HAMMERTIME!

no. not that kind of stop.

the kind that makes this sentence make sense “The background metered at one stop under the exposure of my main subject”

The what did what now?

**WARNING: MATH AHEAD!**

We, as humans, like to be able to measure things. To put finite quantities onto things. And then to give them funny names…. gallons of gas! degrees of temperature! cups of flour! dozens of donuts! mmmmDonuts!mmmm

When it comes to light, we measure it in stops. Why we call it stops I haven’t got the foggiest idea. Kind of confusing if you ask me. But stops it is and stops it will always be.

The problem with light is that it’s not linear. (I told you there would be math!)
It’s exponential.

It’s WHAT?

it’s 3D. It’s not flat.

This works best to visualize as a lightbulb vs. a laser beam.

A laser beam produces light that travels in a straight line. The same amount of light is moving along that line of the beam. Taking up the same amount of room so it stays the same brightness as it moves along filling the same space with it’s lasery goodness.

But a light bulb produces light that moves outward from the light bulb in the shape of a sphere. the same amount of light not only moves away from the light bulb, but it expands into a larger and large ball-shaped space. That’s why light is brighter closer to the light bulb. The light is all squished into a smaller space so there is more of it to use. As you move away, the light has to spread out to cover more space so it gets really weak really quickly. it’s not only moving away from the light bulb, but it’s spreading, too.

Here comes the really mathy part:

stops of light don’t move upward and downward in logical steps. you don’t go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
you move exponentially: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 — doubling the amount you had before each time you move up a stop.

to put this back in terms of lightbulbs:
if you have a stop of light and you have one lightbulb, when you want two stops of light, you need two lightbulbs. so far so good. makes sense. but to have three stops of light, you now need FOUR lightbulbs. and to get to four stops of light you now need EIGHT lightbulbs. As you move up the number of stops, you have to keep doubling the amount of light you had before.

Why is this important? Well, technically, it’s not really that important that you understand the math part, so if that went over your head, don’t stress about it! What is important is that you understand that moving a small distance away from a light source (lamp, window, etc.) could mean a BIG CHANGE in the amount of light you are working with.

the other reason this is important has to do with the settings on your camera.

Your camera settings all increase or decrease the amount of light that comes into your camera. More light=brighter picture. less light=darker picture.

the nice thing is that because a stop is a standard amount of light, if you let in an extra stop of light with your shutter speed, you can then quit letting in that same stop of light with one of your other settings (aperture or ISO) and even things back out. A stop of light is a stop of light. Just like a gallon of gas is a gallon of gas. Doesn’t matter if that gallon of gas is in your gas tank or in your lawnmower. It’s still a gallon of gas. If you let in a stop of light one way you can cut it back out another way.

The other thing to notice is that this helps to make sense of the numbers on your camera.

each stop in your camera is (typically) broken down into thirds.
so if you look at your ISO, it will likely go like this
100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1280, 1600

notice the numbers in bold…. every third number is double the previous one…. exponential movement… 1, 2, 4, 8, 16

I won’t bore you with more math even though I find math fascinating (Imma geek!) — but hopefully this helps you to understand at least how the numbers of ISO and shutter speed work.

So. Back to the very beginning! “The background here metered at one stop under the exposure of main subject.”

All they’re saying is that the background, when you pointed the camera at it, had half the light of the main subject. But it certainly sounds fancier to say it with the words “one stop” and “exposure”.

we’ll not get into the craziness that is your f-stop aperture value or why in the world they call it an f-stop and how incredibly confusing that is because it uses the word “stop” and isn’t that what we’re talking about here?

NEXT WEEK: f-stops! why they are called f-stops and what in the world is going on with the numbers and why in the world are they BACKWARDS with a small number being a big opening?

Fred: Dude, that bokeh in that picture is rocking!

George: What? This is a picture of my cat, Fluffermupkins. He’s eating watermelon. There isn’t a bouquet ANYWHERE! You crazy, bro!

Fred: No, man, bokeh…. it’s a word from Japanese not from French. It means fuzzy! Bokeh is that blurry stuff!

George: You really ARE crazy, bro. You don’t say it like a bouquet of flowers! You say it like it rhymes with mocha! And there ain’t no bokeh in this picture. It’s just blurry.

Fred: You can say it either way, man. And I like flowers. So whatever! Of course there is bokeh in that picture! Bokeh is the blurry parts. There is a lot of blurry parts in that image!

George: NO WAY! You’re an idiot! Bokeh is the circles you get when lights are out of focus. You can’t just call all the blurry bits bokeh. That’s not okay!

Fred: Listen, man, I learned it the other way. I’m sticking to it. Those bokeh circles are nice and all, but bokeh is all the blur.

George: You’re WRONG, dude. Circles only! CIRCLES ONLY! *waves fist for emphasis*

Fred: *shakes head in sad resignation* Whatever, man. No big deal. Let’s just agree to disagree.

*****

Photographers are funny people. We get so caught up in trying to be hip with the lingo we forget that words evolve over time. The word “bokeh” is in fact a word derrived from the Japanese word for “fuzzy” or “dizzy”. It’s not a very old term, as far as photography goes. It was first used sometime around 1996 and became more well know in 1997 when used in an article in Photo Technique magazine.

At this point there are two major camps regarding pronunciation
1. say it like bouquet of flowers.
2. say it like it rhymes with mocha.

the more accepted form is the second one, but I’ve heard it used both ways by professionals in the industry.

And it falls into two camps as far as what exactly it pertains to.
Camp 1: It’s all of the blurry or fuzzy parts in an image. Like this one:

a few of those leaves are in focus, but everything else is blurry — everything else is the bokeh.

OR

Camp 2: Bokeh only applies to images that have “circles” where light is out of focus. Like this one:

That’s a christmas tree in the background. I don’t remember WHY I’m wearing a kid’s hard hat and holding a beer, but I’m sure I had a reason. the POINT here is that some photographers feel only those kinds of visible circles are bokeh.

So which one is right?
BOTH.

the accepted norm is that it’s pronounced like mocha and that it applies to ALL blur, but there are still enough people who pronounce it like bouquet and still enough vocal people saying it’s only the circles, that that definition still holds sway.

Either way, now you know what people are talking about. Because You Speak Photography.

Note from Wendy: One of the biggest hurdles to learning photography is learning the lingo. The words are english, but the meanings are lost to learners. Every Monday, there will be a post breaking down photography lingo into understandable words. If you have suggestions for lingo you’d like to better understand, leave me a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

When I was first learning, and people said this phrase I was always confused by what they meant. I heard it in several different ways….

“I love this lens! It’s so fast!” (oh em gee! they are obviously a super great photographer with amazing lenses!)

or

“If you shoot at night, you’re going to need a fast lens.” (uh oh! DIRE STRAIGHTS! do I have one of those?! I’m SUNK for sure!)

I couldn’t figure out what made a lens fast. Was it something to do with how quickly it focused? or how fast you could make the camera take the picture? What in the world made a lens fast?

turns out it’s something ridiculous. I don’t know why photographers use some of the most ridiculous phrases.

a “fast lens” is one that can make the aperture open up really large to let in a lot of light quickly. (the aperture? what’s that? Wendy, you’re just confusing me more!)

basically, a camera gets light into it to make a picture one of three ways, and aperture is the word that we use to talk about the size of the “hole” that opens up to let the light in. A big hole means more light – we call this wide open. A small hole means less light – you’ve tightened down the hole or “tightened the aperture”.

So a fast lens is one that lets that hole open up really large. That’s it.

And if you want to sound really cool while saying it, you say “A fast lens allows you to shoot with a wide aperture.” and then you sound like you know what you’re talking about.