PHOTOGRAPHERS! STOPS OF LIGHT AND HOW TO USE THEM

Understanding stops of light is vital for any photographer to know. In this video I teach you how to use them effectively for any situation.
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[RayLombardi]

In almost 30 years as a photographer(and even though I know this by now), no one has ever explained this topic in such simple and practical way. Kudos to you Martin! Cheers, Ray.

[masekagerrard]

This used to confuse me, but you have simplified things so well any new photographer would easily understand the concept. Thanks.

[dancejam]

Martin, I'm sure my "trick" for f-stops has been thought of and utilized long before I created this for myself, but here it is for those that suck at memorization or want a "simpler" way - at least in my way of thinking. Think of f-stops in 2 separate scales - only for the sake of quick memorization. Start with 1 and double. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. Second scale starts with 1.4 (and that's really all you have to remember in the beginning) - and again double them, 1.4, 2.8, 5.6, 11 (sort of), 22. Now you have all the standard f-stops immediately memorized. So any time you see or need a doubling of halving of f-stop (as in your first example to blow out the background from f/4 to f/2 - since that's half or double the number - it's 2 stops period. Just counter it with doubling or halving your shutter speed (and if you have to use ISO, ISO). This makes both scales easy to remember and the fact that if you see a number double f/4 to f/8 - it's two stops. Hope that helps someone struggling with the concept. I have more such quick memorization tricks, but this is enough for now.

[theslawitman]

OMG... Just came in from working outside and sat down to watch this with a coffee. Blew my mind.. I need to watch this again with a clearer head 😂

[lauroralei]

The look on my face when this all just came together in my brain, sitting here gobsmacked at how simple this makes things. Keen to get out this weekend for a shoot and build some muscle memory playing around with this

[JHSPhotography-wf]

Eureka!. This is the FIRST video on this technique that has "baselined" its adoption, namely the desire to change an image that although reflecting a correct exposure is not quite what one wants to see in the final image, and consequently how to simply use this technique to maintain the correct exposure but see a different outcome. All other videos have highlighted and explained the concept but failed to provide an example of why/when you would apply it ...which always confused me. Brilliant.

[Hubieee]

The reason why the aperture stop increases by "1 unit" when you multiply it with the square root of two is because when you increase the radius of a circle (=aperture) by a factor of square root of two we increase the surface of it by 2. Thus, each stop of light gives us double the exposure in the photo.

[fintonmainz]

Even though I learned all this years ago, I found this video helpful.

[karlbrodowsky]

Nice that the stepping of aperture and exposure times are now in sync..
I always understood that the aperture is (simplified) some diameter divided by the focal length.
So the area through which light can come gets 4 times larger when we double the diameter.
The 1.4 is the square root of 2 and 2.8, 5.6, 11, 22 are multiples of it.
ISO used to be DIN and ASA long ago, where ISO is the same as ASA and DIN is the 10*log_10(iso)+1, which is indirectly still found today, because the ISO stepping follows the sequence of the former DIN numbers.
Flash spreads its light to an area that grows with the square of the distance.

[fineartviewfotografie]

Basic info that every photographer should know. I see a lot of photographers that don't know.
The same comes to editing, a lot don't know what they're doing.
I am glad that I have started with analog.
Very intersiting to me was the flash part, Thanks a million Martin!

[nicktheobald]

Now that is a proper Youtube tutorial. Great job Martin.

[shereesweeney]

Wow! Never heard it all explained like this before. Verrry useful. Thank you! Really interested in your workshops to learn much more. ✨

[zerkol]

I like "exposure values" or EV to work these exposure situations easier.

Instead dealing of a specific f-stop and shutter speeds, EVs deal with an entire range of f-stops and shutter speeds at once. All of the combinations for a given EV are equivalent.

So if your initial exposure was EV 4 and you need to cut light in half then move to EV 5 and pick an f-stop/shutter combo from there that best suits your situation.

Like f-stops or shutter dpeeds, a change from one EV to the next higher one will cut light in half or double when moving from higher to next lower EV.

[richardcarlton]

Blimey Martin, You've made something that's a pain in the **** really easy and understandable ....thanks 👍

[zerkol]

Its easy to remember full stops as follows:
Start with .7 and 1
Next two are 1.4 and 2
Next two, 2.8 and 4
Keep doubling them to get next two full stops.

When you get to 5.6 and 8
This is where and adjustment is made to get 11 and 16

Hope this helps.

[vixlenz]

This is excellent! Thanks for making this video.

[RiccardoPareschi]

Great explanation Martin! Simple but effective. Thanks!

[jjbou]

This is great news. Lately, my "focus" has been the 35mm f/2 and 28mm f/2.8 (for APS-H) and have been having a lot of fun with these constraints on the 5D, 5D II, and 1D III. So far, I've only encountered a few shots where more wide or tele would have helped.

[GA-koew]

So grateful for this video! Thanks again Martin!

[actorjay]

This is incredibly useful and concise. Thank you! 🤠