Okuzeka
Photography vocabulary · Exposure

Stop

Meaning in photography, with examples

/stɑːp/nounCommon term

In photography, stop means: A unit for changes in exposure. One stop more doubles the light and one stop less halves it, whether you change the aperture, shutter speed or ISO.

In Turkish: stop, durak, pozlama değeri (EV)

How it is used

Photographers think and talk in stops: a stop brighter, two stops darker, a third of a stop. Related verbs are stop down (use a smaller aperture) and open up. Filters and dynamic range are also measured in stops. EV (exposure value) works the same way.

Example sentences

  1. The sky is two stops brighter than the foreground, so use a graduated filter.

  2. Stop down a little; at f/1.4 the depth of field is too thin for two people.

Common collocations

  • one stop brighter
  • a third of a stop
  • stop down
  • lose a stop of light
  • f-stopA number such as f/2.8 or f/11 that describes the size of the lens opening. It is the focal length divided by the opening's diameter, so a smaller number means a wider opening.
  • exposureThe amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor or film when you take a picture; it decides how bright or dark the final image looks.
  • ND filterA neutral density filter: a dark piece of glass placed in front of the lens that reduces the light evenly without changing the colors.
  • dynamic rangeThe range of brightness, from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights, that a camera can record with detail, or that exists in a scene.
  • exposure compensationA setting that tells the camera to make its automatic exposure brighter or darker, usually in steps of a third of a stop, shown as +1 or −0.7.

More terms: Exposure

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: