fbpx

10 Tips for Sharper Photos (Even when zoomed in)

Photo by Jim Harmer
10 Tips for Sharper Photos.  #9 was the most helpful for me.  I never thought about that before.

Daily readers of this site already know how I feel about sharpness.   Sharpness is vital to professional photographers who make large prints, but beginners probably will not notice much of a difference between a razor-sharp photo that they view on a computer screen compared to a fairly-sharp photo that they view on a computer screen.  Nonetheless, photographers are crazy about sharpness, and I am too.

Sharpness Tip #1: Shoot like a sharp-shooter

Anyone who has ever shot a gun or bow and arrow knows that the key to shooting well is finding a firm shooting foundation.  Shooters do this by stabilizing themselves against a bench, using a monopod, or standing in the most stable positions.  Not surprisingly, photographers should use the same advice.  If you haven't taken a minute to consider whether your photography posture is solid, think about it for a minute and decide how to improve your stability.  If you don't regularly use a tripod, just do it!

Sharpness Tip #2: Don't zoom to the extremes

I have never tested a lens that is sharpest at the extremes of the zoom range.  For example, if you shoot a 75-300mm lens, you will get sharper photos at 280mm than 300mm.  The Nikon 70-200mm lens shoots sharpest at 135mm.  I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but I haven't seen them personally.  Almost all lenses are sharper somewhere between the extremes of the zoom range.

This is especially important if you are shooting a less expensive zoom lens or a kit lens.  Spend just a minute and take a picture of a newspaper taped to the wall across from you at different focal lengths and apertures.  You're likely to find quite a variation in sharpness levels depending on the focal length.

Sharpness Tip #3: Determine your sharpest apertures

Just as the zoom dramatically impacts sharpness, so to does the aperture.

Many photographers learn that the sharpest aperture on many lenses is f/7.1 or f/8, but it totally depends on the lens.  That is a good general rule, but it is foolish to accept this as 100% true.  Just take a minute to lock your lens on a tripod and shoot a subject at all of your aperture levels to see what photo is sharpest.  If you are a landscape photographer, you will likely notice that many wide-angle lenses are significantly sharper at slightly higher apertures, because they are made that way.  This test will only take you 5 minutes to perform and will improve your photos for the life of the lens.

To test sharpness, make sure to shoot from a distance that you commonly shoot that lens, shoot in lighting conditions similar to what you will shoot in the field, and do common-sense things like shoot on a tripod with a cable release and mirror lock-up.

This test was performed on a Nikkor 70-200mm lens at 200mm.
This test was performed on a Nikkor 70-200mm lens at 200mm.

Sharpness Tip #4: Do Your Output Sharpening Last

Unfortunately, many photographers use the sharpness slider in Camera Raw or Lightroom first thing. I strongly discourage this technique because sharpening should match the medium, or be applied selectively.

Photos should be sharpened differently for the use on the web as they are for print.  For example, when saving a photo that will be displayed on a computer (like posting a photo to Facebook, for instance), less sharpening is needed because a screen is a sharp output medium.  When saving a photo for matte paper, more sharpening should be applied than when printing on glossy paper because the matte paper soaks the ink more than the glossy does.

Also, a photo that will be seen small should be sharpened differently than photos that will be seen large.  It just doesn't make sense to sharpen before finishing the editing process.  This way, you'll be able to go back and re-sharpen the photo in a different way when you want to use that photo for a new purpose without needing to re-do all of the other edits done in Photoshop.

[callout type=”center” title=”Photography Portfolio Reviews – $39″ message=”Have the expert editors at Improve Photography review your photography portfolio in-depth and send you an audio feedback file for just $39″ button_text=”Check it out” href=”https://improvephotography.com/online-portfolio-reviews”]

Sharpness Tip #5: Stop mashing your shutter button

In my photography workshops, I see many photographers smash their shutter button with more force than they would smash a cockroach.  Mashing the shutter button will torque the camera at the critical moment when the photo is recording the scene.  The proper way to press a shutter button is to simply roll your finger back across the button.


Sharpness Tip #6: Pick up the manual for your LENS

The lens manual will tell you whether or not to use image stabilization (vibration reduction for us Nikon folks) when the camera is on a tripod.  Some lenses should have vibration reduction ON when using a tripod, and other lenses should have image stabilization turned off when on a tripod.

Lenses made in the last couple of years will make this switch for you, but you'd probably be surprised by looking at the manual for your lens to find that many lenses that you think may be turning this off for you… are not.  The only way to know is to check the lens manual.

Sharpness Tip #7: Decrease Your ISO

Photographers know that increasing your ISO increases the noise in the photo, but their knowledge usually stops there.  Did you also realize that increasing the ISO also dramatically reduces the visible detail in the photo?  When I say “dramatically,” I mean dramatically!

When you're in a situation where you have to increase your ISO beyond where you're comfortable, consider adding flash or moving to an area with better lighting to produce a sharper shot.

Sharpness Tip #8: Test different copies of a lens

When lenses are created, they are made to certain tolerances.  Especially in the case of lower-end lenses, the tolerances are not precise and allow for size variances.  For this reason, one lens may shoot better on one camera than another.  Make sure the lens is working well for your camera.  If it isn't, you might consider returning the lens and buying another copy of the exact same lens model and see if it works better.

Sharpness Tip #9: Know Your Focus

I've given portfolio reviews to THOUSANDS of photographers in my online photography classes just in the last year.  THOUSANDS!  When they ask me about the sharpness of their photos and how they can improve, the problem is imprecise focus at least 95% of the time.

So here's my recipe for proper focus every time…

#1. Decide if you are shooting an action photo or a photo with a stationary subject.  If you're shooting a moving subject, choose continuous focus (AI servo on Canon or AF-C on Nikon).  If you're shooting a stationary subject like a landscape or a person standing mostly still, choose AF-S on a Nikon or Single Servo on a Canon.

#2. Always choose the focus point yourself.  Don't let the camera decide.  Get used to moving the focus point with the four-way selector on the back of your camera.  If you're shooting a portrait, ALWAYS place the focus on the eye of the person closest to the camera.  On the nose or face or body of the person is not good enough.  Always focus on the eye.  If you're shooting a landscape, generally focus one-third up from the bottom of the frame, but if you have a strong foreground element, you may want to focus closer.

#3. Once you've focused, be extremely careful not to sway forward or backward at all.  When shooting with a fast lens at a wide f-stop, even a slight movement will move the focus before the shot.

#4. Be sure not to focus too close to the lens.  Each lens has a close focus distance, and the camera manufacturers like to push the envelope with this distance.  I usually find that if I focus right at the closest point where the lens will still focus, the result is a blurry shot.  Back up a little bit from the closest you can be to the subject and you'll always improve the result.

Sharpness Tip #10: Upgrade your shutter button

Less expensive cameras come with either a metal or plastic shutter button.  It does the job just fine, but it encourages the poor habit of “clicking” or “mashing” the shutter button.  More expensive cameras like the 5D Mark III, Nikon D810, etc, have squishy shutter buttons with a rubber coating on top so that the press of the button does not vibrate the camera as much.

For only a few dollars, you can pick up a rubber pad to fit over your shutter button which will solve this problem and upgrade your shutter button for you.

It can be tough to tell how sharp a shot is when looking at the back of the camera. Zoom in all the way on the eye and the difference is easy to see.
It can be tough to tell how sharp a shot is when looking at the back of the camera. Zoom in all the way on the eye and the difference is easy to see.

Bonus Tip: Zoom to the Eyes!

The best way to know if you have a sharp photo while shooting is to zoom in on a picture you've just taken all the way to 100%.  Zoom in on the eyes and see if you can see the eyelashes.  If the eyelashes are just a clump of black, the photo is not sharp.  If you can see each hair in the eyelash, you have a sharp shot.

If you have more sharpness tips, please share it with the rest of the Improve Photography community by leaving a comment below.

152 thoughts on “10 Tips for Sharper Photos (Even when zoomed in)”

  1. Laura -Philadelphia

    This is by far the best list of advice for a sharper in focus photo that I have seen literally anywhere …thank you, I’ve learned a few small things that have had a big impact. I am no longer frustrated by some daunting issues I simply had no knowledge of, until now.

  2. Thanks for this article..I thoughg there is any problem with my lens.I bought 11 20 tokina 2.8..And your righy i experience also the blurry effect..Imagine in landscape are super sharp but shooting people i encountered blurry shots eventhough my focusing are right.Now i will try what you have said..Thank you…

  3. Lisa-Nashville, TN

    This is the first article I have read that’s clear and easy to understand! A lot of good information here. Thank you!

  4. I AM not able to focus correctly it’s hard to find it and one more thing my hand my shiver a lot is their any tip to get rid of it inspite of using a tripod ??

  5. I was having a tough time getting sharp photos with a Nikon D3200. I was feeling like I was going crazy as my photos never seemed sharp no matter what I did with my best glass on the camera. It turns out the camera had a back focus issue that needed to be repaired by Nikon, as the camera WASN’T focusing properly on my chosen focus point. Back focusing or other camera body focus issues can certainly cause lack of sharpness and require manufacturer repairs.

  6. Despite my repeated shooting on different weather conditions and different camera modes, I am unable to get sharpened and good photographs in my Canon EOS 60 D DSLR Camera. When such photos are put to use in computer, it is out of focus. Why this happened. Any advise?

  7. Here’s another tip: Calibrate your lens to your camera body using your camera’s autofocus microadjustment (AFMA), if available. You can use software like Reikan FoCal or something like LensAlign or DataColor SpyderLensCal to perform AFMA. This is especially critical with wide-aperture fast lenses, where razor thin depth of field make even small focus errors more evident.

  8. Jim

    Great tips as a beginner to digital photography I have been struggling with the finer details of sharp focus. Reading through these tips made me stop and examine what I was doing and then I had the aha moment and my sharpness improved.

  9. Thank you!

    These tips are more helpful that most tutorials that I’ve read.

    Starting now, I will spend time integrating these tips into my photography.

    Again, thanks……

  10. Thanks for useful information. I tried app 14 to 22 range to get sharp landscape photography. It was a normal sunlight not very brite. With this app range I was getting shutter speed 125 plus with ISO 400. The pitchures does not comes out sharp and land scape was dull. My earlier pitchures with wide app open coming sharp. I have learnt from literature that for landscape photography app 14 + is recommended. Please advice.

  11. The article was very good

    Two critical points

    Lower iso and not letting the camera choose the focusing

    There are fundamental differences between film cameras and digital which affect results for the unwary

    Firstly digital cameras do not take photos whereas film does

    Digital cameras measure light in angstroms or kelvin and store those measurements

    Software is then used to simulate a photo

    This is akin to the pointillism technique that painters used whereupon they would paint with a very fine brush one point at a time

    When viewed at a distance it emulated an image

    Sort if like paint by numbers

    Canon states that their focusing method us predicated upon contrast and not really the subject

    Which makes it difficult in dim light where contrast is low

    They also state that for vertically spaced subjects the camera focuses on the first thing it sees

    Which is where I find the greatest challenge for accurate focusing

    While one can manually focus with live preview this is awkward at best

    My best results are from subjects which are spaced on a horizontal plane or infinity as in landscape

    The other thing that people always thought us the greater the megapixel the better the photos

    Not quit accurate

    For my 2 1/4 film I am dealing with a sensor that is equivalent to 3600,mm whereas a typical non full frame DSLR us about one tenth of that

    It is really the size of the sensor which dictates the quality of the results

    It really doesnt matter how many pixels you out on the head if a pin

    One only has to look at the results of 35mm and larger formats using 100 Asa film to see the difference

    The article rightly points out that there is a vast difference between shooting for large prints versus viewing on a monitor

    For digital there are more variables for prints using digital

    The size of the sensor
    The software used
    The monitor
    The printer etc
    The paper used.

    If film is stored properly and is really old the results will always be the same when printed on silver based paper years later as I have found

    For prints many photographers opt for photographic printing for optimal results

    For proof I have shot on film and created a digital film image

    Printing the negative gives the best results with the digital image being marginal good

    Albeit I use medium format film

    I have been using my t5i for about a year and still struggle to get a good prints

    Technology aside there is one caveat

    Often times the image is more important than the absolute sharpness if the ensuing result

    For most digital images are not printed but rather shared via computer

    An image can tell the story admirably without being empirically sharp

  12. Reply to Aftab Alam

    From John Cairns CPA

    Some high end digital’s do have micro tuning but I don’t know if the T5i does

    Because of the nature of digital lenses electronics micro focusing is especially useful for changing lenses

    This would be ideal for using EOS film lenses on a T5i

    The older EOS lenses tend to be better than Canons kit lenses

    I use these a lot

    The catch is that EOS film lenses are full frame

    So a 105mm lens is more like a 150 etc

    In essence they are about 1.6 times the focal length of a modern Canon digital lenses

    So yes micro adjustment would be great if the T5i had it

    1. On the T5i there is a little thumb wheel just above the eye priece

      This is called a dioptre adjustment

      It adjusts the eye piece to suit the individual’s eye for more accurate viewing

      It does not affect the camera focusing

      Once set it works for your eye and may not work for other people’s eyes

      Much like your glasses

      Each pair if glasses works for your eyes only

      The micro focusing adjusts each lens to the camera to maximize focusing

      There is often a little bit of change required because of the gap between the lens mount and the camera

      Each lens may require a tiny bit of adjustment to maximize focusing

      We sometimes confuse sharpness with focusing

      An image can be in focus but may not be quite as sharp as we would like

      Poor quality lenses may focus well but the image may not be that sharp

      Which is why Canon markets three lens series

      Mediocre or cheap lenses

      Medium quality lenses

      And the red banded lenses of really good quality

      The kit lens will focus find but not be as sharp as the red banded lenses

      The caveat being that the price of the high quality lenses are exponentially more expensive

  13. Vishvas M. Kulkarni

    Can you please guide me on the following ?

    I purchased (under your guidance) in USA a Canon PowerShot G5 camera which, with its 1/1.8″ size sensor and only 5 MP effective pixels, gave me very sharp images. Lateron I also used Canon IXUS which ofcourse due to its smaller sensor gave me bit blurred images. It was however surprising that, even Canon EOS 500D, the professional series model with much larger sensor (22.3 x 14.9 mm) too gives me blurred images similar to IXUS.

    So, I am confused, and has the following questions.

    1. Why I got sharp images with PowerShot G5, and, blurred ones with EOS 500D although it has larger sensor?

    2. I now wish to buy a new camera which can give me sharp images equivalent to PowerShot G5. Which are the simple (without unnecessary sophisticated features) and cheap cameras in the market (Canon or any other brand)?

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top