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Hi, Can you please tell me how to achieve the best sharpness for wide or short angle shorts

thanks

Are you referring to sharpness with respect to depth of field? or focal point? You could post a few pictures for us to have a look at to get a better idea of what you're asking.

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Trevor Harris

Nikon D200
SB-600
YN-560 II
YN RF 603 x 4
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Nikon 50mm f/1.8

Actually i was taking some wide angle shots (Will post pics later..at work now) but when i zoomed in found the image to be more and more blurred. I then increased the f to 16. It was better but dint achieve the sharpness that i needed. I read up something about focusing at infinity and really confused now since im just getting started with all this. So just wanted to know what i need to do achieve very sharp pics for all situations. Thanks

Landscapes need tripods. I use one for every landscape I do even if I am using a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second.


After that, your lens has a sweet spot. Every lens has one. A lot of people claim that it is f/8 for every lens. I have heard from Gordon that it varies with every lens and that it usually is a few f-stops smaller than its wide open aperture.


So for example, if your lens has a small aperture number like f/1.8 then try somewhere close to a f/4 or f/5.

You will have to play around with your lens to figure out what your sweet spot is but that isn't too hard. Just do what you are doing when you get it onto the computer with all the photos that you take using all the aperture stops.

I hope this didn't confuse you.

Gordon may be someone who can explain it better than me.

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Nikon D40
18-55mm kit lens
55-200mm VR
50mm f1.8
quatary mono/tripod

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Ok here's what is confusing since you mentioned the sweet spot. I read in the tutorials on the site that if you want to get more in focus for landscape use f16..20 so on. And also I read some where that at f8 (or the sweet spot of the lens) the picture is very sharp/crisp. So can you clarify this as I basically of course want sharper pics and also more in focus when taking landscapes..

Which camera are you using? The size of the pixels on the sensor in your camera will determine the f-stop at which diffraction will start to counteract stopping down, meaning as you go toward the minimum aperture on your lens (f/22-f/36) pictures get LESS sharp than something at say, f/8.

If you're doing landscapes, you should read up on the "hyperfocal distance" and have a look at this: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

You can figure out, for your camera and lens, what aperture and focus distance will give you "optimal sharpness" for your shots. Then its a matter of making sure you're stabilized and have a quick enough shutter speed that you don't get any unwanted motion Hope that helps.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII | Canon EOS 7D | Canon Digital Rebel XSi | EF 35mm f/1.4L | EF 50mm f/1.8 II | EF 85mm f/1.8 | EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM | EF 135mm f/2L | EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS | 580EX II | LumoPro LP-120

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My gut is telling me that you're getting camera shake. Try shooting at f/8 (good starting point) and use a tripod with a self timer. That should get you sharp pics - perhaps not the sharpest achievable, but sharp nonetheless.

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Trevor Harris

Nikon D200
SB-600
YN-560 II
YN RF 603 x 4
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Nikon 50mm f/1.8

Suggest you have a look at this quick tutorial.

http://www.dslrtips.com/workshops/How_t ... ield.shtml

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

What lens are you using? Generally, kit lenses or slower zooms (f/3.5-5.6), have a sweet spot of around f/8 or f/11. Your DoF (depth of field) won't be as extreme as if you were to use f/16 or f/22, but the in focus areas will be sharper. Wide open, lenses get chromatic aberrations or "colour fringing" and aren't too sharp, and closed to their smallest aperture such as f/22 they suffer from diffraction, when the light entering the lens gets bent in odd ways, and you get a softer image. On lenses with a larger maximum aperture, such as an f/1.4 or f/1.8 lens, your sweet spot will be something like f/4 or f/5.6, but again, if you stop down too much you'll have to deal with diffraction.

I shoot most landscaped at f/11 on my 16-85 f/3.5-5.6 zoom, it's sharp and gives me the DoF that I need. With my 35mm f/1.8 lens, unless I'm doing astrophotography where an open aperture is needed, I shoot mostly at f/5.6, the lens' sweet spot.

If you need longer exposures, as opposed to stopping down to f/22 I'd recommend purchasing a good quality and sharp neutral density filter. These will run anywhere from $50 to $150 depending on which filter you buy and what lens you use it for. These filters let you use apertures like f/5.6 where your lens will remain sharp, but they'll cut down the amount of light reaching the lens, and you'll be able to shoot at slower shutter speeds to get the same exposure. They're great for blurring water, or shooting moving objects that you want to blur in broad daylight.

I generally shoot landscapes by stopping my lens down from f/5.6 to f/11, placing the camera on a tri-pod and making it level and using my remote to lock the shutter up and take the exposure. Turning VR/IS off will also help most of the time. This will guarantee no motion blur at all.

Care to post some sample photos of your problem? That may help.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

Thanks for your comments guys.. Was away from the forum for awhile...will try to post the pics.