful bokeh every single time,, but now I see the importance of getting more natural separation in my photos. I think my skills just moved up a notch thanks to you 👍

[@ThePhotographicEye]

That’s awesome, thank you

[@Jefelabs]

This video gave me a massive "ah ha!" moment. Thank you for taking the time to educate!

[@luissalazar2021]

I have seen so many people talking about aperture, and trying to sales you something mmh , but you make it so simple and feel like is a second matures . Thanks for sharing

[@dbstephens992]

Thank you for an extremely enjoyable video on a subject that can be as dry as cold toast. I'm a wanna-be travel journalist attempting to learn as much as possible about the art of photography and your ten-minute video has been the best investment of my time to date. Merci, gracias, and thank you.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Awesome, thank you

[@terrydoestech]

This has opened my eyes SO MUCH.

[@mikafoxx2717]

As I've taken more photos, I've found the f28-5.6 the most useful and nicest for me, most of the time. Wide open is a spectacle but the lens has some funny quirks and you lose some of the image most of the time, and too shut down and you lose the subject isolation unless everything is already far away or you want everything to have equal focus.

[@neesel]

Thank you for the lesson. I really liked how you connected the different f-stops with artists, who use them often.

[@neesel]

@official_jason_vong but i am a nikon guy!

[@ThePhotographicEye]

*LAST CHANCE* "Learning To See", a course built to give you to tools to take your photos from average to awesome is being removed from sale permanently on 31st December 2022. Start seeing (and creating) better photographs today for just $35. *Click here --> **tpe.teachable.com/p/learning-to-see*

[@rosvw3517]

Best video on aperture I’ve seen.

[@waynemorris6217]

It would be very helpful if could include the camera settings on the pics you show! As I try to improve my photography skills, it is helpful to me if I can see the picture with the settings! Thanks for good videos!

[@juanimal]

I've seen tons of videos about photography and no one ever told me this. Thanks a lot!

[@maccam5821]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience in way only you can do! I may think I understand something pretty well and you "bring me closer" to it. You're an extraordinary teacher, Alex!

[@ClearComplexity]

From film I sit at about f4 most of the time. I might go down or up a stop or two generally leaving my ISO on 400 (film/digital) and having a rough shutter speed I want at least minimum wise. I used to shoot a ton with a Minolta rangefinder and that's where I started really making minor adjustments to exposure with aperture. Even on digital the lowest being around ~f2 to ~f2.8 despite most of my lenses allowing at the least f1.7 or f1.4. Depending on the light/subject I'll go up to f8 or f11, rarely any further past that to prevent heavier barrel distortion I can't be bothered to fix (depending on the lens of course, but I generally shoot with a 50, 85, and 135mm roughly equivalent set of primes with MFT and 1-inch sensor (OM1.2/GX85 and Nikon J5). Zooms have gotten a lot more enticing over the years, even the little 30-110mm for the J5 (around 81-297mm equivalent) does a fairly good job for what I use that camera for. I got lucky and picked up a N1 body at an estate sale auction that had a 32mm f1.2 prime and paid next to nothing when that prime alone goes for around 800 USD or more.

[@sweatshirts623]

Oh i love your video 😍😍😍 thank you ! I woke up this morning with aperture dilemma in my mind ! And here is it , solution ! Thank you so much 🥰

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching, great to hear.

[@joeep46]

Thank you for this fine explanation. I have often thought some photos to have too much bokem. Where as the viewer has no idea where the subject is located. City,country, elevator. I loved how you showed the wine bottles at different f stops . That drove the concept home for me. Thank you.

[@cvanbent1111]

Brilliant content and delivery! Thanks so much for all you do. 🎉

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@redharvst8638]

A superb job of demystifying f stops! I subscribed, thank you.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you

[@stinkyfj60]

I love f/5.6 It and f/8 are what I use the most often probably.

[@painless4415]

For myself, as I was learning, I had to think of depth of field as depth of focus or the Length of Focus. Meaning how deep or how long of a section is in focus.

[@jack002tuber]

Excellent video. Another "whole other video" would be on macro photography, setting aperture with that.

[@thethirdman225]

The maths are actually pretty simple. We just don’t need to know them so yeah, don’t worry about it. Aperture causes me the biggest headaches. If I’m going to get flamed on the interwebs it will be about aperture, which is why I never post my best work. It doesn’t matter which way you turn, there are tiger traps. Personally, I don’t shoot much for background blur because I think there are other ways which are at least as effective. When I first got into photography,as a teenager growing up in the 1970s, I was told that aperture was something to adjust the amount of light that you let into the lens. The background blur was a secondary thing and it was optional whether or not you wanted to take advantage of it. One of my late aunts had a book of photographs by a well known Australian photographer from the 1930s, whose name escapes me but he shot everything with a razor thin depth of field. I was interested in the pictures but the depth of field trick got very wearing, very quickly. When photography went onto the internet, the initial passion was for absolute lens sharpness. Nothing else was good enough and people complained endlessly about quality control because their lenses appeared to be less than optimally sharp. Once manufacturers started putting AF micro adjustment functions into their bodies, a lot of that went away. This was also magnified by sharpening algorithms and methods in photoshop. But people still insisted on posting the odd 100% crop. Then someone discovered ‘bokeh’. It had two advantages. First of all, it gave people something else to talk about and secondly, if the lens was wide open and close to the subject, it provided a very strong contrast between the -sharp- in focus bits and the background blur. Suddenly we were treated to descriptions like ‘creamy bokeh’ and such. But I have already related the example of a shot I took where I had to use a 300mm lens stopped down to f/20 because I simply didn’t have time to alter the other settings. One poster took up bridge and ended up insisting that ‘if you don’t know how to use that lens, you shouldn’t own it’, which I thought was hilarious, especially since he’d posted none of his own work. Diffraction, he said killed that image. That was funny because nobody else could see what he was talking about. I don’t use bokeh. Certainly not for its own sake. At best, it’s incidental to my pictures. I even avoid using the word. If someone looks at one of my pictures and says, ‘Nice bokeh’, I regard it as a failure. You’re supposed to be looking at the subject, not the ‘creamy bokeh’ in the background. If I haven’t been able to tell a story well enough that people want to look at the subject, I’ve failed in either my concept or my execution. So I’ve made it my mission to shoot at a sufficient aperture to tell a story. I don’t shoot to show off how big my bokeh balls are and I don’t care for them in other people’s work either. What did such things bring to the work of people line Bill Brandt or Andy Warhol? Basically nothing. I’m so glad you talked about f/11 and f/16. These days people seem to be terrified of diffraction so they never use it. But most of all, you’re challenging all these silly ‘rules’ that so many lecture you about online. Thanks.

[@mattlikesplants]

This was great! Thank you!

[@bgurram2000]

ultimate explanation, really taken in to depth

[@AntonBrowne]

Thanks for a useful reminder.

[@fintux]

The lack of aperture control is perhaps the biggest feature missing in cell phones (and the focal length is so tiny that it would often not make that much of a difference anyways; even though the software simulation of a wider aperture is getting better). So maybe that's the reason that I use aperture priority probably more than 95% of the time, now that i'm kind of free of the limitation. That is the mode that I think gives the most control over how the photo is going to look. At first I pretty much used the far ends of the aperture range, but I'm more and more using the "in-between" apertures.

[@wordsdontfail1879]

That's my point-of-view too. 🙂 I was looking for more comments which talk about that journey/arc which many of us must have made -- Starting off with a simple point-and-shoot or cellphone, then maybe getting a 1" sensor or a 'bridge' camera. Being unable to achieve the depth-of-field I wanted in most situations. Then finally _finally_ getting an interchangeable lens camera. Then going through that phase where I tried to shoot absolutely everything wide open. Then gradually realising that I can 'take back control' by stopping down sometimes..

[@20YrOldPizza]

Thank you for this, and all of your videos. You've been a big help and inspiration after a 25 year break from photography.

[@karinadesouza9769]

Thank you for your wonderful explanation… it’s made it so much easier to use the F stop on my camera without worrying about the maths…. It’s made it more fluid. Thank you.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@Thedreaminthemyst]

Your video has just made me, who is not interested in taking photos, very intrigued in taking photos with my dad’s A7R camera. Sir, this video was very refreshing to watch and thank you very much.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you for watching

[@dawnrezak5399]

Great help, thank you!

[@john-wiggains]

I loved learning about the middle areas and why they’re beneficial too! Thank you for this!

[@ShaneBaker]

Alex, maybe I missed something - but surely, compression is a function of focal length, more than aperture?

[@rtrik73]

Thank you for these videos! I feel like I’m at photography school. Fantastic! 📸👍

[@tonykeltsflorida]

I use Canon and AV mode is my favorite. I don't know how I missed this video earlier but it is a great subject.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thank you.

[@observerfx212]

Thanks for this, bookmarked for when I need inspiration! Can't wait to try it out! Like what attracted me to photography in the first place, all those years ago. Changing your perspective to capture something special!

[@stinsoncarter]

This is absolutely fantastic.

[@daviddowling3397]

Brilliant,thank you for the clear concise uncluttered direction on this oft confused topic.

[@kingkazuma2568]

Thisisthe best video i have seen on this subject and is exactlywhat i was looking for with amazing examplesandvary clear explanatio thank you

[@ThePhotographicEye]

Thanks for watching

[@michaelajoseph6856]

Excellent! Thank you!

[@ruperterskin2117]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@madamelecourt937]

the aperture lens reminds me of the eyes of my cat. I experiment with it, put her back in and out again and you see her eyes change. its so cool how the camera lenses mimics eye mechanics

[@vthirteen]

Best explanation for me so far. We are not all wannabe experts. Now to put it into practice.

[@mrenovatio3739]

f/2.9 - f/5.6 range is where most cinema is shot, btw (super 35). The photography equivalent would be approximately f/4-f/8 in depth of field terms on a full frame camera.

[@frankleap]

Brilliant!! Thanks so much for this very informative video!

[@FoodSack]

I really like how you explored the evocative meaning behind the aperture setting, not just the maths.

[@Call_Me_Mom]

Well, wasn't this a timely video and thank you. I have been experimenting with aperture over the last few weeks because I was realizing that I had become a bit lazy about it. Between my ever worsening eyes and decreasing steadiness of hand, the camera and I are fast becoming adversaries in the area of sharpness. I may give aperture priority a try for a few weeks to see if it helps. If nothing else, it should give me more practice. 😊