That's Why Your Photos AREN'T Sharp

if your photos aren't as sharp as you think they should be and you're not a hundred percent sure why this video is for you so we've all been in this scenario before where you're headed home from an incredible trip super excited about a specific photography captured with amazing conditions and an awesome composition and you can't wait to get home to review your catch on a bigger display only to find out that your once prized trophy is nothing more than an out of focus and soft rendition of what could have been an amazing piece of art

and as you begin to run through the potential causes in your mind you you check off each culprit and confirm that you know it couldn't be this and it couldn't be that and you're left wondering if there's something wrong with your camera body or maybe your lens or even both well I'm here to tell you that more than likely that is not the case but the following six things I'm about to cover in this video are probably what led to the demise of your potentially favorite photograph so to jump right into it these are not

ranked in in any order of specific importance actually well I guess the the last one is the one that kind of tripped me up the most or took me the longest to realize that it was causing issues as far as overall sharpness when I first got started with photography now the one of the more most common or more common uh issues with this has to do with the focus mode that you're using so most cameras have an autofocus continuous mode and an autofocus single mode and autofocus continuous is definitely best for moving subjects whether you're

you're photographing racing cars or Wildlife or Sports whenever your subject is moving around but with landscape photography generally that is a static subject so using autofocus single is definitely the best way to go a lot of times if you have an autofocus continuous and let's say you you focus on a I don't know a tree or a waterfall Whatever It Is by the time you hit the shutter button camera's kind of like hunting for or searching for for anything that's moving so if there's a leak that is blowing or something near your waterfall your camera

might focus on that or whatever the case may be but using autofocus single is probably going to be the best route for you every camera manufacturer actually most camera manufacturers call this AFS autofocus single or AFC autofocus continuous I think Canon is the one that calls continuous AI Servo or or something to that effect but most cameras call it AFC or AFS but that is a big culprit now the second common issue is a higher ISO so and I'm not talking about 640 or anything like that or or you know those kind of a lower

ISO levels or what I consider to be lower ISO levels I'm talking like super high 25 000 or maybe you know I don't know 12 000 I'm just throwing out numbers here but higher ISO levels will soften down your photograph but what's interesting is you a lot of times you don't notice this until you really zoom in to the details of a photograph but if you take an image captured it ISO 100 and compare it to an image captured with ISO you know 25 000 or something super high you can definitely see this uh this

take effect and even though the the image is in focus and even though that the focus might be locked that ISO level will definitely soften down the details and create the illusion that your image is not as sharp or maybe it's out of focus so using extremely high ISO levels will definitely um I should say diminish the overall quality or sharpness quality of your photograph now another Super common issue is using a shutter speed that is too slow for hand holding and there's something called the one over focal length rule which is super easy to

remember and it's worth its weight in gold honestly so basically what it means is if you're shooting it say say you have your 70 to 200 a longer focal length lens on say you're zoomed all the way in at 200 millimeters if you're hand holding that zoomed all the way in at 200 millimeters your shutter speed should be at least one two hundredth of a second if you're using a a wide angle zoom lens and maybe you're open opened up all the way at 16 millimeters and you want to hand hold that your shutter shutter

speed should be at least one over sixteenth of a second and even though you probably can't do that anyway but you get where I'm where I'm going at with that so matching your shutter speed with the millimeters that you happen to be zoomed in or if it's a prime lens whatever the case may be is definitely a best practice to get into now if you have Ibis and Body Image stabilization or Optical image stabilization on your lens if you turn those on that will definitely help you to reduce that shutter speed just a little bit

but I think if you just go over that one over if you just apply or Implement that one over focal length rule that will definitely help uh create those images that I don't have that subtle bit of uh I guess motion blur from your your uh from hand holding it now there's a couple different ways you can hand hold a camera that'll definitely create a little bit better Platform One route to go is if you place your Hammer place your hand on your shoulder you can definitely rest your camera on your elbow right here which

will definitely create a more stable of a platform you can also tuck your shoulders or tuck your elbows into your body a little bit that will also create a better platform so there's a couple different techniques as far as just hand holding the camera is concerned but those in conjunction with the specific shutter speed that you need for the focal length that you're using will definitely get you those sharp photos you're looking for now another big issue has to do with using the sharper apertures of your lens and avoiding the fraction so generally speaking the

sharper sharpest aperture ranges of a lens usually start around one or two stops above wide open so if you're using a a lens an F4 lens maybe using F 5.6 or 6.3 is definitely going to start to get you in that sharper range and avoiding really anything above F16 or above F18 once you get into the f20s you're going to have fraction setting in which is definitely going to soften down a lot of those finer details so understanding the lenses that you're using is absolutely critical I remember quite a few years ago I did a

test whenever I would get new lenses I would put this old camera I have on a fence post in my backyard and I would take photographs of this lens and using different apertures and then I would review it in Lightroom at the end just to figure out exactly where the sharpest apertures or sharpest aperture of a particular lens could be because every lens is going to be a little bit different but understanding where your sharpest aperture of a lens is very very important like I said avoiding F18 and above and also avoiding completely wide open

on your lens is definitely going to get you closer to that sharper range of your particular lens that you happen to be using so experimenting at home is very very important now before I get to the the one that really used to impact me when I was first getting started there is another one here and it has to do with using a camera strap on a tripod now when you're hand holding a photo your your camera I think camera straps are great one you can just let it hang on your neck it's a safety thing

but also having kind of pulling the uh the camera away when you have the camera strap around your neck also kind of creates a more stable platform for shooting but when you're on a tripod there's really no reason to have a camera strap on and what happens a lot of times if whenever you're taking your exposure that camera strap could be moving around a little bit and it's over if there's any kind of wind or anything if there's anything that is moving that camera strap and this is really evident when you're using slower shutter speeds

that will introduce camera Shake into your uh you into your your camera and that could definitely soften down your photograph as well so I use these Peak design capture clips for my camera straps on my camera which makes it super super simple to take those straps on and off in a relatively short amount of time so I never ever use a camera strap whenever I am photographing on a tripod now the one that really used to trip me up I I guess it was something that I didn't realize I was doing for a number of

years and it has to do with not using a delayed shutter on my camera so I never use a a remote shutter release just because I don't like to have to carry it around and it's one more thing to to plug into my camera and I'm always trying to avoid that I like to keep things as streamlined as possible so I always use a two or maybe a 10 second delay on my shutter button and the reason that's so important is if you're not using that when you hit that shutter button that's also introducing just

a little bit of camera shake and once again if you're using a fast shutter speed this is probably not going to be an issue but with landscape photography or oftentimes you're shooting in dimmer lighting situations it runs around sunrise or maybe around Sunset and those shutter speeds are a little bit longer and this is where you'll really see this so not having to or I should say using that shutter release or that the shutter delay two seconds or 10 seconds that will enable you to to hit the shutter button and it'll go ahead and let

your camera stabilize for either two or ten seconds or maybe five seconds depending on your camera and then that will give your camera the ability to settle down a little bit and then go ahead and take your exposure to keep that rock solid platform in place there are a couple ways to um you know obviously if you just take your finger and mash it down on the shutter button that's probably going to create the most camera Shake really if you just put your your finger near your shutter button and kind of roll your finger over

that's definitely a way to kind of just softly hit that shutter button but it's kind of a mute point honestly if you're using that delayed shutter release that is a fantastic way to give you the ability to match that shutter button however you choose and give the camera enough time to stabilize and I use a 10 second shutter I drink a cup of an espresso shot a little while ago and Allison are thinking Man Mark you are flying through this so we settle it down just a notch here but I use a 10 second delay

whenever I'm using a a longer focal length because usually a longer focal length one you have a much much more weight hanging on the end of your camera so give your camera a little bit more time to stabilize plus a longer focal lengths those kind of micro Jitters are more evident as well so when I'm not using a longer shutter speed two second delay when I'm not using a longer lens that's a two second delay when I'm using a longer lens I'll use a 10 second delay so those are really the six things that are

more than likely causing your photographs to be not as sharp as you think they should be it's definitely one of the most common things that I hear about on workshops is people capture a photograph and show me on the back of the camera and say you know what why is it not as sharp as I think it should be or why is it not as sharp as yours or or whatever the case may be and more than likely one of those six things that we just ran through is the cause of your photographs to not

be as sharp as you wish they were so I hope that information is helpful if you have any questions about anything covered in this week's video please leave those in the comments section below and I will get back in touch with you as soon as possible and if you enjoyed this week's video if you could give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if you're not subscribed already and as always I really do appreciate you checking out this week's video and I will see you all next week bye