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Tips for getting really sharp photographs

When I first purchased my Canon SLR camera one thing that really annoyed me at first was that no photograph seemed to be as sharp as I knew they should be. The reasons for this of course was my digital camera skills and not the camera. Many factors including focus, camera shake, subject movement, aperture, ISO settings and lens quality help to determine how sharp your photo's will be.

Listed below are a few tips I've since learned for taking sharp photographs.

1. Focus correctly for sharp images. If you have your digital SLR camera set on auto mode don't presume it will focus correctly. With Canon SLR camera's you can press the shutter button half way in to focus. If you look through the eye piece you can see what the camera is focusing on by the blinking red AF point (red dot). I find if you release it and press it down half way again, it will focus on a different part of the subject. I continue to do this until it's focussing on what I want. Another idea is to set your camera to manual focus mode (check manual).

2. Holding your camera steady helps take sharp photos. If you have a bad case of the shakes then I recommend buying a tripod to stop camera shake. Also keeping the camera close to your body or resting it on a fence or rock etc can help with blurred photographs due to camera shake.

3. Your cameras shutter speed will play a big part in how sharp your image is. The quicker your shutter speed the less likelihood of it being blurred due to camera shake or from the subject moving. Choosing a shutter speed faster than the focal length of the lens is effective if your holding the camera. For example, if your shooting with a focal length of 75 mm then make sure your shutter speed is 1/80th of a second or faster. If your focal length is 100mm then shoot with a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second or faster and so forth.

4. Aperture settings will determine how much of your photograph is sharp and how much is blurred. For example, setting your aperture to f/18 will ensure both near and far objects are in focus. Whereas setting it to f/4 will make the background objects out of focus and seem blurred.

5. Set your ISO as low as possible for sharp images. The higher your camera's ISO setting, the more noise in the photograph, the less sharp it is. Noise refers to parts of the photo that looks grainy. I recommend starting at ISO 200 and going down (or up) from there. If at 250 it looks fine then try 100. Or on the other hand if it's too dark, then go up to 400. On a perfectly sunny day outside you should be able to take photographs with an ISO of 100 with no problems at all.

6. Using a good lens with image stabalisation will increase the number of sharp photographs you take. A few months back I bought a Canon EF 90-300mm USM telephoto lens. At only $250 it was very cheap for a telephoto lens. However it doesn't come with an image stabilizer and I find it hard to take sharp images with it. Now looking back, I would have been better off paying the extra for a lens with image stabalizer.

7. This one might sound obvious but I'll include it anyway. Make sure your equipment is clean. By equipment I am referring to both the lens and the camera sensor. An earlier post talked about how to clean dust off your camera sensor. To keep a lens clean, it's just a matter of wiping it now and then with a digital camera cleaning cloth. I like using Spudz cleaning cloths myself that I picked up for only a few dollars.

UPDATE: Our tutorials for photographers are now being continued over at SLR Photography Guide.