Stopping down or up for that matter?

nikon90

Okay, I have a silly question. When you read something that says you should stop down, which way are you going on the aperture ring? Let's say you are at F8, and you need to go down one stop, is it F5.6 or F11? I feel dumb asking but I haven't had to worry about this in years and now I'm trying to learn filters and things and it'll suggest stopping down but I don't know if I need more or less light. Can someone explain this to me again? Thanks

cletus

nikon90 wrote:

Okay, I have a silly question. When you read something that says you should stop down, which way are you going on the aperture ring? Let's say you are at F8, and you need to go down one stop, is it F5.6 or F11? I feel dumb asking but I haven't had to worry about this in years and now I'm trying to learn filters and things and it'll suggest stopping down but I don't know if I need more or less light. Can someone explain this to me again? Thanks

Typically "Stop Down" means that you want to let in less light, so in your example you would go from f/8 to f/11. The typical term I've heard for going the other way is "open up".

fish

Yep, Cletus nailed it. Think in terms of the size of the aperture (opening). When you "stop down" you are making the aperture smaller (larger f number). When you "open up" you are making the aperture larger (smaller f number). Hmm...seemed simple whey I thought about it, but not when I typed it.

lynnma

Hi Nikon,

don't feel silly, took me ages to get that into my head. John Shaw's Nature Photographers complete guide to Professional Field Techniques helped me no end. Not only did it inspire me with his superb photography but put f stops, etc in very simple language that even I could understand.
You can get it here for 2.99 if you are interested.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0817450068/all/qid=1084131421/sr=1-6/ref=sr_pb_a/103-7436044-6638209


Lynn

nikon90

Thank you all for that. I took classes in high school and college but that was 13 years ago and its all gone from my head . I'm trying to learn some different things and I could just never remember how it went. I'll check into that book too. Thanks for the tips!!!!

fish

nikon90 wrote:

Thank you all for that. I took classes in high school and college but that was 13 years ago and its all gone from my head . I'm trying to learn some different things and I could just never remember how it went. I'll check into that book too. Thanks for the tips!!!!

Another way I look at it is...

Larger f-number: slower shutter, much depth-of-field
Smaller f-number: faster shutter, not much depth-of-field

yeah, that's hosed too. I got it figgered out in my brain, but I can't for the life of me make 16 words bang together in the right direction.