5 Tips for Sharp Images
Derek Smith • 22 May 2020
5 Tips for Sharp Images
1. Shutter speed. Keep an eye on the shutter speed when taking your photo. Ideally the shutter speed should be at least the focal length of the lens, to avoid camera shake, so, a 50mm lens would require a minimum shutter speed of 1/50, and a 200mm lens 1/200. To maintain shutter speed, in Aperture priority keep the ISO as low as possible and adjust the aperture to balance. My Sony A7II has caught me out a couple of times, when using Auto ISO, as the shutter speed seems to remain at 1/60 no matter what lens was attached to the camera!!
2. Focusing, use a small focusing point, and position exactly onto the subject. Remember that there is roughly double the depth of field behind a focal point than there is in front. For portraits focus on the eyes, thus ensuring the nose is in focus, with the ears just beginning to soften focus. For landscape shots, focus a third of the way into the shot, rather than infinity (or horizon). For manual focusing use an in-camera aid such as magnification, or focus peaking to ensure pin sharp focusing.
3. Stop down the aperture. Most lenses have a “sweet spot” of sharpness, usually between f/4 – f/10. On a wide aperture lens of say f/1.8 stop down to f/2.8 for a sharper image, because the image corners may be soft, acceptable perhaps for a portrait, less so for landscapes which should use an aperture of between f/5.6 – f/14 for maximum sharpness corner to corner. Where possible avoid f/22 as most lenses are less sharp above f/16 because of diffraction of the light within the lens. Beware of using a lens at the extremities of performance, especially with zoom lenses, both with focal length, and aperture. As an example my Sony 18-135mm lens used at 18mm has severe vignetting, which is not seen with a JPEG straight from camera, as the in-camera correction worked well, however with processing RAW files, this would need to be corrected in the editing software on the computer.
4. Support. Hold the camera in both hands, with the eye pressed to the viewfinder, tuck both elbows in, and hold your breath as you press the shutter. Use a tripod, a bean bag on the ground, a lamppost, or a tree to steady the camera.
5. Camera settings. Turn off any noise reduction systems in the camera menus. Ensure that camera stabilisation is working. Some cameras have “In Body Image Stabilisation”, (IBIS), and other camera manufacturers stabilise the lenses, some manufacturers use a dual stabilised system, with stabilised lenses, and the body stabilisation working together. In practice IBIS tends to work well to a lens focal length of 100mm, and stabilised lenses are more effective at longer focal lengths. When hand holding the camera the difference when stabilisation is switched on is almost magical, gone are the jitters in the viewfinder, the steadiness is incredible, allowing slower shutter speeds in low light situations. When using the camera on a tripod, I would in general advise turning off the stabilisation.
The attached photo taken in an Australia winery was taken on a crop sensor camera, with a 35mm (equivalent) f/1.8 lens. I stopped down to f/2, 1/60, with ISO 1000 for a good shot in the low lighting conditions.
1. Shutter speed. Keep an eye on the shutter speed when taking your photo. Ideally the shutter speed should be at least the focal length of the lens, to avoid camera shake, so, a 50mm lens would require a minimum shutter speed of 1/50, and a 200mm lens 1/200. To maintain shutter speed, in Aperture priority keep the ISO as low as possible and adjust the aperture to balance. My Sony A7II has caught me out a couple of times, when using Auto ISO, as the shutter speed seems to remain at 1/60 no matter what lens was attached to the camera!!
2. Focusing, use a small focusing point, and position exactly onto the subject. Remember that there is roughly double the depth of field behind a focal point than there is in front. For portraits focus on the eyes, thus ensuring the nose is in focus, with the ears just beginning to soften focus. For landscape shots, focus a third of the way into the shot, rather than infinity (or horizon). For manual focusing use an in-camera aid such as magnification, or focus peaking to ensure pin sharp focusing.
3. Stop down the aperture. Most lenses have a “sweet spot” of sharpness, usually between f/4 – f/10. On a wide aperture lens of say f/1.8 stop down to f/2.8 for a sharper image, because the image corners may be soft, acceptable perhaps for a portrait, less so for landscapes which should use an aperture of between f/5.6 – f/14 for maximum sharpness corner to corner. Where possible avoid f/22 as most lenses are less sharp above f/16 because of diffraction of the light within the lens. Beware of using a lens at the extremities of performance, especially with zoom lenses, both with focal length, and aperture. As an example my Sony 18-135mm lens used at 18mm has severe vignetting, which is not seen with a JPEG straight from camera, as the in-camera correction worked well, however with processing RAW files, this would need to be corrected in the editing software on the computer.
4. Support. Hold the camera in both hands, with the eye pressed to the viewfinder, tuck both elbows in, and hold your breath as you press the shutter. Use a tripod, a bean bag on the ground, a lamppost, or a tree to steady the camera.
5. Camera settings. Turn off any noise reduction systems in the camera menus. Ensure that camera stabilisation is working. Some cameras have “In Body Image Stabilisation”, (IBIS), and other camera manufacturers stabilise the lenses, some manufacturers use a dual stabilised system, with stabilised lenses, and the body stabilisation working together. In practice IBIS tends to work well to a lens focal length of 100mm, and stabilised lenses are more effective at longer focal lengths. When hand holding the camera the difference when stabilisation is switched on is almost magical, gone are the jitters in the viewfinder, the steadiness is incredible, allowing slower shutter speeds in low light situations. When using the camera on a tripod, I would in general advise turning off the stabilisation.
The attached photo taken in an Australia winery was taken on a crop sensor camera, with a 35mm (equivalent) f/1.8 lens. I stopped down to f/2, 1/60, with ISO 1000 for a good shot in the low lighting conditions.
Louth Photographic Society
Last night was a nostalgic trip down memory lane, with four of our members presenting a slide show taken before year 2000. Now we all remember sitting in a darkened living room showing your latest holiday slides to friends, and neighbours, that click and whir as the slides changed, the stuck slide, the one that was upside down, or back to front, and uncle Jim dozing on the settee! It wasn't quite like that for last night's presentation, Richard Hildred began the evening with some amazing images of railways from British Rail days, we might ride one of the preserved heritage lines, and see the gleaming clean steam engines pulling a line of carriages, Richard's images returned us to the reality of steam powered passenger and freight operations, with the dirt, the grit, and grime of daily steam running, this image captures the essence of steam hauled mixed goods traffic, Richard's slide was in colour, but renders better here in monochrome. Next up was Tony Gaskins, many of his slides featured his first trip to the Maasai Mara game reserve, and the Ngorongoro Crater, Tony also showed slides from his trip to Canada, his slides and narration made for a great presentation. This image of a mother elephant, and calf was taken in the Ngorongoro Crater. After the break, Chris Birchmore presented many images from the Lincolnshire area, some of the disused, and crumbling buildings in the images made interesting subjects for photography, I have used this image of Bolingbroke castle, and from this viewpoint the church is clearly visible in this image, compared with today where only the church tower is visible. Graham Harrison was our last presenter, last but not least, the variety of images shown was remarkable, several from Wales, and quite a few that had been entered into club competitions previously, and were of high quality, as this image of a Flamingo shows. It was a fascinating, and interesting evening, thanks to each of our presenters, and to Dave Mann for the refreshments.
Good Afternoon, All, Last week at the club we held our monthly print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open", judged by Diane Seddon. It was a very good evening with Diane critiquing our prints with helpful comments on how we could improve our images as well as praise. The results are on our website but well done to David Whitehouse for best print in the mono and Dave Turner for best print in the open. This week, Wednesday 22nd October, we go back in time to before the millennium with transparency slides to be shown by Tony Gaskins, Chris Birchmore, Richard Hildred and myself. You can start sending Harry your entries for the PDI of the year, all the rules etc are on our website, but the important thing is you can enter any PDI's as long as they have never been in a PDI of the year before. There are six subjects and an overall max of six PDI's, no more than three per subject. Regards Graham
A print competition was held last night with the categories of; "Monochrome" and "Open". Diane Seddon from Cleethorpes Camera Club was the judge for the evening, Diane is very skilled, and thorough in her judging, providing useful insight, and critique of the prints. Many of her comments centered around the best cropping of an image to optimise the subject within the frame, and giving the subject "room to breathe" in the framing. Congratulations to David Whitehouse placed first in the "Monochrome" category, with his superb rendering of a face sculpture, and Dave Turner placed first in the "Open" category with his stunning print of the sunrise over Whitby Harbour. Thanks to Diane Seddon for a great evening, and as she remarked at the end of the competition all the prints were of an extremely high standard. The Competition Page has been updated with the highest placed images, but currently the score sheets for the competition are unavailable.
Good Morning All Last week Dave Bennett came to the club again, it has been a while since we have seen his photography but well worth the wait. Dave's photographs were excellent and his story telling along with AV's made it a very good night. This week, Wednesday 15th October, we are holding a print competition, with the categories of "Mono" and "Open", our judge for the evening will be Diane Seddon AFIAP CPAGB BPE3* she is well qualified to judge our prints. The following week we are going to try a retro night again, with Transparencies taken prior to the year 2000, please let me know if you want to take part and have a time slot allotted, time will depend on the numbers wanting to take part. Regards Graham
Last night Dave Bennett came to the club to show us AV's and narrate other sets of photographs on a theme. Dave started with photos along the Humber and then carried on the evening with AV's on nature, flowers and transport as well as talks and photographs showing us Grimsby docks including detailed photographs of fish smoking and engineering. Dave's photography is of a very high standard with strong colours, lot's of use of depth of field and they tell a story. A great night, thank you Dave.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a local PDI competition with a category of "5 Minutes From Your Home", we had some very good entries in each category with myself, and Dave Turner judging on the night. All the results are on our website, but well done to Derek for his mobile phone picture of a remembrance seat in Horncastle and Harry for his hellebores in the "Open" category. This week, Wednesday 8th October, Dave Bennett is coming to the club to show us what he has been taking lately, Dave does quite a bit of AV so as usual it will be a very good night. A reminder, send your print titles for the next print competition to Dave Turner by midnight Wednesday and bring your prints in this Wednesday night as well please. If you have any more N&EMPF Exhibition PDI entries send them to me by midnight tomorrow (Monday) please. Regards Graham
Our PDI "Local" competition was held last night, with the categories of "5 Minutes From Your Home", and "Open". Dave Turner, one of our members began the evening with judging the "Open" category, always a difficult category in my opinion because of the variety of subjects entered into the competition. Dave had previewed the images on his home computer, and had notes on each of the images, he provided excellent feedback on each image. After the break, Graham Harrison began judging the "5 Minutes From Your Home" category, this was a very unusual subject category which stretched the creative ingenuity of members, and it was particularly interesting to see what members had submitted. Graham judged the entries very fairly, and provided very good critique of the images. The standard of images submitted was high, which makes judging a competition such as this difficult, and as always is subjective, but a big thank you to both judges, it was an interesting evening. The first placed images, from each category are shown on this post, "At the Going Down of the Sun" by Derek Smith, "5 minutes from your home", and "Hellebores" by Harry Kerman in the "Open" category. The website Competition Page has been updated with the top three placed images, and the scoresheets.
Good Morning All Last week at the club member Tony Gaskins gave us an excellent presentation of his recent trip to Kenya on safari. Tony showed us the animals and birds he had encountered on his trip. It was an evening of excellent wildlife photography as well as a very informative talk, thank you Tony. There is also a report on our website blog. This week, Wednesday 1st October, we are holding a local PDI competition, with the subject categories of "5 Minutes From Your Home" and "Open", Dave Turner has kindly offered to judge the Open with myself the subject, and you have until midnight tonight to enter. Dave Turner is also asking members to send him the titles of their prints for the next print competition, the categories for this are "Mono" and "Open". Regards Graham
Our member, Tony Gaskins presented us with an illustrated talk on his visit to the Kenya game reserves last night. Tony's talk was perfectly timed, and his description of the trip held our attention throughout the evening, the images he captured were indeed stunning. The variety of wildlife he captured with his camera were amazing, all of the photos of birds were incredible, and the fact that they didn't fly off like they do here in the UK. On Lake Naivasha Tony captured a sequence of a fish eagle swooping down to catch a fish, just look at the way those deadly talons are outstretched to capture the fish. The lodge Tony stayed in at Tsavo West was beside a watering hole, look at this capture of a Kirk's Dik Dik, taken from the balcony of the lodge. Images of Hippopotamus, Lions, Impala, Ostrich, Giraffe and Zebra kept us enthralled through the evening. Thank you and well done Tony for an interesting evening.
Good Evening All A little late as just got back late this afternoon from the golfing trip, I didn't take my camera other than phone as I wouldn't have really had time but there was some interesting wildlife about including Swallowtail butterflies which was a first for me. Last week you had the monthly PDI competition, Long Exposures and Open, Derek has done a blog on our website and the competition page has all the results. Some excellent photography on show judging by the top places. This week, Wednesday 24th September, we have member Tony Gaskins entertaining us with one of his talks, Tony is well travelled so as usual it will be an excellent evening of photography. Regards Graham
