AP or sutter speed

[reedshots]

Which is more important for a crisp clean image? Aperture or shutter speed?
I know the triangle and that all three ISO, AP and exposure speed work together, but – for opinion’s sake.
Say, I have a well light (outside) static object (size = 5x5 feet) not a flat wall - thing. Not going for DOF or anything just a crisp clear over all image, which is most important?

 

[dxqcanada1]

Correct focus.

Aperture/DOF increases the range of acceptable focus.
Shutter speed reduces camera shake and freezes subject movement.

Quality of lens plays a big part also.

 

[tyler_h]

Lenses have sweet spots for sharpness in terms of aperture; generally around f/5.6 most lenses are performing at or near their best.

Necessary shutter speed to remove shake as an issue is generally taken as 1 / focal_length for acceptable shots - varies person to person. Look to have it over 1/250 for a 50 and you should not have any issues with a still subject ever. You say well lit; I've had shots at f/4 iso 100 give me 1/3200 for my shutter speed. If this is your well lit then f/5.6 and iso 100 will leave plenty of room to have a very fast shutter.

Only thing left after that that is as mentioned above... get the focus right and you will be getting towards lens max sharpness.

You mention overall image; another thing to keep in mind is that lenses tend to be sharpest in the middle and softer as you approach the extremes; this is especially true for zooms (although not so much with recent zooms; especially versus an old prime) and ultra-wide or super-tele (citation needed) lenses - basically further from normal they are harder to manufacture and it affects image quality delivered by the final product.

 

[Garbz]

Depends. Is your subject moving or your camera handheld? Then shutterspeed is critical. But in a perfectly setup shot i.e. solid tripod and still subjects the shutter speed has no impact on sharpness. Then comes aperture. for perfect sharpness each lens has a different sweet spot usually somewhere between f/5.6 and f/8 depending on the lens and the sensor size on the camera. <br><br>

But none of this is anywhere near as important as composition. Who cares if the image is sharp if the background is distracting and the image is better of being shot wide open (worst aperture to select for sharpness) to make a better image.

 

[KmH]

Say, I have a well light (outside) static object (size = 5x5 feet) not a flat wall - thing. Not going for DOF or anything just a crisp clear over all image, which is most important?

Having a good stable tripod, a high quality lens set within its aperture ' focus sweet spot' range, a remote release, and using the 'mirror up' option.

How Do I Use My Digital SLR? - How To Get Sharply Focused Images.