Have you ever heard photographers throwing around words like “stop” and wondered what the heck they were talking about? Let me enlighten you.
In photography, a “stop” is a unit of measurement used to describe the amount of light that enters your camera. Each stop represents a doubling or halving of the amount of light, depending on whether you’re increasing or decreasing it.
So why are stops important? Well, let’s say you’re taking a photo and it’s too dark. You could just increase your exposure time to let in more light, right? But that might not be practical – maybe you’re shooting a moving subject and a longer exposure would result in motion blur. Or maybe you’re already at your camera’s maximum shutter speed and you can’t go any slower. In those cases, you can use stops to adjust the exposure without changing the shutter speed.
For example, if you’re currently at f/5.6 and you need to let in twice as much light, you could open up to f/4, which is one stop wider. If you need to let in four times as much light, you could open up to f/2.8, which is two stops wider. See how it works?
As for why they’re called “stops,” that’s a bit of a mystery. Some people think it’s because photographers used to use physical stops to limit the amount of light entering their lenses, while others think it’s because adjusting the exposure by a full stop is like hitting the brakes on a car. Personally, I like to think it’s because it gives us a chance to pause and reflect on our settings before we hit that shutter button.
So there you have it – stops—everything you never thought you’d need to know. Happy shooting!
