Lesson 3: Avoid Very Small Apertures - Nikon D800 Technical Manual

Still Subjects

Lesson 3: Avoid Very Small Apertures

Stopping down the aperture in manual (h) and aperture-prior-
ity auto (g) exposure modes increases depth of fi eld, bringing
both the foreground and the background into focus. Stop the
aperture down too far, however, and the eff ects of diff raction
may actually result in images with less defi nition. The optimal
aperture setting — that which produces the greatest depth of
fi eld with no loss of sharpness — varies from lens to lens. With
the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED used in this example, an
aperture setting of f/8 produces the sharpest image.
f/8
f/11
Amount of detail visible in
window leads and frieze is
less than at f/8
11