Image quality different settings same light

[Flukester]

Hi photo nerds... could anyone give some insight into the below question. What's prompted me to ask is returning from a recent holiday and noticing huge differences in image quality. (noise / colour reproduction / detail)

Given camera on minimum ISO and image properly exposed with no motion blur which setting gives best image quality.

Opened aperture with fast shutter

or

Closed up aperture with slow shutter


In my head I'm thinking they could be the same, but are they ?.

You let the same amount of light in with both (with the correct settings), but is one better than the other ? (maybe lower noise etc). Is one better suited to a bright sunny day for example ? ...even though you have adjusted to expose the sensor to same qty of light.

Maybe the only difference is going to be depth of field... ? (though that's a none issue on long distance landscapes ?

My reasoning could be flawed here, but I'm sure this will spark some debate

 

[Flukester]

Most lenses do actually benefit from being stopped down (i.e smaller aperture) rather than being wide open. That said there comes a point where if you stop down too much your image sharpness will decrease. It is called Diffraction.

Take a look at the following article

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm/

Thanks

Dam yeah forgot about that... remember reading how often lenses are not so sharp wide open

I'm guessing then the advice is shoot wide open only for depth of field effects or if lights calls for it and you want natural light ?

 

[Flukester]

Depends entirely on the camera, and the OP doesn't say what camera they have. My RX100mk2 certainly doesn't do that - base ISO is 160 and it also displays 100 and 125.

Sorry Oly OM-D EM-5 II ...ISO 200, no settings to go lower AFAIK

Thanks for all your replys. Has cleared things up in my head.... also confirms the mistake I used to make a year back of running around taking everything at F1.8

For most of holiday I was in Aperture priority around F4, and F4 is the sweet spot on my two primes I think where the lens performs well

This is all like rocket science to me

 

[Flukester]

Choose an aperture based on the depth of focus you require and ignore any differences in lens sharpness or sensor behaviour.

Thanks , I'm guessing in low light indoors for example, if you want natural lighting you have to work with shallow depth of field and have lens wide open ? (assuming you don't want ISO to creep up, I kind of treat ISO as my enemy, not sure I should but I don't like the way high ISO shots look, at least not on my camera)

I guess stepping back a little might solve any focus issues though between subjects to a degree

One day I will understand this... my current tactic is to take lots of photos and hope they are ok

On the cruise we were on all the pro photographers working on the ship had full frame Nikons set to manual... this surprised me, either they know what they are doing all the time, or they know settings which work in the ships lighting.

 

[Flukester]

Thanks, great advice!