aperture, F-stops, what the what?

Aperture  is the hole or opening in your lens that lets in light. The size of the opening determines how much light comes into your camera as well as how sharp or blurry the background is going to be in your image. The aperture in this image below was shot at F 2.8. See the blurry background? And the lovely amount of light that was able to enter through my lens? Well….that’s due to my F stop, my aperture.

My manual settings for this shot:
ISO – 200
shutter speed – 1/400 second
aperture – F 2.8