f-stop

noun

f-stop

noun

Etymology f is short for focal.

1

Arts, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Photography Any of the discrete steps or stopping points for adjusting the aperture of a lens, either marked on a ring on the lens and adjusted by rotating that ring or marked in the display of a digital camera and adjusted by buttons or touch-sensitive controls.

  • Before you know what f-stop you want, you first have to know what it is you are trying to accomplish in the photograph: Do I want to freeze action, or show motion, and consider shutter speed, or, do I need to get a cast of people in focus, or focus selectively, and cater to aperture?2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books, →ISBN, page 22:
  • If you're shooting at an f-stop of 2.8, then the lens will take in a lot more light than it would if the f-stop was at 22.2008 May 23, Ted Kritsonis, “Six of one, half a dozen of the other”, in Globe and Mail, Canada, retrieved 26 Dec 2008:
Related terms
f-number

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.