Sharpness

There are many factors that contribute to the sharpness of an image, or lack there of. So we'll go though each individually and when to use them. A large part of this is all about the elimination of all movement to get the clearest, sharpest images possible.

-First and biggest is a tripod. No matter the focal range or lighting conditions your hands will never be able to hold a camera as steady as a good tripod. You might not be able to detect the minuscule amount of motion but your camera sensor can and is. This is something often overlooked as is quick and easy to go hand held but it's the little things like this that make a world of a difference and a key part to why a pro's photos look the way they do. This is also not something you want to cheap out on. You can get a tripod for $20 but there's a reason why there are $100,$200, $300+ tripods. A cheap tripod does not to a good job of holding the camera steady. There are ever so slight shifts when the lens focuses, the mirror raises, and the shutter clicks. A decent quality tripod can be found for about $130 but when you get into quality tripods you'll find that you need to buy the ball head separately. The price range for these run roughly from $50-$500+. Manfrotto has a great line of quality tripods and head with a well priced intro line.

-The delayed exposure setting is set in the camera menu. This will raise the mirror and delay the exposure by a few seconds to allow the camera to settle from any movement the mirror raising has caused. Of course this is not ideal if you need to take a shot quickly or in rapid secession but very useful otherwise.

-Don't touch the camera. Pressing the shutter causes movement, movement bad. A shutter release cable, wireless remote, or even the self timer will get you off of the button and reduce motion.

-Use the lowest possible ISO. On a tripod this is relatively easy as you can use a slower shutter speed without camera shake. Higher ISO settings add noise to your image and reduce sharpness. Shooting hand held in low light you will need to adjust the ISO to get a faster shutter speed to reduce camera shake. (Look for an upcoming post on Focal Length Equivalent for more on hand held low light).

-Many lenses these days are equipped with VR/IS to aid in motion reduction especially at longer focal lengths. VR(Nikon)-Vibration Reduction & IS(Canon) Image Stabilization are wonderful when shooting hand held. However, for most lenses, the VR/IS should be turned off when shooting on a tripod. The manual for the lens will state if it should be on or off with a tripod but most of the newer lens should be off. The VR/IS 'looks' for vibration and will actually cause it if there is none.

-Lens quality and sharpness go hand in hand. Unfortunately, like every other piece of equipment, quality=expensive. You've probably seen in lens descriptions terms like; ED,extra low dispersion, x# of elements in x# of groups. These all have to do with the quality and sharpness that a lens can produce. Inexpensive lenses just cannot deliver what quality lenses can because of the components inside. You got it or you don't. If well cared for a quality lens will last a lifetime and is more than worth the investment.

-Every lens has what is referred to as a 'sweet spot', this is the lenses sharpest aperture. A general guide is the sweet spot is 2 full stops smaller than wide open. This isn't always the case but a good guide. Running test shots at different apertures will help determine a lenses sharpest aperture.

-Too sharp?! When sharpening is applied in camera through settings, it sharpens indiscriminately, which is not often a good thing. It applies sharpness globally. Which means it is also sharpening blemishes, noise, and other things we do not want to stand out. It has become common practice to turn off in camera sharpening and apply it in post as to gain more control. That is a whole other fun lesson though.

Questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to help you out. The Flickr group is also open for any questions, comments, discussions.