F-Stops

F-Stops are used to set the exposure on a camera (to control the amount of light that enters the camera through the aperture). On higher-end cameras there will be a ring located near the focus and zoom rings on the camera but if you're using a more consumer-level camera it may be located somewhere else on the body or hidden away in a menu.

Perhaps you've seen the numbers with the f's in front of them and wondered what they mean. If so, it's a good thing you're reading this!

The standard F-Stop scale is: 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32

While it may look hard to remember, it's really not. As long as you can remember the first two numbers, you'll be fine because the odd numbers double each time as do the even numbers (I bolded the even numbers in the scale to illustrate this better). The scale works on this doubling method because you increase or decrease the amount of light by half each time you move up or down a stop on the scale. A lot of people wonder about the progression of numbers and why it isn't more straight forward (ie. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.) but it's best not to worry about it and just memorize the scale. The reasoning behind the numbers is based on math formulas that were worked out years ago but if you really want to learn about their history I'm sure Wikipedia will help you.

Some people refer to F-Stops as T-Stops but they're basically the same thing and the term is interchangeable. T-Stops are often called "true F-Stops" (although the T stands for transmission, not true) because they take the light that's lost due to the lens into account. However, standard F-Stops will suffice in most situations.

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