5 PRO TECHNIQUES FOR SHARPER SHOTS

Learn how to ensure that your image captures are as crisp as possible

All photographers strive to produce sharp imagery, but sharpness issues often plague even the most skilled photographers. Tack-sharp imagery is often the most striking and memorable, especially in the landscape and portrait genres, and ensuring that your images are as sharp as possible can help your work to stand out from that of your peers.

Over the next few pages you’ll discover how your equipment can affect the sharpness of your shots, and why keeping your kit stable is essential. You’ll also learn about the importance of using the correct shooting, and the focusing considerations that must be made in order to produce sharp shots.

Shooting techniques are only part of the sharpness process, so you’ll also learn essential Photoshop editing techniques, as well as important Lightroom edits and adjustments.

01 OVERCOME KIT LIMITATIONS

Understanding how your cameras and lenses function, and maintaining them properly, are essential first step towards sharpness

The quality and condition of your kit is the most obvious reason for your images not being as sharp as you’d like. The quality of the lenses you’re using will have an effect on how sharp your images are; this is down to the amount and quality of glass found in the lens, and how the light is able to pass through it. Generally, prime lenses will produce far sharper images than cheaper zoom lenses, because prime lenses have fewer internal lens elements. The quality of light will deteriorate slightly as it passes through each element, so the fewer internal elements there are, the better the image quality will often be.