Other forms: apertures
The aperture is the adjustable opening that decides how much light enters. A wide aperture, stop down the aperture, aperture priority.
The numbers run backwards, which catches everybody out: a smaller f-number means a wider opening. It controls depth of field as well as light, so a wide one blurs the background, which is why portraits are shot that way.
1nounapertureThe adjustable opening that decides how much light enters.
“In low light, open the aperture as wide as it will go.”
aperture is an opening.
Latin apertura comes from aperire, to open. Overture is a doublet by way of French.
Latin
apertūra — an opening
English, today
aperture
From late Middle English -, from Latin apertūra (“an opening”), from aperiō + -tūra. a doublet of overture and apertura.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA