Sharp shooter

Four leading pro photographers explain their sharp shooting techniques to Will Cheung

- WILL CHEUNG

With amazing lenses, intelligent AF systems and shake-defeating technology at our disposal, your photographs should be as sharp as those from the four pros in this feature. The thing is, human beings are fallible and picture quality may not be quite on point for any number of reasons.

So, if you’re striving for pictures that exhibit outstanding clarity and crispness but are falling a little short right now, this is where your photography takes a turn for the better. We talked with four leading pro photographers of different disciplines to give you an insight into how they set up and work, but first, let’s chat about the fundamentals of sharp shooting.

Start sharp to stay sharp

Taking pictures is a linear process and the ideal is to get everything right at each stage. So, if your pictures are consistently not up to expectations it makes sense to start at the beginning, and that’s you.

Take an honest look at your technique. Are your elbows tucked in and is your left hand supporting the lens? Are you stabbing the shutter button and jerking the camera or giving it a smooth press? It’s basic stuff but revisiting your technique won’t do any harm.

Next, look at your kit. It could be that the camera or lens has had a knock and needs a service, or the problem might be as simple as dusty lenses or poor-quality filters.

Avoiding the shakes

When it comes to ruined shots the biggest culprit is camera shake, but there’s help here in the form of image stabilisers, in-body and in-lens. They enable sharp stills at remarkably slow shutter speeds and they give smooth video footage when a tripod or other support is not available. But reliance on tech can lead to complacency.