

Note that you can also use an f/2.8 aperture to blur out foreground elements (like the grasses in the photo above) for a very cool look. The f/2.8 aperture keeps the main areas sharp, while blurring out all the rest. The same is true of portrait photos like this one: Notice how the shallow depth of field allows you to focus in on the eyes–keeping the photo more powerful overall? Of course, it’s not only flower photos that do well with an f/2.8 aperture. The petal was slightly in front of the tulip, so it was immediately blurred: While less abstract, this image of a daisy still benefits from the shallow depth of field that comes with f/2.8:Īnd here’s a third image with an f-stop of 2.8. The shallow depth of field effect helps the tulip pop off the background, while also ensuring a more abstract-style image: Take careful note of the intense blurred background effect.įirst, this photo of a tulip would be rather boring without the f/2.8 aperture. Now let’s take a look at a few examples of shots taken at an f-stop of 2.8. It depends on the look you’re going for, and it’s always worth experimenting with different options that way, you can come away with some wonderfully unique photos. Landscape photographers don’t always use a narrow depth of field, while portrait photographers don’t always use a shallow depth of field. That said, there are no hard and fast rules for depth of field. This scene wouldn’t be interesting without a wide aperture: The blurred effect keeps the subject sharp while making the background soft–and this really makes the subject pop off the page. Portrait photographers and some macro photographers, on the other hand, love shallow depth of field. Here’s a scene that benefited from a narrow aperture:

Narrow apertures are commonly used by landscape and architecture photographers, because their photos need front-to-back sharpness in order to show the entire scene. Note that there’s nothing wrong with using a narrow aperture, and there’s nothing wrong with using a wide aperture, either (or anything in between). While a narrow aperture, such as f/16, will often give you a shot that’s sharp throughout. Because the wider the aperture, the less that will be rendered sharp. Whereas an image like this has a very deep depth of field, because it’s basically sharp throughout:īy choosing different f-stops, you can produce different depth of field effects.Ī wide aperture, such as f/2.8, is going to give you a shallow depth of field. So an image like this has a very shallow depth of field, because most of the shot is blurry: The depth of field refers to how much of an image is actually sharp. It also affects the depth of field: Depth Of Field But it is commonly used, and certainly one that you should have in your arsenal.īut aperture doesn’t just affect the exposure. Note that there are other variables that also affect exposure (shutter speed and ISO), so aperture/f-stop isn’t the only way to brighten or darken a photo. That way, the photo will be brightened, and they’ll create well-exposed images. If the photo is looking too dark, they can widen the aperture by dialing in a lower f-stop. So photographers use different apertures to control the exposure of their images.

While a narrower aperture lets in very little light, creating a darker photo. The f-stop that you choose directly affects the exposure (overall brightness) of your photos.īecause a wide aperture (such as one at f-stop 2.8) lets in a lot of light, creating a brighter photo. A low-numbered f-stop (for example, f/1.8) locks in a very wide aperture, which lets in a lot of light a high-numbered f-stop (for example, f/22) locks in a very narrow aperture, which lets in very little light. It produces a very shallow depth of field–so that pictures taken with an f-stop 2.8 have an intensely blurred background, like this: F-Stop ExplainedĪ camera’s f-stop corresponds to the size of a lens’s aperture–that is, the size of the hole in the lens that lets in light.į-stops are generally written like this: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, etc., and can span a range from around f/1.2 to f/32 (though there are some lenses that allow for even more extreme apertures).Īs you change the f-stop on your camera, the aperture changes with it. An f-stop of 2.8, also written as f/2.8, corresponds to a wide aperture.
