Why do they use the word aperture when talking about photo frames?

guybrush

guybrush

Messages
358
Name
Rebecca
Edit My Images
Yes
Oh, this has made my head hurt.

I've been looking at buying some photo frames, and they appear to be mentioning aperture sizes?!

Am I right in thinking that by aperture, they're simply refering to the size of photo that fits into the frame rather than the total size of the actual frame? If that really is the case, why on earth do they use the word aperture, especially when you're already talking about something photography related and aperture is a word used in lens technology, as we all know..

:'(

This is possibly more of a rant than a direct question, obviously I do know what aperture means in terms of photography. I'm just confused as to why it's being used to refer to image sizes in photo frames as well!
 
That's a very strange usage of the word then if I do say so. Whoever came up with that one!? Oh the English language sure is here to try us sometimes..


Surely there are plenty of other words that better match exactly what the space in a photo frame where the image is going to go than "aperture".
 
It does occur to me that people have been framing pictures a lot longer than people have been taking photographs, so photography may be the linguistic interloper here. :suspect:
 
Musicman said:
It does occur to me that people have been framing pictures a lot longer than people have been taking photographs, so photography may be the linguistic interloper here. :suspect:
Click to expand...

Hm, that's true - I never thought of it the other way round!

However thinking about it, I just can't imagine people before the days of optics that people used to refer to the hole in frames as apertures! But that's probably just ignorance on my part. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top