Craig O’Dear, a lawyer and potential U.S. Senate candidate, has been practicing law for more than 30 years. Focusing on commercial litigation, he has handled a wide range of issues, including fraud, negligence, wage violations, and antitrust law violations. In his free time, Craig O’Dear enjoys photography.

Along with shutter speed and ISO, aperture is one of the three main factors in determining the quality of a photograph. Aperture on a camera functions like the pupil of the eye. When the pupil is small, it allows less light into the lens. Similarly, a small aperture lets less light into the camera, thus creating a darker image, while larger apertures let in more light and create brighter images. Usually, large apertures are not used unless shooting at night or in an area with minimal lighting.

Beyond affecting the lighting of an image, aperture impacts the depth of field. This refers to how sharp a photograph is when looking from front to back. Images with a shallow depth of field have a background that is completely out of focus. Meanwhile, those with a deep depth of field feature a sharp background and foreground. As the aperture gets larger, the depth of field becomes more shallow.