Inoptics, adiaphragm is a thin opaque structure with an opening (aperture) at its center. The role of the diaphragm is tostop the passage of light, except for the light passing through theaperture. Thus it is also called astop (anaperture stop, if it limits the brightness of light reaching the focal plane, or afield stop orflare stop for other uses of diaphragms in lenses). The diaphragm is placed in the light path of alens orobjective, and the size of the aperture regulates the amount of light that passes through the lens. The centre of the diaphragm's aperture coincides with theoptical axis of the lens system.
Most modern cameras use a type of adjustable diaphragm known as aniris diaphragm, and often referred to simply as aniris.
See the articles onaperture andf-number for the photographic effect and system of quantification of varying the opening in the diaphragm.
A natural optical system that has a diaphragm and an aperture is thehuman eye. Theiris is the diaphragm, thepupil is the aperture. In the human eye, the iris can both constrict and dilate, which varies the size of the pupil. Unsurprisingly, aphotographic lens with the ability to continuously vary the size of its aperture (the hole in the middle of the annular structure) is known as an iris diaphragm.
An iris diaphragm can reduce the amount of light that hits a detector by decreasing the aperture, usually with "leaves" or "blades" that form a circle.[2]
In the early years of photography, a lens could be fitted with one of a set of interchangeable diaphragms,[3] often as brass strips known asWaterhouse stops or Waterhouse diaphragms. The iris diaphragm in most modern still and video cameras is adjusted by movable blades, simulating the iris of the eye.
The diaphragm has two to twenty blades (with most lenses today featuring between five and ten blades), depending on price and quality of the device in which it is used. Straight blades result inpolygon shape of the diaphragm opening, while curved blades improve the roundness of the iris opening. In a photograph, the number of blades that the iris diaphragm has can be guessed by counting the number ofdiffraction spikes converging from a light source or bright reflection. For an odd number of blades, there are twice as many spikes as there are blades.
In case of an even number of blades, the two spikes per blade will overlap each other, so the number of spikes visible will be the number of blades in the diaphragm used. This is most apparent in pictures taken in the dark with small bright spots, for example night cityscapes. Some cameras, such as theOlympus XA or lenses such as the MC Zenitar-ME1, however, use a two-bladed diaphragm with right-angle blades creating a square aperture.
Similarly, out-of-focus points of light (circles of confusion) appear as polygons with the same number of sides as theaperture has blades. If the blurred light is circular, then it can be inferred that the aperture is either round or the image was shot "wide-open" (with the blades recessed into the sides of the lens, allowing the interior edge of the lens barrel to effectively become the iris).
The shape of the iris opening has a direct relation with the appearance of the blurred out-of-focus areas in an image calledbokeh. A rounder opening produces softer and more natural out-of-focus areas.
Some lenses utilize specially shaped diaphragms in order to create certain effects. This includes thediffusion discs orsieve aperture of theRodenstock Tiefenbildner-Imagon, Fuji and Simasoft focus lenses, thesector aperture ofSeibold's Dreamagon, or the circularapodization filter in theMinolta/SonySmooth Trans Focus orFujifilm APD lenses.
Some modern automaticpoint-and-shoot cameras do not have a diaphragm at all, and simulate aperture changes by using an automaticND filter. Unlike a real diaphragm, this has no effect ondepth of field. A real diaphragm when more-closed will cause the depth of field toincrease (i.e., cause the background and the subject to both appear more in-focus at the same time) and if the diaphragm is opened up again the depth of field willdecrease (i.e., the background and foreground will share less and less of the same focal plane).[4]
In his 1567 workLa Pratica della Perspettiva Venetian noblemanDaniele Barbaro (1514–1570) described using a camera obscura with a biconvex lens as a drawing aid and points out that the picture is more vivid if the lens is covered as much as to leave a circumference in the middle.[5]
In 1762,Leonhard Euler[6] says with respect to telescopes that, "it is necessary likewise to furnish the inside of the tube with one or more diaphragms, perforated with a small circular aperture, the better to exclude all extraneous light."
In 1867,Désiré van Monckhoven, in one of the earliest books on photographic optics,[7] draws a distinction betweensstops anddiaphragms in photography, but not in optics, saying:
This distinction was maintained in Wall's 1889Dictionary of Photography (see figure), but disappeared afterErnst Abbe's theory of stops unified these concepts.
According toRudolf Kingslake,[8] the inventor of the iris diaphragm is unknown. Others creditJoseph Nicéphore Niépce for this device, around 1820. J. H. Brown, a member of theRoyal Microscopical Society, appears to have invented a popular improved iris diaphragm by 1867.[9]
Kingslake has more definite histories for some other diaphragm types, such as M. Noton's adjustablecat eye diaphragm of two sliding squares in 1856, and the Waterhouse stops ofJohn Waterhouse in 1858.
In 1858, lens maker Charles C Harrison along with Joseph Schnitzer patented an adjustable "stop" for his lenses, which featured six blades that could be moved to shrink the aperture. Harrison and Schnitzer's contribution to photography has gone largely unrecognized.[10]
TheHamburg Observatory-Bergedorf location had a 60 cm (~23.6 inch) apertureGreat Refractor by Reposold and Steinheil (Lenses).[11] One unique feature of the Hamburg Great Refractor is an iris diaphragm that allows the aperture to be adjusted from 5 to 60 cm.[12] This telescope was activated in the early 1910s.[12]
Cardano De subtilitate libri camera obscura.