From the course: Photography Foundations: Night and Low Light

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Working with aperture in low light

Working with aperture in low light

From the course: Photography Foundations: Night and Low Light

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Working with aperture in low light

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There is, of course, a third exposure parameter, and that's aperture. As you open the aperture in your lens, more light and pass through the lens to the sensor during an exposure. Different lenses have different maximum apertures. For example, one 50 mm lens might only be able to open to an aperture of f/3.5, while another might be able to open all the way to f/1.2. Remember, the lower the number, the wider the aperture. With a wider aperture, you don't need as long of an exposure to capture a given amount of light. In other words, a lens with a really wide maximum aperture will let you keep your shutter speeds faster when you're shooting in low light. Now the maximum aperture of a lens is referred to as the speed of a lens. So a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2 is referred to as an f/2 lens, and that's generally considered to be a very speedy lens. Creating a lens with a wide maximum aperture requires a lot of glass, so fast lenses are usually physically larger and therefore more…

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