The camera aperture is perhaps one of the most misunderstood of all digital camera features. It simply refers to the size of the entire camera lens. This means that the f-number, which is a measurement of camera aperture, determines the amount of light that the camera will allow into the camera. So why is it important to know what this number means? The truth is that knowing the meaning of this number can help you tremendously when it comes to taking great photos.
Digital cameras can let you control the amount of light that you are able to let into the camera. This is done with the shutter speed and the aperture. The shutter speed basically controls how much time you will take a photo with your camera. The lower the f-number the less time the camera will take to get the image out, but at the same time the camera will have to expose the image for a long enough period of time for it to be visible.
When you are using a camera with an aperture of a wide-open kind (wide open in the camera aperture meaning it lets more light into the camera) you will notice that everything appears to be bright and sharp. This is due to the fact that there is more light that is allowed to enter the camera. However, when you use a camera with an aperture of something like a very narrow aperture meaning it is not open as wide, the result is that everything appears to be dim. This is because there is not as much light that is allowed into the camera.
This has a huge effect on the quality of the image. Why is this so? Basically, this is because there is not enough light entering the camera for the image to be exposed correctly. What do we mean by this? Well, imagine trying to expose an object or picture with a camera that has a wide aperture and the object is far away from you. You would want the image to be slightly blurry right?
Well, this is exactly what happens because the light cannot enter the camera with enough intensity so everything is blurry. The same thing happens when you take a picture with a camera aperture of f/stop 1.5. This aperture is so small that even though the light is coming in at a fast shutter speed, the image will be very bright due to the amount of light that is escaping. Basically, you will be unable to expose the image properly without increasing the ISO setting. It is for this reason that the word micro aperture is used when discussing cameras with small Apertures.
If you need further explanation of what all this means, just look at a photo of a flower with a bright background. Now look at the same photo with a camera aperture of f/stop 2.4. The difference is clear to see how much brighter is visible. The camera aperture is so small that light cannot escape the camera with enough intensity. This means that the surrounding areas are not in focus while the center of the image is clearly focused.
As you can see, having a camera aperture of smaller than f/stop 10 is better as it allows more light to go in. Remember that you have to keep in mind that the depth of field blur that is introduced is actually the center of the image and not the entire area which are blurred. If you have a camera with a camera aperture of f/stop 3, the center part of the image is being blurred while the whole image is in focus. You can see the advantage by simply increasing the camera aperture up to the next higher value such as f/stop 16.
When you want to use digital photography to its full potential then you need to understand the camera aperture meaning fully. Do not ever let anyone talk you into changing your camera aperture settings as this is the path to destruction. It does not matter if you have a camera with optical zoom or digital zoom. Do not ever use any lens enhancement such as collage lenses or image intensification filters because these will only cause problems. The depth of field blur will always be there whether you use the optical zoom or digital zoom. So make sure you know what you are doing when it comes to using a camera aperture.