F-stop

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the discrete steps or stopping points for adjusting the aperture of a lens, either marked on a ring on the lens and adjusted by rotating that ring or marked in the display of a digital camera and adjusted by buttons or touch-sensitive controls.

    "Before you know what f-stop you want, you first have to know what it is you are trying to accomplish in the photograph: Do I want to freeze action, or show motion, and consider shutter speed, or, do I need to get a cast of people in focus, or focus selectively, and cater to aperture?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
exposurelight meter

Example

More examples

"Before you know what f-stop you want, you first have to know what it is you are trying to accomplish in the photograph: Do I want to freeze action, or show motion, and consider shutter speed, or, do I need to get a cast of people in focus, or focus selectively, and cater to aperture?"

Etymology

f is short for focal.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.