Aperture refers to the opening of a camera lens’s diaphragm through which light passes. It is calibrated in f/stops and is generally written as numbers such as 1, 4, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 16 and 22.the higher the number, the smaller the aperture. Different lenses will offer different aperture ranges, some lenses going as low as an f-stop of 1.2 allowing image recording in very low light conditions.
Narrow Aperture: For instance an f-stop of 22 means that your aperture is almost completely closed, allowing very little light into the camera. This is suitable for situations that have excessive light like full sunlight. Wide Aperture: An f-stop of 2.8 on the other hand means your aperture is wide open, allowing more light into your camera and being more suitable for low-light situations. With regards to most lenses, opening your aperture will decrease your depth of field. That means that the focal range becomes very limited – with the subject or focus point being in perfect focus, but anything a short distance in the background or foreground becoming blurry or out of focus.
These are my pictures of aperture and if you look closely you can clearly see the grass in the background gets slightly less blurry as you move left to right across the picture. I started with my f-stop setting at f/4.5 and finished at f/22
The main advantage of Aperture is the fact that it keeps the main object focused creating a balanced picture making the picture nice in any environment.
Shallow depth of field/depth goes from f4.5-f8
Medium depth of field/ depth goes from f11-f19
Large depth of field/depth goes from f20- what the camera is capable of!