Sharpness is a function of primarily 4 things:
1) focusing on the "best" element for the shot and using the correct aperture
2) being very still
3) quality of the lens
4) treatment in post
1) focusing on the "best" element for the shot and using the correct aperture
Focusing on the "best" element means knowing exactly what should be in focus and making sure that the camera has that in focus. Shooting a portrait is easy, the eyes should be in focus and the rest should be reasonably in focus too (ignoring artistic license for now). For a shot like the above, it's more difficult. Should only the foreground trees be in focus? Only the background trees? All of the trees? What about the foreground leaves? All of those variations would be acceptable photos of the view from the porch -- just different creative interpretations. The key is planning the depth of focus given the scene in front of you.
The higher the aperture, the deeper the depth of field -- which means the more of the scene will appear acceptably focused. With an aperture of f/22 and a target focus distance of 50 ft and a focal length of 24mm, I would get most everything in that scene in focus unless it was within 5 feet of my lens.
2) being very still
Sounds easy, right? Well, on a nice bright day, it is! But keep in mind that there are times you KNOW you're going to have problems and times when you KNOW your shutter is so fast it won't be. But there are a lot of times in the middle where we just assume movement is not an issue. Trouble is, all movement is seen by the sensor. Faster shutters mean the movement is less visible as movement and instead comes out as blur.
Was the wind blowing the trees? If so, a faster shutter is going to be essential. Go to an Av mode if you have it on something like the A400. It might be a little picture of an action like a running person.
There is a general rule of "1/focal length" that might help if you don't know it. The rule says you need a tripod if your shutter speed is slower than 1 divided by the focal length. If you're shooting at 100mm and are hand-holding the camera, your shutter should be 1/100 sec or faster.
To limit your own movement, keep your elbows close to your body. If you need more steadiness, lean up against a rail, post, sigh, tree or anything. Cameras with IS functions are great for improving steadiness -- but don't forget options like increasing the ISO (do you really need 100 for the shot you're going to take?) to gain a faster shutter and freeze movement.
3) quality of the lens
We work with what we have. More expensive lenses cost more because they're sharper. Usually more expensive lenses have special coatings that limit the amount of light bouncing around inside the lens. Cheaper lenses do not have these coatings and therefore even if everything else is perfect, they'll be less sharp.
However, there are a few things you can do to improve any lens. You should be sure that light doesn't fall directly on the front element. By shading the lens you'll reduce the chance of flare and the amount of light that's bouncing around causing all that fuzziness. You will not be blocking any light from the scene -- just stray light. So your exposure is the same ... it's all benefit to do this.
You can also know the largest aperture your camera will support and make sure you're shooting a stop or two smaller to get maximum sharpness. Most lenses are their sharpest at around that point.
You can keep your front element clean! Even on a P/S, you should make sure your front element is always spotless. Any grime there will definitely cost you in sharpness.
4) treatment in post
You can obviously add a sharper look, but many post treatments rob you of sharpness. Things like blurring the skin may improve the appearance of the skin, but applied too liberally can cause blurring of the eyes, nostrils, lips, teeth and other areas that should not be blurred.
Compression to JPG or other lossy formats will decrease sharpness. Be good about compressing, but be careful not to sacrifice too much for the sake of file size. With a little work, you'll find a method that works well for your images. Know that the more detail in the scene (the more variation), the more you will notice the loss of detail. In other words, if you need to fit a photo to a 25k standard (just as an example), a simple scene will look better compressed to that size than a complex one taken with the exact same equipment and compressed with the exact same software.
Hope that helps. There's plenty more to say, but that's the more important aspects I can think of this early in the day!
View from my porch
Re: View from my porch
