is f/stop and apeture the same thing?

Question

I have a powershot S3 IS and in the manual book I cant find f/stop, but i think it is the apeture setting? am i right?
does anyone know a good site to ask question about this camera, i have seen the sites but dont know how to get in the coversations?

Answer 1

hi,

just wish to mention that eversosweet21's answer that "the f/stop is the shutter speed on your camera" is incorrect, no offence meant.

aperture is ‘the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken', and this is measured in 'f-stops'.

with aperture, you can control your depth of field (DOF) as well as the exposure of your shot. here are some useful urls for you to find out more :

aperture (f/stops) :
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture/

shutter speed :
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/shutter-speed/

ISO settings :
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/iso-settings/

Exposure control :
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/learning-exposure-in-digital-photography/

hope you would find this useful, cheers !

ps : there are many photography forums around but i think you can also post your camera queries here just as well. you may not be able to engage in a dialogue conversation here but you may list out all your queries in a easy-to-understand manner and there are many camera experts and enthusiasts here more than willing to help :)

Answer 2

Yes it does, but you have to work. Consult the manual and learn the section on the light meter. This tool is your greatest ally. It tells you the settings required to get a correct exposure in the current lighting conditions. If you change one of those settings, the values on the light meter will change accordingly. Put the camera in manual. Use a tripod and, if you have one, a remote switch/cable release. If you don't have a cable release, put the camera on the 10 second delay. This prevents camera shake, which if you have any, completely negates the results of the following test: Go out and shoot in bright light a scene that has stationary objects close, at medium distance and far from you. Set the ISO to 100 and then shoot as the meter tells you (ƒ16 @ 1/250). While keeping the same composition and focus change the aperture by one stop /(ƒ11 @ 1/500). You will have to adjust the shutter by one stop in the opposite direction (if you open aperture, speed up shutter or vice versa). Do this for the entire range of apertures available to you. Each time you will have to vary the shutter speed. This will show you the depth of field range of your lens - that is how much appears to be in focus when using a specific aperture. This tells you when you need to use what aperture. Repeat the above test this time using the ISO - change the shutter speed and leave the aperture set to the original metered value. Go through the scale 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600. This shows you where it noises up and when that noise becomes unacceptable. Repeat the above test but this time have a friend ride a bike across the frame. Use ISO 100 and meter the scene so you get 1/250 and use what ever aperture the meter indicates. Shoot a series of photos of your friend riding the bike at all of the shutter speeds. Adjust the aperture (and if necessary the ISO) to get the required shutter speeds. This will show how and when your camera renders movement. Sit down and look at all the photos on a program like Bridge, that shows all the metadata. Use the EXIF data to determine what aperture gives you how much depth of field, what shutter speed gives you movement, what ISO gives how much noise and when to trade it off. Digital noise is not really desirable, but sometimes you have to have the sensitivity so you go with the higher ISO. Good luck.

Answer 3

Yes and putting it simply, the aperture is just a hole of variable size, located within the lens, through which light (the image) has to pass on its way to the film. It's also called the diaphragm, and is made up of several movable blades to form an almost perfect circle.

f-2 is a large aperture, f-16 is small. If your lens has a focal length of 50mm - considered a "standard lens", the size of that hole at f-2 would be 25mm. (50 divided by 2 is 25) At f-4, the hole is smaller - 12.5mm. At f-8, smaller again - 6.25mm, and so on.


Happy photos to you!

Answer 4

Yup - the f stop and the aperture are the same thing, the amount the lens opens to admit light.

You use the f stop in relation to shutter speed - the faster the speed of the shutter (ie the amount of time the lens is open) the wider the lens needs to open. The smaller the opening, the longer the lens stays open.

The reason you pick one combination is depth of field, the distance in front of and behind the central object in which other objects will also be in focus. .Sometimes you want only the central object to be clear - sometimes you want a deeper dof.

Answer 5

YES, they are the same.

Aperture is the name and f-stop is variable. You can say set aperture to 1/4 f-stop, set aperture to 1/16 f-stop, etc.

Every camera has two main setting: Aperture and shutter speed:

.Aperture is the size of the hole in the lens that let how much light to come in. Setting f-stop means setting the size of the hole to smaller or bigger.
.Shutter speed is the time that you let light to come into camera.

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

You're right the f/stop number is the aperture setting!

Photography is photography try general photography web searches / sites.

Hope this initially helps!
Best of luck and have fun send use us some pics. :-)

Answer 7

Yes. An "f" number is the apperture setting.

Some digi cameras don't use "f" stops and other references to the good old days of 35mm photography, but they are still present for Dslrs.

Answer 8

No, the f/stop is the shutter speed on your camera. The aperture is the amount of light you allow in to hit the film when the shutter is open.

I don't know of any good sites, but I hope I helped you out a little. :)

Answer 9

No, but they are conjunctive.