7 Tips For Taking Razor Sharp Photographs

You should always strive for the sharpest photographs possible. You can always soften or add blur to your photographs later in the digital darkroom. It is almost impossible to recover sharpness if your original images are not sharp to start with.

Here are seven tips that will help you take sharper photographs every time:

1. Always use a tripod when possible
I know tripods are heavy, they take a long time to setup, and they can be expensive, but it’s nearly impossible to get sharp photographs without one when shooting in lower lighting situations. Any photograph with a deeper depth of field requires an f stop of f/11 to f/22. These f stops require longer exposure times. A good rule of thumb is always use a tripod when your shutter speed is equal or longer than the focal length of the lens you are using.

2. Enable your mirror lockupNormally, the mirror in your Digital SLR will flip up immediately before the shutter opens, and this can cause your camera to vibrate a little. By locking your mirror up prior to your exposure you will avoid any camera shake or vibration.

Enabling mirror-lockup will add a significant pause between the time the mirror goes up and the shutter opens, letting any vibration die down before the photo is actually taken. Look in your camera’s manual to find out how to enable this feature.

3. Use a remote shutter release to avoid camera shake
The less you touch your camera, the less it will shake. When you press the shutter button on your camera to take a photo, there’s a good chance you’ll shake the camera a little.To prevent this, use a remote control to release the shutter, or you can just use the timer on your camera. I recommend a bulb type, air release, or an electronic remote shutter release. Cable style releases will work if you press them gently.

4. Use the fastest shutter speed possibleWhen you increase your shutter speed, you leave the shutter open for a shorter length of time, so there’s less time available for the camera to shake. I usually like to underexpose just a little to get good saturation and to ensure I capture all the highlights.

5. Use manual focus whenever possibleAutofocus is great for moving subjects or when you need to take photos quickly, but when your subject is stationary, for example a landscape or pictorial you should always try to use manual focus. This ensures you’re focusing on the right subject, at the proper distance.

For macro photography, manual focus is the only way to get sharp photos. Autofocus just doesn’t work very well at closer distances.

6. Shoot a lot of photographs
When shooting wildlife or any kind of fast moving subject, the best way to get a super sharp photo is to take as many photographs as possible.

Digital exposures are free. There are no film costs involved. So take advantage of digital film, and shoot as many exposures as necessary to get the results you are looking for.

7. Use the sweet spot of your lens
Most lenses are sharpest in their middle ranges. For example, if your 28 to 100 mm zoom lens has a speed of f/4.5, then you’ll probably get the sharpest results from using f/8 to f/11 and zoomed at 55 to 65 mm. Very rarely are lenses as sharp on their fringe or outer area. Also, a fixed focal length lens will always sharper than any zoom lens.

Get more tips and a FREE sample of "Mastering Digital Photography Made Easy" and you'll be using that digital camera like a pro in no time.

How To Avoid AutofocusProblems With Your Digital Camera:

Autofocus can be a lifesaver at times, especially when things are happening very quickly. But sometimes autofocus can be very annoying. For some shots it will focus on the right part of your subject, but then the very next shot it may choose to focus on everything but what you would like it to. It may focus on something far and away into the background or a subject very close to you like a persons shoulder who is standing in a profile pose, causing their head to be out of focus. This often happens at weddings, when a bride is holding her bouquet in front of her, and you end up with her facial features blurry and out of focus but the bouquet looks great.
Sure, you could avoid this problem by always using manual focus, and you should use manual focus whenever possible but, there are other simple solutions to the problem.

Now there are two ways to lock your focus and prevent your camera from autofocusing on the wrong part of your subject:

1. Set your autofocus point to the center spot, then point this spot at your subject or at a specific spot in your scene if you are taking a pictorial photograph. Then press your shutter button half-way down. Do not press it completely down yet. Then, while still holding your shutter button half-way, recompose your shot and press the button completely down, and take your photograph.

2. A second method which is good for pictorial photographs is to autofocus as you normally do, but once your camera focuses on the right spot, just switch off autofocus on your lens, changing to manual focus. Your lens will keep the current focus when you do this. Now you can take your photograph and your focusing point will stay fixed.

Having your autofocus chase, or move back and forth, can be very annoying. This can cause you to become frustrated and miss some potentially great shots. But if your eyesight is less than perfect, like mine, these tricks will improve your success rate once you work with them a little.

Stay tuned for more quick tips,
Till next time stay focused, Terry

New HDR Images From Graffiti Weekend

Hey, I thought....you might enjoy a look at a couple of the cool cars that were showing on Graffiti weekend in Roseburg last weekend. I played arround with HDR and did a couple of quickies.

As I have more time I will be posting some more HDR images and a look at some of the great cars that were there.

I'll be busting out to Sturgis on our annual bike trip for a couple of weeks real soon. I will be posting some shots of some of the crazy's we always encounter there. It's going to be a great trip as always. We will be covering about 5500 to 6000 miles in 12 to 14 days. That's going to be 10 western states with a bunch of photo oportunities. I'm already excited about shooting some HDR and having a lot of fun.

Til next time, stay focused...Terry

How To Photograph Sihlouettes

How to Photograph Silhouettes. Normally we talk about the importance of using a flash when taking shots into the sun to give sufficient light to add features to your subject but there are also times when making your subject featureless apart from their outline against a bright background can be most effective - or when the sun is setting and you want your forground images to be sihlouetted.

Silhouettes are a wonderful way to convey drama, mystery, emotion and mood to the viewers of your photos and often stand out in an album because of the combination of their simplicity but also the story that they convey. I love them because they don’t give the viewer of a clear picture of everything but leave part of the image up to their imagination to wonder about.

The basic strategy you’ll need to employ in taking silhouette shots is to place your subject (the shape you want to be blacked out) in front of some source of light and to force your camera to set its exposure based upon the brightest part of your picture (the background) and not the subject of your image.

In doing this your subject will be under exposed (and very dark, if not black).
There are a lot of very technical descriptions going around on how to take great silhouette shots that you might want to look up but let me attempt to run through some basic steps that should get you the results you’re after. In essence what we’re trying to do is make your camera think that it’s the bright parts of the picture you are most interested in.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Choose a Strong Subject
Almost any object can be made into a silhouette, however some are better than others. Choose something with a strong and recognizable shape that will be interesting enough in its two dimensional form to hold the interest of those viewing your image. Silhouettes can’t draw on the colors, textures and tones of subjects to make them appealing - so the shape needs to be distinct.

2. Turn off your Flash
If you have your camera in automatic mode your camera will probably want to use its flash which will ruin the silhouette. Basically you want as little light on the front of your subject as possible - so the flash has to go (basic - but I’ve seen a few attempted silhouette shots with the flash firing).

3. Get Your Light Right
When it comes to lighting your subject you’ll need to throw out a lot of what you’ve learned about normal photography and think a little backwards. Instead of lighting the front of your subject, in silhouettes you need to ensure that there is more light shining from the background than the foreground of your shot - or to put it another way - you want to light the back of your subject rather than the front. The perfect light for this is placing your subject in front of a sunset or sunrise - but really any bright light will be able to do the trick.

4. Frame your image
Frame your shot so you are shooting with your subject in front of a nice plain, but bright background. Usually the best backgrounds will be a bright cloudless sky with the sun setting. You want to position the brightest light source behind your subject (either so that they hide it or so that its in the background somewhere).

5. Make silhouetted shapes distinct and uncluttered
If there is more than one shape or object in the image that you’re attempting to silhouette, try to keep them separated. ie if you are silhouetting a tree and a person don’t have the person stand in front of the tree or even leaning on it as it will merge them into one shape and as a result your viewers could be confused about what the shape is.

Also when framing you’ll probably want to photograph silhouetted people as profiles rather than looking straight on. This means that more of their features (nose, mouth, eyes) are outlined and they are more likely to be recognized.

6. In Auto Mode
Most modern digital cameras have automatic metering which are pretty good at sensing how to expose a photograph so that everything is well lit. The problem with this is that most cameras are so smart that they will light up your subject instead of underexposing it to get a silhouette so you need to trick it. Most cameras work out the exposure levels in auto mode when you push your shutter half way down (at the same time that they focus). So point your camera at the brightest part of your picture and then press the shutter halfway down (don’t let go). Then move your camera back to frame your shot with the subject where you want it and then finish taking the shot. With most digital cameras this will result in a silhouetted subject. In effect what you’re doing is tricking your camera into thinking that the bright part of the image is the mid tone of it so that anything darker than it will be exposed as a nice dark shadow.

Some digital cameras also have ’spot’ or ‘centered’ metering modes that you can switch on which helps with the above technique as they will set the metering on the central spot of your frame rather than multiple spots. This means you can accurately tell your camera exactly which bit of the bright background you want it to set the exposure on.

7. Manual Mode
If this technique doesn’t work and your camera has controls to allow manual exposure or exposure compensation you might like to try some of your own settings. The beauty of digital is that you can experiment to your hearts content until you get the result you’re after.
A simple way to start using manual mode is to look at the shutter speed and aperture that it suggests in automatic mode and to start from there. If in auto mode your subject is too light (ie you need to make it darker) stop down the shutter speed a stop or two and see what impact that has. Use the ‘bracketing’ technique that I described in my previous post on photographing sunsets to get a variety of shots at slightly different exposures.

8. Focusing
In most cases you’ll want the subject which is silhouetted to be the thing that is in focus most crisply. This can mean that the process described in point 4 can be a little tricky as pushing your shutter half way down to get the metering right also means that you’ll focus on that spot in the background. To get around this you can use two strategies. Firstly if your camera has manual focusing you might want to try that. Pre focus your shot before you meter your shot.

The other strategy is to use Aperture to maximize your depth of field (the amount of your image that is in focus). Set a small aperture (ie a larger number) to increase the depth of field - this means you’re more likely to have a sharper foreground and background in your shots.

One last tip on Silhouettes - while a total silhouette with a nice crisp and black subject can be a powerful shot, also consider the partial silhouette where some detail of your subject is left. Sometimes a touch of light on them makes them slightly more three dimensional and ‘real’. This is the beauty of bracketing your shots as it will leave you with total and partial silhouettes to choose form.

Til next time..stay focused, Terry

How To Take Stunning Sunrises And Sunsets

Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunrises and Sunsets

Think Ahead - While sometimes wonderful sunrise and sunset shots can be taken spontaneously without any forethought it’s often the case that the best ones come out of planning. Scope out places that might be good for sunsets in the day or two before your shoot. Look for interesting places where you might not only be able to see the sun track all the way down but where there will be opportunities for shots that include foreground elements and silhouettes. Sunsets only take half an hour or so so you want to think about these elements before they start or you might miss the shots you’re after.

Find out when the sun will set or rise and get there at least half an hour before hand as it’s often in the lead up to and the time after the sun appears or disappears that the real magic happens.
Keep an eye on the weather also. There are a variety of different types of sunsets that produce a range of different types of lights and patterns in the sky. Don’t just go for clear days for these shots - while they can produce some wonderful colors it’s usually the times where there is cloud around that the real action happens! Also be aware of days when there is dust or smoke in the air as they can produce amazing results also.

Consider ahead of time what equipment you might need. Include a tripod, lenses that will give you a range of focal lengths, extra batteries etc.

Composition Techniques

Shoot at a variety of focal lengths - wide angle can create sweeping landscape shots but if you want the sun itself to be a feature of the shot you’ll want to be able to zoom right in.
Keep in mind that the sun is just half a degree across so when you shoot with a wide lens it will only be taking up a reasonably small part of the photo. If you want it to be a feature of your shot you’ll need to zoom in on it using anything from a 200mm lens upwards. This will increase your need for a tripod!

Also be aware that when you look at the sun at the best of times it can be dangerous but when you look through a magnifying lens it can be quite dangerous is the sun is still too high in the sky.
Silhouettes as focal points

As with all photos, sunsets need a point of interest and one of the best ways to add one to a picture is to try to incorporate some sort of Silhouette into the shot. This could be something large like a mountain range, something that is part of the environment like a palm tree or a pier or could even be a person.

The great things about Silhouettes is that they add mood and context to a sunset or sunrise shot. I’ll write more on silhouettes in a future article.

Rule of thirds - Remember the rule of thirds in your photographing of sunrises and sunsets. While you can always break the rule it’s often a good idea to place elements like the horizon, sun, silhouettes etc off centre.

Exposure Techniques
Shoot at a variety of exposures - if you let your camera decide what shutter length to shoot at you’re likely to get a shot that doesn’t really capture the beauty of the light. Quite often the shot will be under exposed because the sky is still reasonably light.

Instead of relying upon the camera’s auto mode a sunset is an ideal time to switch your camera into aperture or shutter priority mode and to take a variety of shots at different exposures.
The great thing about sunsets and sunrises is that there is no one ‘right’ exposure and that you can get stunning results using a variety of them. Also keep in mind that different exposures (aperture and shutter speeds) will produce a variety of different results so it’s worth taking more than just a few shots - the key is to experiment.

I usually use aperture priority mode and use a tripod . Working with smaller apertures gives me a deeper depth of field but also requires a lengthy exposure time.

Bracketing - Another technique to try to get the right exposure is ‘bracketing’ where you look at what the camera suggests you take the picture at and then take a few shots at both under and over that mark. ie if your camera says to shoot at 1/60th of a second at f/8 you would shoot off a shot at 1/60 at f/5.6 and then at f/11. In doing so you end up with a series of shots at different exposures which will all give you slightly different results and colors. Most DSLR’s and some point and shoot digital cameras have a built in bracketing feature so you don’t need to do this manually - learn how to use it!

Auto Exposure Lock - Another exposure trick, if you don’t have a bracketing mode or don’t feel confident in using it is if your camera has ‘auto exposure lock’ which allows you to point your camera at a darker place and lock in exposure for that spot (ie you could point it at the ground in front of you and lock in that exposure) and then re-frame the picture looking at the sunset. This will mean you get a more over exposed shot.

Take camera out of Auto White balance mode - when you set your camera to ‘Auto’ in it’s white balance mode you run the risk of losing some of the warm golden tones of a sunrise or sunset. Instead try shooting in ‘cloudy’ or ’shade’ which are usually used in cooler lights and tell your camera to warm things up a little. Alternatively - if you’re shooting a sunrise and DO want a cooler moody shot you can experiment with other white balance settings.

Other Sunset and Sunrise Tips
Tripod - If you’re shooting at longer shutters speeds and with longer focal lengths then a tripod or some other way of ensuring your camera is completely still is essential.

Manual Focus - sometimes when shooting in extreme lighting conditions some cameras can have trouble focusing. If this is the case for your camera consider switching to manual focus to ensure you get nice crisp shots.

Look around you - The wonderful thing about sunsets is that they not only create wonderful colors in the sky in front of you but they also can cast a beautiful golden light that is wonderful for other types of photography. As the sunset progresses keep an eye on other opportunities for shots around you (not just in front of you). You might find a great opportunity for a portrait, landscape shot, macro shot etc behind you in the golden light.

Keep Shooting - A sunset or sunrise constantly changes over time and can produce great colors well after the sun goes down or appears so keep shooting at different exposures and focal lengths as I’ve mentioned above until you’re sure it’s all over.

Stay tuned for our next installment, Shooting Sihlouettes

Free Sample Lessons From Mastering Digital Photography

Hi everyone, I'd like to announce the release of my new digital photography course "Mastering Digital Photography Made Easy". You can get a quick look inside a view a few sample chapters by going to How To Shoot Digital Photos. There is a link on the site where you can sign up for some free photo tips and download the sample PDF.

I'll be posting here regularly with tips and information on all aspects of the photography industry. I invite you to make comments and submit any articles or photographs you wish. I'd like to see this blog be somewhat of an open forum, so I invite your input. Just post a comment and I'll review it and publish it as quickly as humanly possible.

Check back regularly and please subscribe. We should all have a good time here.
Till next time... Good Health, Terry