If total exposure is matched, image brightness should be the same. The main visible difference is usually motion: a short exposure or flash can freeze movement, while a long exposure can blur anything that moves.

For noise, there is no automatic quality advantage to a longer exposure. If the same total amount of light reaches the sensor, photon noise is roughly the same. But digital cameras also have time-related noise sources, especially dark current and hot pixels, which increase with longer exposures. That means a short exposure with brighter light is often slightly better for noise on digital cameras.

Long exposures can also trigger extra processing such as dark-frame subtraction, and very long digital exposures may show more hot pixels or thermal noise.

So in practice:

• same exposure = similar brightness
• short + bright usually has a small noise advantage on digital
• long exposure increases the chance of motion blur
• long exposure does not inherently capture “richer detail” just because it lasts longer

If your goal is the cleanest digital image, use the shortest exposure that gives the look you want, as long as the brighter light itself doesn’t introduce other issues.