Q & A on Image Sharpness ===================== One of the most common questions I get is on image sharpness. There are multiple factors on which image sharpness depends on: 1. Lens being used 2. Camera also 3. Exposure (shutter speed, aperture and ISO combination) depending on the metering mode. 4. Shooting Technique (handheld or tripod etc) 5. Camera to Subject distance 6. Focusing One way to find out if your image is sharp is to view the image at 100% in photoshop. As you can see, the left side image is pretty sharp when viewed at 100%. But I cannot say the same to the right side image. Its very soft with not much details visible. But the right side image - when you view it as a small thumbnail image, it looks pretty sharp (image inset). So, dont get carried away by that. 1. MTF charts helps you understand how sharp a lens is. Though its pretty technical stuff, its easy to read and understand the MTF chart. 2. The camera resolution / sensor quality also matters, but not as much as lens. 3 & 4. You need to watch out for the shutter speed and aperture. This is one of the key factors combined with shooting technique where the image may turn out to be soft. The right side image is soft mainly because of this. The shutter speed was 1/40 and was shooting with 800mm+1.4x and there was movement in the safari jeep when I shot it. 5. If the subject is very close to the camera, then chances are the image may turn out to be sharp depending on all the above factors. If the subject is very far, then when you zoom in 100%, the image may not be very sharp depending on how well you achieved auto / manual focus (6th point) 6. If your camera has back / front focus, that also will lead to soft images. Doing a focus test on your lens / camera is important to achieving sharper images. More fun learning in the evening as well. Watch out for that. Questions ? Shoot.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 06:51:16 +0000
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