Wide vs. Narrow
Inside your lens is an adjustable opening called the aperture — like the pupil of an eye, it widens to let in more light and narrows to let in less. You set its size with an f-number (also called an f-stop): f/2.8, f/8, f/16, and so on.
Here's the part worth memorizing once: a small f-number means a wide opening, and a large f-number means a narrow one. f/2.8 is wide open; f/16 is nearly a pinhole.
But aperture changes more than brightness. It controls how much of the scene is sharp, front to back — a range called depth of field, and the real reason photographers reach for this dial. Don't take it on faith — shoot the comparison and watch it happen.
Aperture Priority mode (A or Av) lets you choose the f-number while the camera handles the rest. Frame a subject with something well behind it. Shoot once wide open (lowest f-number, e.g. f/2.8–f/4), then once narrow (f/11–f/16). Change nothing else.
You've done the exercise once you've seen the two frames differ — wide open softens the background to a thin slice of focus, narrowed brings far more into focus. Place both, wide and narrow, side by side. (Barely a difference? Widen the gap between your f-numbers and put more distance behind the subject.)
The assignment
In Aperture Priority, shoot the same subject at a wide and a narrow aperture and compare them.
Place your proof, unlock the next.
With a free account your shot lives on this assignment — you earn the XP, your streak grows, and the next technique opens.
Start freeNo credit card. Every lesson is free.
Already learning here? Log in