Learn Photography Tips Blog

How To Remember F Stops Easily

// July 23rd, 2010 // How To...

When I first started to learn about the theory of photography, the one thing that caused me the most confusion was to do with f-stops and aperture. Did a higher f stop number mean a smaller aperture? And did that thus mean more depth of field? Or less? Argh, it was so confusing and hard to learn…!

So, I bring to you an incredibly easy way to remember how to set your f stops -  Just remember the ‘2 F’s:

If you want more Focus, you want more F-numbers.

Easy, huh? So, if you’ve got a gorgeous landscape ahead of you, and you want to make sure everything from the foreground to the hills in the distance is nice and sharp – meaning you want as much Focus as possible – you use as high an F-number as you can, such as f/16. And of course, this works the other way around – if you’re looking for less Focus (for instance, if you’re looking to make the background of your shot blurry), then you’ll want to dial in less F-numbers, such as f/2.8.

The ’2 F’s': Easy peasy, lemon-sqeezy. Who says photography is hard?