Some Tips for Getting a Sharper Image ~ Ottawa Children Photographer

I love learning and I also love to teach people. I learned a lot about photography and Photoshop on my own, taking workshops, but mainly from seeing an image that inspired me and trying to figure out what technique was used to get it. Sun flairs, bokeh, back lighting, and sharp images are some of my favourite things about photos and I am constantly trying to master the techniques to capturing these things in my photography.

Before I go into my photography tip, if anyone ever has a question regarding anything, and you can ask them anonymously, visit me here on this cool question answer site:

http://www.formspring.me/christinedenis

First off, what is a sharp image? For me, being a children photographer, it's that image that has the eyes 100% in focus, even when you zoom in to 100% in Photoshop.

My baby looking less than impressed to model for me!!
Recipie: 50mm 1.4, ISO 200, 1/160th

Here is the "before shot", not the best image, but the eyes were in focus SOOC (straight out of camera) - which is the most important thing!

Can you "fix" it in Photoshop to make them sharper if you didn't get them sharp in camera, unfortunately NO!!

Is it hard to get perfectly sharp images? YES, it's the most difficult technique to master because there is a lot at play to affect the sharpness of your image. I can admit, that of the hundreds of images I take maybe 10% are in focus. I'm constantly trying to improve that percentage, but it's hard!!!

So what are the tips for getting a sharper image in camera? (note that doing all this is going to help you get a sharper image, do you HAVE to do them all - no, but it's fun to practice!!)

1. Focus on the eyes, specifically the iris of the eye - or at least the thing that is most important for you to have sharp!

2. Use a fixed lens. Fixed lenses are always going to be sharper than zoom lenses by nature.

3. You need good glass!! the higher quality glass the lens has will give you a sharper image, and will, of course, cost more!! Luminous-Landscape gives a good overview of the different types of lenses for Canon users.

4. Light - in order to get those sharp images, you need great catchlights in your subjects eyes, so position them properly to maximize the catchlights giving great depth and sharpness in the eyes.

5. Shoot at the "sweet spot" for your lens. Generally two stops up from the bottom. So for my 50mm 1.4, I always start shooting at 2.8 then move down from there. For zoom lenses it's a bit different, so experiment with where the sweet spot is on your lens. For my 24-70 mm 2.8L, I've found that I get the best results at 50mm 5.6.

6. Don't shoot wide open, anything below 1.8 makes it super hard to nail that focus. When I shoot at 1.4 to get that nice blurry background, often one eye is in focus and the other is not, that is how shallow the D.O.F is.

7. When shooting wide open, toggle your focus points as opposed to locking your focus and recomposing. Toogle to the focus point that falls right on the eye and shoot. Repositioning can cause a slight change in the distance between your subject and the camera, and will throw the locked in focus.

8. ISO matters. It's hard for us shooting up here in Canada, when we only have "good" natural light for maybe 3-4 hours in the day. And even still, I am often forced to bump my ISO up to 400, which causes noise in my Canon 50D (unacceptable noise in my books, but I'm not able to do #9 yet!!). You want to minimize the noise as much as possible, this means shooting as low as you can, meaning 100 ISO when you can.

9. Invest in a better camera. Higher quality cameras will give you higher quality images. Even when you've got everything above bang on, and you compared two images side by side, one from a top of the line camera and another from an entry level SLR - you will see the difference!

10. Sharpen things up in Photoshop. While you can't "fix" an out of focus picture, you can enhance one that is bang on sharp in the camera, with the Unsharp mask or High Pass Sharpening.

11. Avoid camera shake and motion blur when shooting. Ensure your speed is at least 160th or 250th for this, light permitting!! Oh and don't drink copious amounts of coffee before a shoot - like I do!! :) A killer for those macro shots!

12. Practice, patience, and more practice! Trying to remember everything all at once is really hard, so work on a couple of these techniques over and over, until they have become second nature to you, then learn some more!!

Again, I'm happy to answer any questions I can, and I'll sometime post the detailed answers on my blog, just visit me at:

http://www.formspring.me/christinedenis

Good luck!