Of the many things that go into making a good photo, sharpness is one of the most fundamental and impactful. There are many factors, both with the camera and post-processing, that affect sharpness in an image. If you would like to improve your shots, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you many of the most common reasons for photos lacking sharpness and how to fix those issues.
Coming to you from Evan Ranft, this excellent video tutorial will show you how to improve the sharpness of your photos. Perhaps the most common mistake I see photographers make when it comes to this is using too slow a shutter speed for their focal length or subject motion in an attempt to keep their ISO lower to improve image quality. It is true that a lower ISO means less noise, but shutter speed is absolutely crucial. Modern cameras are great at handling higher ISO values, and noise reduction software can work small miracles nowadays. On the other hand, if a photo is blurry from using too slow of a shutter speed to avoid camera shake or to freeze your subject, there generally is not much you can do to save it. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Ranft.
Complicated?
Alex, thank you for all the videos you have curated for us. I am ready for you to write your own article outright. Go for it!
Here you go! https://fstoppers.com/profile/14596/originals
why do photographs need to be tack sharp? I prefer my photos to be what I want them to be, sharp at times, at other times not.
Everything I'm about to say applies to photographing people.
As a people photographer, "as sharp as possible" is, in my opinion, one of the worst approaches that can be taken. This obsession with every photo being tack sharp has resulted in artificial looking, crunchy digital weirdness that is all too common in much of what we see produced today.
In post I generally remove ALL sharpening by taking my sharpen sliders down to zero, and then, sometimes, apply a small amount of output sharpening at the end.
When I see someone zooming in at 100 percent to assess sharpness and noise, the first thing that comes to my mind is that person hasn't a clue.
I remember the first time I used my Canon 100mm Macro for a portrait. I was like "Oh, I didn't need to see that much detail"