Instead of relying on a variable aperture to alter the amount of light and create aperture effects such as depth of field, phones artificially recreate effects like background blur.įor example, a smartphone's portrait mode artificially blurs the background for a shallow focus, mimicking the effect of a lens with a large aperture. (Image credit: Pexels / Torsten Dettlaff) The principle of a lens aperture is the same. An iris expands to let in more light so we can see more clearly in dark environments, and decreases in size when in bright light so we don't get blinded. Some lenses have a fixed aperture, including those in most smartphone cameras.Ĭonsider the human eye. On most lenses, the size of this diaphragm, which is formed by aperture blades (and seen as an almost circular hole), can be adjusted by the f-stop number. The 'aperture' is the opening in your camera lens, that lets light pass through to the camera. F-stop vs aperture: what’s the difference? This equation is the lens' focal length divided by the diameter of your effective aperture. It's a little complicated, but there is an equation comprising lens focal length and f-stop to work out the physical size of the aperture. However, the 'f' in f-stop actually stands for focal length. Therefore, the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture. For example, f/4 is a quarter, making it larger than f/8 which is an 1/8th. But why the confusing use of symbols? This is because an f-stop indicates a fraction.

F stop camera