Professional zooms may have a ‘constant’ maximum aperture of f/2.8 at any zoom setting (a handful have even wider apertures), but more affordable ‘consumer’ zooms are more likely to have a ...

You buy your first fast lens and now your camera aperture is fixed at f/1.8 forevermore – sound familiar? I used a wide-open aperture because I could, I never stopped to think if I should.

A wider aperture will benefit low-light photography, thus improving night modes and low-light conditions. It could also let users manually add shallow depth-of-field effects to photos, like portraits.

With a wider aperture, select a slow shutter speed to, again, allow more time for light to enter. However, since auroras move quickly, the shutter speed may need to be adjusted to keep the image ...