I am a novice photographer trying to learn all the lingo. Would someone please explain to me stopping down and stopping up? Which way is the aperture going when stopping up/down???? if the print is underexposed do I stop up or down??? Thanks in advance. Peace

-- jessica perez (jessmarie@hotmail.com), June 09, 1998

Answers

Going to bigger F-numbers is called stopping down because the amount of light getting through to the film is cut down. Going to smaller F-numbers is called opening up, not stopping up. Stopping up is what my nose does when the pollen stirs up ;)

-- Tim Brown (brownt@ase.com), June 09, 1998.

And if the negative or slide is underexposed, you want to open up (= larger hole = smaller f-number). You can't judge the camera exposure by looking at the print, because the printing stage introduces new variables.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), June 10, 1998.

stopping up or down?

starting from anywhere in the middle of the fstop scale- up means a brighter picture and down means a darker picture. "opening up" means letting in more light and "stopping" or "closing down" means letting in less light.

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), July 17, 1998.