Aperture vs Shutter Speed: Difference and Comparison

Light properties and behaviors have been taught through optics studies. In that case, Aperture, as well as Shutter speed, are two fundamental knowledge of understanding the relationship between visions and images.

Moreover, they both are inversely proportional to each other, thereby influencing the quality of an image. 

Key Takeaways

1. Aperture controls the depth of field, while shutter speed controls the amount of light that enters the camera.
2. A wider aperture creates a shallower depth of field than a smaller aperture.
3. A faster shutter speed allows for less motion blur than a slower shutter speed.

Aperture vs Shutter Speed

Aperture is the opening of the lens’s diaphragm through which light passes. It opens by pressing the shutter release and controls how much light enters the camera. Shutter speed is the rate at which the shutter opens and closes and controls how long light enters the camera.

Aperture, to put it in simple words, is the pupil of digital cameras, where it controls the size of the lens by either shrinking or expanding in order to focus the light.

Speaking of which, Aperture can affect two things in a photograph, mainly, the brightness/exposure and depth of a field.

Shutter Speed affects two main factors of an image, namely, brightness and exposure, in such a way, as to what speed the camera lens opens and closes, resulting in the amount of light absorbed by it from the scene.

Thus, short shutter speed means only a small amount of light is exposed as a consequence of a darker image. 

Comparison Table

Parameters of Comparison	Aperture	Shutter Speed
Definition	It is the size of a camera lens that influences how much light reaches the sensor.	The length or speed of the camera shutter remains open when the light reaches the sensor.
Affects	Depth of Field and exposure of an image.	Brightness and exposure of the image.
Types	Large and small apertures.	Fast, slow, and long shutter speeds.
Functions	It controls the brightness of the image falling onto the sensor.	It controls the way the motion of an image is portrayed on a camera.
Range	f/2.8 – f/16 range provides a decent depth of field and sharpness.	1/4000th of a second or 1/8000th of a second can capture stunning motion images.

What is Aperture?

In the abstract, Aperture is the size of the camera lens that helps in determining the total amount of light to be entering into the camera sensor. Aperture is derived from the Latin word ‘Apertura’ meaning opening.

For the most part, aperture plays a crucial role in the brightness, depth of field, sharpness, starburst effects on bright lights, visibility of camera, sensor dust specks, bokeh, and lenses’ focus shift. 

For instance, a large aperture will allow a huge amount of light to pass through, which thereby results in a very bright image. A photograph’s depth of field refers to the image that can be seen clearly from front to back.

Take, for example, the smaller the aperture, the deeper the depth of field for a sharp image. 

Usually, an aperture is calculated as a number known as f-number or f-stops. A good aperture ranges between f/2.8 and f/16. Moreover, a large fraction number of the camera lens corresponds to a smaller aperture opening.   

More importantly, using a large aperture is great at night or for low-light scenarios. While, in the case of smaller apertures, the depth of field will also be smaller, and thereby the background will be blurred, resulting in a more dynamic photograph. 

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter Speed is also one of the important factors in capturing a digital image. It tells the speed or rate of a camera closing its shutter, or in other words, it also determines the amount of light to be exposed on the camera sensor.

The word ‘Shutter’ has been in use in photography since 1862, which means an aperture control device that opens and closes the lens.

It is visible on the front side of the camera sensor, where when the camera fires, it will as soon as you open the shutter, where the light that has passed through the lens will fully expose the camera sensor.

Subsequently, the shutter closes automatically after the sensor collects the light, stopping light from hitting the sensor. In a nutshell, the speed at which the shutter opens and closes when the camera fires, is called Shutter speed.

Moreover, because it triggers the shutter to open and close, the button is also called the shutter. Long shutter speed means the images might end up blurry, while a fast shutter will capture any motion images with great sharpness and exposure.

On the other hand, the short shutter is good at capturing objects at night or in dim environments. Shutter speed is calculated in fractions of a second. 

Main Differences Between Aperture and Shutter Speed

1. Aperture represents the size of a camera lens, while the shutter speed represents the speed of the camera lens opening.
2. Aperture determines the amount of light to be penetrating the camera sensor,  whereas, the shutter speed determines the amount of light to be exposed on the camera sensor. 
3. Aperture helps in changing the depth of field of an image, while, Shutter speed helps in preventing the blurring of a motion image. 
4. Large aperture means a large amount of background and foreground blur, whereas, in the case of a fast shutter speed, results in a blur-free, freeze motion, and a less camera-shaken image.
5. Aperture is measured in units called f-stops, and Shutter speed is measured in seconds. 
6. Aperture is represented by the ‘f/n’ on digital cameras, where n is the number that denotes the size of the image. Meanwhile, either on the top or rear LCD of digital cameras, the shutter speed is shown as a number or fraction.

References

1. https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.1722767
2. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/9400/94000S/Optimal-camera-exposure-for-video-surveillance-systems-by-predictive-control/10.1117/12.2083182.short

Last Updated : 13 July, 2023