Easy Tips for Taking Sharper Photos!

This is the final post about taking sharper images! I hope you're excited to try some of these final, general tips; they will change your photo life. Blurry photos are the worst. They aren't doing anyone a favor, so listen up. If you haven't read my previous posts in this series about taking shaper images, check them out here:

• Understanding Your Focus Modes

• Understanding Your Focus Area Modes and Focus Points

• Back Button Focusing for Sharper Images

When it comes to understanding how to take sharp photos it is sometimes easier to think about WHY our photos are coming out blurry. Why, why, why??! Here are some reasons why your photos aren't as clear as you'd like them to be:

• Your shutter speed is too slow, causing movement to show. 

• You are shooting too wide open (your f/stop is low, giving you a small plane for focusing).

• There's not enough light in your scene.

• Your ISO is a little too high (showing grain).

• You are causing camera shake.

• You aren't using the best Autofocus setting for your subject. 

Shutter Speed

Let's start with shutter speed. There's a general rule-of-thumb that if you are hand-holding your camera, you should shoot at a shutter speed equal to or greater than focal length of the lens to avoid camera shake. For example, if you are shooting with a 50mm lens, you want your shutter speed to be at least 1/50th of a second to avoid showing the shakiness (...is that a word? If not, is in my book) of your hands. For any camera with a cropped sensor (most beginner DSLR camera bodies) you'll calculate 1.5 x focal length of your lens. SO for a 50mm lens, I'd need a minimum shutter speed of 1/75th. 

Another thing to think about is your subject and whether it is moving or not. The tips about shutter speed above are useful for anything stationary. Once you take into account how fast your subject matter might be moving, you will need a faster shutter speed to freeze motion. There are many situations where showing motion is the goal; but we're talking about SHARP photos here.

To freeze motion, I usually start by playing it safe around 1/250th. This works well for family photo shoots when kids are wiggly but may not be sprinting in a full-blown race. If I want to freeze motion of a kid being tossed in the air, I'd like to shoot at 1/400th or something higher to be sure it's sharp. Consider your scenario, and if freezing motion is key, raise your shutter speed as high as you can without having your ISO setting too high (results in a grainy photo) or your aperture going too wide (lower aperture lets in more light). Read more about shutter speed here. 

Aperture

Shooting wide open (lower aperture, such as f/2.8) isn't necessarily wrong, it just limits what is in focus. This creates a shallow depth of field, so only a small plane of your image will be in focus when you take a photo. If you are going to use a low aperture, be sure you get your focal point spot on. For help with focusing tips, read my first two articles mentioned above! Learn more about aperture here. Most lenses are the sharpest a few stops up from wide open (the lowest f/stop setting). If I have a 35mm f/1.8 lens, the images I take between f/2.8-f/5 will be more crisp than at f/1.8. I shot this photo at f/3.5 and focused exactly on the right eye to make sure they were as sharp as can be. For portraits it's crucial to try and get the eyes in focus. 

ISO

When it comes to ISO, we know that the lower our ISO number is, such as ISO 100, the higher quality our images will have or the sharper they will be. Higher ISO settings, like ISO 6400, let in more light but show more grain. Read more about ISO here. 

Autofocus

You can't rely on your camera to pick the perfect focus point for you automatically. If you are wanting a particular part of your scene, someone's face or even just the eyes in focus, you need to select the focus point using my tips in the articles mentioned above. Camera's have to guess and sometimes the result isn't what you want. For this photo below, I shot at f/2.8 and manually selected the focus point to be right on the product (the bracelet). It's completely sharp because my subject was still, I had plenty of light in this studio to use a fast shutter speed and a lower ISO, and I used the right Autofocus setting to get accurate focus. If I had my camera choose the focus, it probably would have focused on her sweater, making the bracelet fall out of focus. 

I hope you've learned a few tips to carry with you as you try to take sharper photos. Get out there and practice a few of these techniques and you are bound to have better results! If you have any other questions about how to take sharp photos, head to my contact page and let me know. 

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Road to Sharp Images - Back Button Focusing!

Who is excited for more tips to get sharper photos?! If you missed my first two articles in this series, click here and then click here to catch up. I am going to talk about back button focusing today and how it is another pretty SWEET step towards taking sharper photos! This little trick can save you from just missing your sharp focal point, due to moving subjects. If you are trying to photograph still life subjects, this may not be a drastic improvement or technique for you. If you're like me, and take portraits of people, especially little people, this helps a TON. It is also very helpful for sports and wildlife photography. 

First let's explain how it works and why it is beneficial to use this feature. Back button focusing (BBF) can separate the Autofocus activation from the shutter release button. Normally, if we press the shutter release button half way, our camera will focus and then we take the photo by pressing it all the way. You can hold down the BBF button while a subject is moving and use the shutter button to capture the image at just the right moment; there's no need to keep pressing the shutter half way to get the shot you want! In a nutshell, your thumb can work the Autofocusing while your index finger only has to focus on taking the perfect shot.  By separating these two functions, we can also lock focus by pressing the BBF button and recompose our subject as many times as we need to (moving your subject to different sides of your frame, not having your subject move forward or backward). 

Now I will show you where we find this magic button, and how to set your camera up for back button focusing. Most higher end DSLRs come with an AF-ON button, dedicated entirely to back button focusing. If you don't have this button and you shoot with a Nikon, look for the AE-L/AF-L button. You'll have to set this button to act as your back button focus. Head to your MENU, and go under the pencil icon for your 'custom settings menu'. Go to 'controls' and select 'Assign AE-L/AF-L button'. Then choose 'AF-ON'. After this you'll have to tell your camera to take a photo even if the focus wasn't achieved. Go to 'custom settings menu' and choose 'autofocus'. Go to 'AF-C priority selection' and 'AF-S priority selection' and make sure they are both on 'release'. Your back button focus should be set to go!

On Canon cameras, your back button focusing button will either be the AF-ON or AE-LOCK (marked by an *) button. If you don't have an AF-ON button, you'll also have to set your * button to tell it what to do. On a Canon Custom Function menu, look for a 'Shutter/AE Lock button'. In this menu you'll probably look for a 'Metering Start/Meter + AF start' (no that doesn't make any sense but that's what they named it)! There are different ways for setting this correctly, depending on which model you have. I recommend checking your manual for exact instructions. It is also important to remember that this only works when shooting in a Creative Mode, not on an Auto mode. 

Here's a scenario where BBF would be very helpful to achieve sharp focus. 

In this scenario, my subjects are moving towards me. If I were to press my shutter half way to focus, in even a fraction of a second they will move closer to me; this would cause them to be out of focus. Even if they are slightly out of focus, our goal is to have SHARP images. BBF allows me to focus separately, freeing up my shutter to take the photo right at the exact moment I want to. For moving subjects, it is helpful to shoot on a Dynamic mode such as AF-C (Nikon) or Ai-Servo (Canon) while back button focusing on a moving subject. In this case, you'll keep your thumb pressing the BBF button and let your camera track your moving subject while you press the shutter at the right moment. 

If you want to shoot a self-portrait or use a timer/remote, you can simply press the BBF button once to lock the focus and when the shutter is released, your focus won't change. BBF can definitely make photographing certain scenarios more simple.   

Give back button focusing a try! It might take a few days to practice and get the hang of it, but I promise it can be a game changer for you like it is for me. 

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