F-Stops Explained — Camera Lens Tutorial

For more of my free tutorials, visit:

[steeletraining]

You can get the full course "Understanding Your Camera" here:

[DiyEcoProjects]

*Tip:* Heres something to know for fixed lens manuals. If you are doing meet+greets, you don’t want to be fiddling with your focus all the time as you might miss something.

In this case. Set your aperture to f8 and move towards it by changing the ISO and Speed to get the correct exposure. Then focus on an object slightly in front of your main subject area - - - and because your depth of field is extended (using f8) everything behind that point will be in focus. You’ve just created a focus zone. So boshboshbosh!!!. Goes the same for flash photography, use f8 and adjust flash heads accordingly.

Thing is everything is autofocus nowadays and most people rely on the camera and TTL flashes. What im showing you here is a sure way to take quick photos without thinking. All the best

[guyphoto]

In Classes I teach to beginning photographers I always tell them to think of f stops as fractions: e.g., 1/2 is more that 1/4 and 1/4 is more that 1/8. I show them with examples like you did but I leave the complex math out of it, they relate to fractions much better. 1/2 a pie is more that 1/4 of a pie, etc. Anyway, that's just my way of explaining f stops and why the larger numbers mean smaller f stops.

[rickbear]

I love that this video is short and simple, therefore its message is easy to learn. Less is More

[NateSceneTV]

I've been watching your old tutorials, I'm glad you're making more! :)

[PedrovoriskAB]

Amazing explanation, thank you a lot.

[drrohanfonseca]

Wow have waited for awhile for one of your vids!

[HardwaremagazineBrasil]

Very nice! Really easy to understand! Thanks for the video!

[floridasaltlife]

I am just learning and this was great confirmation of what i was starting to think was the deal !!
Thanks for taking the time !!

[juan.]

short video, but I learned so much, , , thanks!

[geoffduke]

Just bought a canon 60D to upgrade from my fuji finepix HSR30 which I ALWAYS shot in manual lol. I experimented on Aperature setting and boy what a difference! So thanks for the tips and thanks for not making t a 15 minute video!

[DiyEcoProjects]

*Tip2:* What does “Turn it down a stop mean?” in reference to steeletraining great explainer video

The exposure triangle on digital cameras is comprises of:
Aperture, smaller number = bigger hole, more light / bigger number, less light
Speed, smaller number = longer exposure, more light / bigger number, less light
Iso, bigger number = more gain, applied light / smaller number, less gain

+ Aperture (Size of hole in lens + depth of field/focus)
+ Time (Shutter Speed, blurry or sharp)
+ISO (Thought of as sensitivity level to light levels, but is actually SNR signal to noise ratio. This is the amount of gain that is applied to the processing of an image that has just been captured – and prior to the camera finalising it)

These three make up the exposure triangle. Shifting any of them by a “stop” means you have to compensate with the others. If youre working in manual mode M, in order to maintain the same balance of exposure, if you shift one setting you now have a choice to move either one of the settings by a “Stop”. One movement from any of the settings is called a “stop”.

If the intent is to make a picture lighter or darker, then you can ignore this exposure triangle demonstration and just shift Iso, Apature, Speed by one or any amount.

However in order to keep the SAME exposure level between the settings, you have to shift one of the others in the opposite direction. Or combinations of stops equalling the same amount of movement youve just made

Heres some examples of shifting any setting by 1 stop and what you would need to do in order to compensate to have the same exposure levels

Adjusting Iso from 100 to 200 (more gain) = would mean more implied light so less light from the other two is needed now, so either
Aperture from 5.6 to f8 (up 1 stop means numbers goes up and hole is getting smaller, less light)
- Or Speed 250 to 500 (up 1 stop means speed number increase, faster shutter means less light hitting sensor)

Adjusting Aperture from f8 to 5.6 (wider depth of field) = creates a larger hole than before so more light is coming in, so less light is needed now. Either
Turn down ISO 400 to 200 (down 1 stop means less gain applied, less light)
- Or Speed 250 to 500 (up 1 stop means speed number increase, faster shutter means less light hitting sensor)

Adjusting Speed 250 to 500 (sharper capturing of movement) = creates less light coming in because less exposure hitting sensor. So in order to have MORE light, what would you do?
Currently Iso is 400 to ???
- or Currently Aperture is 5.6 to ???

But what if you changed a setting by 2 stops? what are your choices then?

Example:
Adjusting Aperture from F8 TWO STOPS to F4 means more light coming in by 2 stops. What would you have to do to make less light come in by two stops?
Currently Iso is 400 to ???
- or Currently Speed is 250 to ???
- or What if i wanted to change both Iso and Speed at the same, what would the settings become now?

What if you changed a setting by 4 stops? what are your choices then?

Example:
Adjusting Speed from 2000 FOUR STOPS to 125
What combinations can you think of now?

Conclusion:
Changing any setting by 1 stop means you have to change either setting by 1
Changing any setting 2 Stops means you have to shift the others in any combination to EQUAL 2 stops in compensation
Changing any setting 4 Stops means you have to shift the others in any combination to EQUAL 4 stops in compensation
and so on ...

///

If youre working with Aperture mode AP – the other two automatically adjust to give you correct exposure (18% grey). Primary concern is depth of field or blur
If youre working with Speed more mode Tv – the other two automatically adjust to give you correct exposure (18% grey). Primary concern is capturing movement
P mode is same as Auto, but with more features.

Further research to do with exposure that you might find interesting: high key lighting and low key lighting

Welcome to photography, enjoy

[KMegahertz]

So I am not a camera guy I'm new to this stuff. I'm here cause I learning what fstops are. The numbers follow a pattern.

Basically each change in fstop results in a halving in the amount of light, this was mentioned in the video. (I did skip around a bit, so if what I am about to say is in there, forgive me.)

In order to reduce the amount of light by 1/2 you need to account for two dimensions. Circles are harder, but think of a square. If you were to just simply divide the length and width by 2 you would end up with a square that is 1/4th size of the original, not half. You need a number between 1 and 2 to divide by. Something that gives you half the area. Now take that concept and apply it to a circle. For the number between 1 and 2, sqrt(2) seems to work. 1/sqrt(2) is also equal to sin(45) and cos(45) or 0.7071.

This makes sense because as you increase both dimensions equally, you're adding a square of the increase.

1 / 0.7071 = 1.414 so you can use this factor to multiply the fstop # or divide the radius of the circle for each step.

f1 = 1
f1.4 = f1*1.414 or 1.414
f2 = f1.4 * 1.414 or 2
f2.8 = f2 * 1.414 or ~2.828
f4 = f2.8 * 1.414 or 4
f5.6 = f4 * 1.414 or ~5.656
f8 = f5.6 * 1.414 or 8
f11 = f8 * 1.414 or ~11.31
f16 = f11 * 1.414 or 16
f22 = f16 * 1.414 or ~22.62

[ivnpck]

I just subscribed, keep making good contenet

[jojodemonnom]

To explain it to beginners, I tell them that it is a "resistance" to light. At f/2, there is more resistance than at f/8, for example. The bigger the number, the more resistance there is, and therefore less light enters... Good video, as always. Thank you.

[andrew]

Great explanation and graphics.

Question: is it just for convenience that 5.6 doubled is written as 11?

[MrFrost-xhrf]

So that’s all it is? Just adjusts exposure?

[HoAnhTuan-hnhg]

*This means if I increase the speed from 1/200 to 1/400, then I have to increase the Apperture from 2 to 1.4 the amount of light does not change, have a nice day*

[FelanLP]

But what's with values like f/0.95 or f/1.2 or f/3.5 and so on into this? How do those fit into this light doubling and halfing calculation thing?

[russeli]

What about 1.8 on my 85 prime? What am I not understanding?