This question gets asked a lot, so we thought it would be best if we break down the definition of the word – aperture.

Ais a hole within a lens, through which light travels into the camera body. The concept is easier to understand, if you think about how the human eye works. Every camera that we know of today is designed like human eyes. The cornea in our eyes is like the front element of a lens – it gathers all external light, then bends it and passes it to the iris. Depending on the amount of light, the iris can either expand or shrink, controlling the size of the pupil, which is a hole that lets the light pass further into the eye. The pupil is essentially what we refer to as aperture in photography. The amount of light that enters the retina (which works just like your camera sensor), is limited to the size of the pupil – the larger the pupil, the more light enters the retina.