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So you want to learn how to take sharp photos. This article will give you some digital photography tips that will teach you how to exactly that. First, let’s look at the reason your photos aren’t as sharp as you would like.
There are many reasons photos don’t end up being take sharp photos.
1. You focused poorly –
This is a very common reason photos end up blurry. Improper focusing can lead to blurry shots. The best way to ensure your shot is focused is to manually focus the picture yourself. It can be hard at first, but you’ll be getting better in no time. The problem with auto focus is that it is really annoying. You’ll be about to take the picture and push down the shutter and it has to automatically focus before.
2. Incorrect Shutter Speed –
An incorrect shutter speed will make your photos blurry. The reason is simple, a long shutter speed gives your camera more opportunity to move and blur the shot. If you move the camera during the exposure, there will be blur. No question about it. The only way to solve this is to use a tripod.
So, how do you make to take sharp photos?
Well, I already said one very easy way. Use a tripod! Tripods make your camera stay put and eliminate shaking and camera movement. Another way to take sharper photos is to be sure you focus properly. Before taking a picture, zoom in all the way to your subject and focus the subject from there. Then, after the subject is focused, zoom out to the shot you like and take the picture.
3. Increase Distance or Focal Length-
The way optics work, the closer you are to your subject, the narrower the depth of field will be. If you’re shooting really close to your subject and on top of that you’re shooting at a very wide aperture, then your depth of field will become razor thin. That’s something that adepts of macro photography are well aware of.
The only way around that would be to increase the distance to your subject, shooting using a longer focal length (which allows increasing the distance), or close down your aperture.
Otherwise, if you want to stay really close to your subject and keep a wide aperture, get ready to follow the next tip on shooting a lot…
4. Take Multiple Shots
No matter the amount of experience you have, if you shoot wide open on a very fast lens you’re bound to miss focus on a lot of the shots. The only real way around that is to take multiple shots of the same scene, refocusing each time.
5. Select the Appropriate Autofocus Mode
Your camera has many autofocus modes available. Each comes with its set of benefits and tradeoffs. Most of the time faster modes will also mean less accuracy. For me, I like to shoot in single AF mode with a single focus point, which gives me the most power over the autofocus behavior. Continuous autofocus and group mode can be good in certain circumstances, but they’ll give you less fine-grained control and more of your shots will tend to miss focus.
6. Make Sure There’s Enough Contrast
Photos appear at their sharpest when there’s a lot of contrast in the scene. Flat images and images with very minimal tonal differences will, therefore, appear less sharp. Ensure that there’s enough tonal range in your images to maximize the appearance of sharpness in your final images.
7. Shoot at a Smaller Aperture
This one is may seem obvious, but it’s a good reminder that shooting wide open is not necessarily what you want to be doing on a day to day basis. Lots of Youtubers like to show off their gear by demonstrating the nice bokeh achieved by shooting wide open with fast lenses, but the fact of the matter is that shooting wide open will produce more shots with missed focus.
Wider aperture does not equal better photos, it’s all about what you’re trying to achieve in terms of depth of field. Try to shoot wide open only when that’s really what you want for the shot, and otherwise just Plus, as you’ll see with the next tip, your lenses have a sweet spot and are sharper at a more closed down aperture.
