Stops, 10 Stop?

Scottynoooo

Scottynoooo

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I'm a little confused by all the terms to stops/ 10 stops etc. Could some one please explain them to me, or link me to a section explaining them?

I did search and got nothing.

Thanks Scott
 
Thank you both for your speedy replies. I will have a read now.

Scott
 
A stop is the doubling or halving of the amount of light entering the camera. It is so called because in years gone by the lens aperture was changed by dropping in a 'stop' with a different sized hole in it.

Adjustments can be made by altering any one (or all) of shutter speed, aperture or ISO.

Shutter speeds and ISO speeds are logically adjusted by doubling or halving the number whereas this is no so obvious with the aperture as the difference of a whole stop is the increase or decrease by a factor of 1.4.

The main aperture numbers for a stop follow the following progression:

f1.0, f1.4, f2.0, f2.8, f4.0, f5.6, f8.0, f11, f16, f22, f32

Numbers in between these above will be either 1/3rds or 1/2s of a stop depending on how your camera is set up.
 
Have a read of this. Its a little technical but Section 2 should help.

Basically, stop can be used as a term for a unit of light, and is used to talk about aperture, shutter speed and ISO. An increase of one stop refers to a doubling of light and a decrease of one stop refers to a halving.

So f/2.8 - f/4 is a reduction of aperture by 1 stop and will halve the amount of light let in.

1/100 to 1/200s is a doubling of shutter speed so is a reduction by 1 stop and will also halve the amount of light. Similarly 1/250 to 1/500th.

ISO 100-200 is a doubling of ISO so is an increase of 1 stop and will double the sensitivity to light. Similarly ISO 400 to 800
 
As for 10 Stops, Using the sunny 16 rule (which is that if it is sunny day use the nearest reciprocal shutter speed to the ISO and set the aperture to f16.

So on a sunny day for ISO 100, set either 1/100 or 1/125 sec at f16 to get a correct exposure. If you then used a 10 stop filter you would have to adjust the exposure by 10 stops to compensate:

So 1/125 to 1/60 (1 stop), 1/60 to 1/30th (2 stops), 1/30 to 1/15 (3 stops), 1/15 to 1/8 (4 stops), 1/8 to 1/4 (5 stops), 1/4 to 1/2 (6 stops), 1/2 to 1 sec (7 stops), 1 sec to 2 secs (8 stops), 2 secs to 4 secs (9 stops) 4 secs to 8 secs (10 stops).
 
Again thanks very much for all the info. I wouldn't say I'm a camera noob so most of it makes sense to me.

Thank you.
 
Just want to add my appreciation to the thread creator and especially to those who wrote such excellent explanations to his question.

I also learnt something new here. I also was not entirely sure about the "stop" jargon but now have a clearer idea on what it's all about. Thanks guys :)
 
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