Today I'm going to show you how I get really sharp photos both handheld and from a tripod, and later
on I'll have a troubleshooting section going over the common problems as to why your photos might
not be as sharp as you want them to be the first thing is getting your camera stable and the best
way to do this is to use a tripod now if you don't like tripods or you don't own one don't worry I'll
be doing a handheld section A little bit later on if the conditions are still and there's not
much wind about I'll get the camera up to about eye level so I'm not hunched over it but if it is
windy I'll keep the camera and tripod low I'll sometimes splay the legs out a little bit more
and I'll just try and find somewhere that's sheltered from that wind I normally shoot in
aperture priority but for this exercise just turn your camera to manual mode if you use a DSLR turn
off the image stabilization with the mirrorless camera it's not so important there is another
thing that you have to do as well if you shoot with a DSLR and that's to turn the mirror lock
up function on if you're not familiar with dslrs there's a mirror that flaps about when you take a
photo and this can cause movement in your camera and that transfers to movement in your frame with
mirrorless cameras as the name suggests there's no mirror so this isn't a problem next set your focus
for a big open landscape I'll focus on the furthest thing I can see but a scene like
this dam I'll focus on the dam because that is the subject as long as I can get the green
square I know it's in Focus if you're not sure about this use the magnify tool switch to manual
focus and then get it to the most in Focus point this may take some time and you might find that
you have to slowly Rock the focus dial back and forth to dial it in but in doing this it
will get you more familiar with your camera and how it works which again is always a good thing
every lens has a sweet spot in the aperture range aperture is measured in F numbers all you need to
know is that the smaller the F number the bigger the hole is in your lens that lets that light into
your camera so with an F 5.6 lens I'll set this down to f8 or f11 if you've got a faster lens like
an F 2.8 or an F 1.4 again close it down with most lenses there does seem to be a sweet spot
between f8 and f11 with your ISO set it to 100 you can go above this but just set it to 100 for
now this will normally give you the image with the least amount of noise noise is a bit like
static on an old TV the more of it there is the fuzzier the picture is there is a lot more to it
than that but I'm just keeping things as simple as possible next set your shutter speed to get a good
exposure with shutter speed if you're shooting Landscapes as long as there's nothing moving
in your frame and you're shooting from a tripod you can go as long as you need but if something
is moving in there is it important or is it part of the subject if so you might have to increase
your shutter speed to free is that movement but if you're shooting in the day there should be enough
light to cope with this if the subject isn't moving turn on the self timer or use a remote
shutter release if you have one again this reduces the amount of time you're touching the camera when
it's taking the photograph giving you a Sharper Image then take the photo once you've taken it
you need to have a look on the back of the camera to make sure it's sharp there's nothing worse than
leaving a location getting home and finding out that all of your images are a little bit blurry
look back at the photo you've just taken zoom into 100 and then look around it to check the sharpness
now before I talk about handheld shooting you do really have to look at the quality of light that
you've got on the scene in front of you if it is a dark and gloomy day it's harder to get a Sharp
Photo you can get all of the other settings I'm talking about right but if you don't have contrast
in the image this takes away from that sharpness check out these two photos one was taken with good
light and lots of contrast and the other was taken on a gloomy day the one with good light does look
sharper and this is a big thing to understand sometimes you'll be doing absolutely everything
right but there'll be things out of your control that will make your photo less sharp however when
you do have good light but you're still getting soft photos that's when these tips will help
for handheld shots the process is a little bit different you won't need a shutter release
cable or the mirror lockup function but if it is blowing a gale it's worth getting out of that wind
if there's a tree or a Lamppost nearby it's good to brace your camera against it to keep it steady
now if you don't have anything to brace yourself against what you want to do is lock your elbows
in so they're close to your ribs and use the viewfinder here is a lot more stable than out
here when you're holding the camera I use my left hand underneath the lens obviously the right hand
on the grip this position is nice and steady with my settings I tend to follow the same rule as I
mentioned earlier I keep my aperture between f8 and f11 I try and get my ISO down as close to
100 as possible and then with my shutter speed I follow the focal length shutter speed rule so
let's say I'm shooting at 50 mil I'll keep my shutter speed to 1 50th of a second or faster
if I'm shooting at say 200 mil it'll be 1 200th of a second or faster and then at 400 1 400th or
faster if you shoot with a crop sensor camera like the Sony a6000 series you will have to change this
a little bit and you'll have to times it by 1.5 so let's say you're shooting at 50 mil you'd have to
set your shutter speed to 175th or faster on the other hand if you're shooting at 200 millimeters
you'd set your shutter speed to 1 300th or faster now if this all sounds too complicated to you
there is another way when the light is dropping and you're having to use slower and slower shutter
speeds now I have covered this in a previous video but basically it's to put the camera in drive mode
take lots of shots and using the law of averages one of those shots will be a lot more stable than
the others in using this technique I can almost throw out that focal length shutter speed rule
but it is good when you're first learning to learn this rule so you know then when you can break it
another thing you can do when it's getting really dark is literally put your camera down you can
either put it on a bench a picnic table or a wall just somewhere where you can literally leave it
you put it in a self-timer mode then you'll be able to use a lot slower shutter speed than you
would be able to just shooting handheld so check this out I've put my camera on the bench I've got
a six stop ND on this and I'm pointing at the middle Tower of pentagaric dam here in Elan
Valley but that Tower in the middle nice crisp and sharp as it does get darker you will have
to change your settings to suit by opening up your aperture slowing down your shutter speed
or raising your ISO but just know that in doing any one of these three things it will take away
a little bit of the sharpness in your images now now for the troubleshooting if your photo isn't
sharp have a look at the whole of the photo zoom in on different parts and see if there's any part
of the photo that is in Focus if this is the case the camera has focused on the wrong thing it might
be worth watching a video on the focusing system to your specific camera so then you'll understand
why you might have focused on that other thing than the subject that you wanted to focus on on
the other hand it might be completely blurry and you might have just missed Focus if this
is the case take another shot and check it if your photo's blurry but it looks like it's been smeared
in One Direction or another this is because that shutter speed has dropped a little bit too low and
the movement of your hands has transferred into the photograph all you have to do in this case is
raise your shutter speed and change the other two settings to suit sometimes with clouds or
where there's a single color the camera struggles to find anything to latch onto if this is the case
just find a horizon or find a contrasty edge get the focusing point on that and the focus
system will work now this is another case where you might have to set focus and turn it to manual
focus but this is where back button focusing works so well sometimes air quality will have
an effect on your sharpness if it's a little bit hazy and you're shooting at the end of a really
long lens like a 400 or a 600 it'll be hard to get that photo sharp just because there's so much
thickness in that air between the end of your lens and the thing that you're trying to photograph
so when you are using a telephoto lens it's much better to be using it on a really bright clear day
now if you follow all of these rules but you notice that the background or the foreground
is a little bit blurry still you might have to focus stack it sounds really hard but it's
really straightforward and in this video I'll show you exactly how to do it I'll see you next time