1. Why Not Use the Minimum Aperture Blindly？

It involves two contradictory optical principles: depth of field and light diffraction.

Benefits of Smaller Aperture (Higher f-number): Deeper Depth of Field

In landscape photography, users expect sharp views covering both foreground and distant scenery. Small apertures like f/8, f/11 and f/16 can greatly expand the sharp focus range, which is the mainstream way to achieve full-scene sharpness.

Drawbacks of Smaller Aperture (Higher f-number): Trigger Diffraction

What is diffraction? When light passes through an extremely narrow opening, it spreads out and interferes with each other.

Impact on Image Quality： Diffraction softens crisp edges and fine details such as leaf outlines and distant textures, lowering the overall image sharpness.

Easy Analogy： It is just like pinching a water outlet too tightly, making the water splash outward. An overly small aperture scatters light rays, resulting in flat and unfocused footage.
2. How to Select Suitable Aperture for Landscape Shooting？

The key is to find the sweet spot aperture, which perfectly balances sufficient depth of field and minimal diffraction loss.

Find the Optimal Aperture of Your Lens

Nearly all camera lenses have their own optimal aperture range, usually 2 to 3 stops narrower than the maximum aperture.

For most lenses, the best aperture range is f/8 ~ f/11.

• f/8: Delivers peak sharpness with barely noticeable diffraction, and offers enough depth of field for most landscape shots.
• f/11: Provides deeper depth of field while retaining superb sharpness; slight diffraction occurs yet remains acceptable.
• f/16: Only adopted when f/11 cannot meet full-range sharpness demands. It brings visible quality drop as a necessary trade-off for deeper depth of field.
• f/22 and narrower: Try to avoid them. Unless for special creative shooting like slow-speed flowing water shots without ND filters, severe diffraction will ruin image quality.