Description of F Stop on a 35 mm Camera
The f-stop in 35 mm film cameras is a useful setting for creating different effects in your photographs while you shoot. F-stops indicate the size of the aperture--an opening behind the shutter that's created by six overlapping blades. Changing f-stops is how you control the amount of light that hits the film when the shutter opens.
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Film Speed and Shutter Speed
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Film speeds range between 100 and 3200 ISO (which stands for International Organization for Standardization); the numbers indicate light sensitivity. Higher film speeds are more sensitive and require less light to make an image on the film. You'll shoot better in low light with higher-speed film. Shutter speed indicates how long the shutter will be open. Whole numbers represent shutter speeds, but they're actually fractions of a second. Setting 90 means the shutter will be open for 1/90th of a second.
Aperture or F-stop
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High f-stops are f/16, f/22 or f/32. These indicate the smallest aperture openings. Conversely, the lowest f-stops represent the largest openings, which let in the most light. The low numbers might be f/1.2, f/2, f/2.8, f/4 or f/5.6. When you shoot at the lowest f-stop on your camera, letting in the most light, it's called shooting "wide open."
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Effects
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You can see the results when you shoot at different f-stops. Start shooting at your lowest f-stop setting. Increase the setting by one stop, called "stopping down," and shoot again. Shoot at each of the f-stops. What you should see is that the background of your photograph starts out blurred and comes into focus more as you increase the f-stops. You'll need to check your shutter speed at each f-stop.
Significance
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Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter is open. Adjusting the f-stop requires that you correct the shutter speed. Wide-open shooting at shutter speeds that are too slow will deliver overexposed photographs. The opposite is true, too. You'll need to decrease your shutter speed as you stop down in your experiment. That way you won't have photographs that are too dark or underexposed.
Benefits
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Understanding how f-stops work can help you to predict what your photo will look like. You can choose to obscure your background, thus keeping the attention on your foreground subject, with wide-open shooting. Or you can maximize focus throughout the image by using a higher f-stop setting. F-stop manipulation can deliver dramatic effects in macro (close-up) shooting, too. Use different f-stop settings to expand your range of photographic expression.
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References
- Photo Credit camera image by Szymon Apanowicz from Fotolia.com
