Image Sharpness and Getting Rid of the Shakes

We all get frustrated when we take a shot, only to see that the subject is blurry. Ahh yes, blur.  It's a great thing when they play it in the arena after your teams scores (woohoo!), but it's not usually a good thing for photography.  I say usually, because there are times when blur can be used to great effect.  For the majority of shots, however, you want that subject in focus.  The most pleasing portraits usually have a sharp subject and a smooth, blurry background.  I hate it when I take a potentially great image and I goofed on the focus.  These images can still be passable, but the images wont have that "pop" that exceptional images do.

What contributes to focus?  There are several things that do, and most of them can be improved with technique.  Note that these techniques become even more important as you zoom into a subject.  If you are shooting telephoto over 200mm, every little movement is going to be amplified.

 1. Camera Shake

This is the one most people associate with blurry images.  Even if your subject is static, your image isn't going to be sharp if you are bouncing when you take the shot.  The obvious solution to get rid of shake is to use a tripod or set the camera on something, but I am going to focus on hand-held here.  Even pressing the shutter button can move the camera a bit.  So how can you steady those hands?

• Hold your breath.  Not until you turn purple, but just while you take the shot.  When we breathe, our body naturally moves.  It may seem minor but it does have an effect.

• Use your eyebrow.  Cameras aren't light.  An average DSLR with a lens on it is going to weigh a couple pounds.   If you have nothing to lean on to stabilize your camera, use your face!  It's easy to see the effect of doing this if you have a zoom or telephoto lens.   Zoom all the way in on a subject and look through your viewfinder.  Try to hold the central focus square completely still on your subject.  You'll find that it's virtually impossible.  Now, jam the viewfinder up against your eyebrow and hold it there.  You don't have to push hard enough to leave a mark, just even pressure.  Now try to hold the square over your subject.  You'll find it's much easier!

• Take a wider stance.  When shooting, don't have your feet together, spread them out a bit.  Your body is much more stable when you take a wider stance.  Brace yourself against the ground, you'll find that it's easier to hold still.

I always follow these 3 things when I shoot.  I take a solid stance, brace against my brow, then hold my breath as I press the shutter.  Practice this and your sharpness will noticeably improve.


2. Depth of Field

Choosing the right aperture has a major effect on blur and focus.  The smaller this value, the less margin for error you are going to have when you focus.  If you are shooting at f/8, you have a bit of cushion.  Even without perfect focus most things in the frame are going to be sharp.  At f/4, you have to be much more precise, and once you get in the 2's, your depth of field will become very thin and you need to be perfect.  Provided you have sufficient light and aren't shooting wide open for effect, keeping the aperture above f/5.6 or so will make it easier to keep things in focus.


3. Shutter Speed.

We know that when shooting moving subjects a fast shutter speed is needed to stop action, but what about static subjects?  Well, you still need enough speed to help minimize camera movement.  As a rule of thumb, aim for 1/125 at a minimum.  As your technique improves, you'll find that this value will get smaller.  With solid technique, most shooters can get shake-free images down to 1/60, or even smaller.  This is especially important in low light conditions.  You may be shooting wide open indoors and notice your shutter dropping below 1/60.  Once you get to this point, you are reaching the limits and should consider either using flash or finding something to set the camera on.

4. Autofocus

Every modern camera has autofocus.  This is a good thing, right?  We can just snap away without a care!  Unfortunately, no autofocus system is perfect, and even high-end cameras have problems in lower light conditions.  The best way to make sure your subject is in focus is to do it manually.  What?!?  Focus manually?  But it's so slow!  Yes, focus manually.  I use manual focus on over 90% of my shots, and I rarely get one out of focus.

The reason autofocus can fail sometimes is because they are complex systems.  Many SLR cameras have 7 or 8 focus points in the viewfinder, and another 10+ points that are "hidden" that the camera uses to evaluate focus.  This is usually very accurate, but it can be fooled.  Your camera 'sees' the scene and evaluates it, but it does not truly know what you are trying to achieve with the shot.  It doesn't know if you are focusing on a person's eyes or nose, for example.  For this reason, manual focus will always be the most precise.  While I would never dream of shooting action without autofocus, I almost always shoot static subjects this way.  With live-view cameras, this is even more accurate.  You can zoom in on the LCD screen and make sure everything is sharp before you push that shutter.

I'm going to be honest with you, manual focusing is not an easy thing at first.  Like learning to ride a bike, it takes practice.  After a short while, though, it becomes almost automatic as you get used to your lenses.  The next time you go out shooting, I challenge you to turn off that autofocus and see what you can do.  After you get used to it, you will be pleasantly surprised.

 5. Lens Quality

OK, this one isn't a technique, but it bears mentioning here.  If you are a pixel peeper who is going for the absolute sharpest images, you are going to want to good some good glass.  The lenses that ship with most cameras are quite good, but you are going to be hard pressed to produce razor sharp images with them.   Lets say you have two lenses.  A standard 35mm prime that cost you around $300 and a high-end 35mm prime that set you back $1200.  Put them both on a tripod, manually focus to minimize error, and take some shots.  When you compare them, you are going to find that with all things being equal, the expensive lens is usually going to be sharper.  If the focus is the same, why is this so?

Without going into a lecture on optics, other things contribute to the sharpness of an image besides focus.  If you are shooting higher contrast scenes (like a darker subject against a bright sky), the edges of objects sometimes have a colored halo on them (called chromatic aberration).  This happens because different wavelengths of light have different properties, and it's difficult for a lens to focus all these different colors precisely.  Having color on an edge can make something look 'soft' by reducing the contrast, it's almost like a haze around the object.   More expensive lenses have special coatings or are made up of different elements to minimize this, which produce sharper images. 

In addition, the more expensive lenses usually are precision manufactured in a way that increases microcontrast.   The better the microcontrast a lens has, the more detail and sharpness it usually achieves.  A very high-quality lens will be able to reproduce the difference between two very close shades of gray, whereas a lower quality lens will not.  Lenses from Leica and Zeiss are legendary in this regard, and have incredible contrast.  This comes at a premium cost, however, and the price tags aren't for the feint of heart. 

Both of these things attribute to the sharpness of an image, and quality glass is better at handling both of them.  Great glass isn't always needed, however.  I can, and do, get some fantastic images with lenses that cost me under $150.  With nice even lighting and good conditions, my more affordable lenses look nearly as good as my expensive ones for everyday scenes.  When I want to reproduce great colors in a very detailed scene, however, I reach for the quality glass every time.

A final note on this.  Running out and spending thousands on glass is not going to magically make your images better.   A solid technique is much more important to master first.   As you get better at photography, you will know when you get to the point where your gear is limiting you, and when it's time to consider looking for some better optics or a body with more features.  


So, a quick recap on getting sharper images:

1. Check aperture and shutter speed, make sure they are favorable for the conditions.
2. Make sure the subject is in focus, manual focus being the preferred method.
3. Take a sturdy stance, brace the camera, pause breathing, then shoot.

This will help you produce sharper images.  Happy shooting!

A friend and traveller

A good friend of mine has a neat blog at http://darrenwouldgo.com/.  He travels quite a bit and posts plenty of great pictures.  Check it out!

Flash - not just for indoors!

Jumpin Jack Flash.  Flashdance.  Flash Gordon.  Those '80s were just full of flash.  But don't let the neon shorts and the Wham t-shirts fool you - the '80s knew what was up.  Flash is, quite simply, important.   Out of the major pieces of camera gear, flash is likely the most misunderstood and under utilized tool.  I always find this peculiar, because flash is included on nearly every camera made, from paper throwaways to prosumer DSLRs.  The only bodies that don't have a built in flash are the more expensive professional models.   I guess if you are serious enough to drop $3000+ on a camera, you would be serious enough to have a dedicated flash unit.

It's true that most built-in flashes are woefully underpowered, and some professionals would even go so far to call them 'worthless', but truth be told they are better than nothing.   Once you start using flash, the merits are easily recognizable; and once a budding photographer sees the light *snicker*, a speedlite is often the first thing they purchase.

The main purpose of flash, of course, is to illuminate a dark subject.  It is a necessity for indoor shooting in poor light and for shooting people outdoors at night.  Today's cameras have great ISO capabilities, but even in well-lit areas most pros use flash. 

 

The next time you attend a sporting event at an indoor arena (i.e. hockey, basketball), keep an eye out for the strobes.  The whole arena flashes for the house photographer, triggered by a wireless transmitter on his camera.  You may have noticed them before, but weren't sure if you were seeing things.  You weren't, they are real.  If you didn't notice them before, now you will see *flash* ... *flash* .... *flash* every single time something exciting happens.  Please don't hate me.

photo ICCsports.com

You may be telling yourself "Hey, I know this stuff.  Flash used when it's dark.  Check.  Easy!"  But darkness is only half the story.  The rest of the time, we have daylight, and flash is just as useful when the sun is up.  Can you get away with not using a flash during the daytime?  Absolutely!  To truly take your photography to the next level, however, flash is something that needs to be mastered.

So it's a beautiful afternoon, about 3pm, the sun is shining and the sky is a vivid blue at the beach.  You tell the kids to hold up their popsicles, you focus on them, and you snap off a shot in front of the seascape.  Excitedly, you view the image to see your handiwork and you are met with disappointment.  The sky doesn't look the same!  It's a washed out light blue, it looks nothing like it does in person.   This is because the background isn't exposed correctly.  Your subject (the kids) are darker than the sky, so the camera opens up the aperture and meters for a longer exposure.  This overexposes the sky, and when things get overexposed, they wash out and lose their color.

So, having learned this, the next time you go to the beach you are prepared.  You've learned how to manually expose your camera, so you confidently have the kids stand in front of that vivid blue sky again.  You properly expose the sky, the kids break out in wide grins, and you snap the shot.  You check the image, fully expecting a wonderful shot.  Curses!  The kids faces are too dark to see their expression!  But hey, the sky looks great, right? 

These images, while not perfect, are still better than the dreaded back-lit shot.  C'mon, admit it!  We've all taken this shot.  Everyone lines up with their backs to the sun and what you end up with is a bunch of shadow people in front of what appears to be the white, blistering surface of Venus.  Is this a truly impossible shot to capture?  Not if you have flash, it isn't.  I have my flash on my camera for every single event I shoot.  It's that useful.  Here are some examples to help you see the difference a flash can make.

Shooting an e-session for a wonderful couple a while back, down at the beach:

Now, there are fancy meters you can get to help you with all of this, but generally I just fire off a quick test shot to see what I am dealing with.  

Even though it's later in the day, it's a bit bright still.  Being on the west coast, the sun sets over the ocean so that can present a definite challenge.  The shot isn't horrible, but I can see on my histogram and display that the entire right side of the sky is overexposed.  (If you don't know how to read a histogram, that will be covered in a future installment.)  Even without the histogram, it's easy to see how white the right side is.  I want some color!  So, I set the camera to expose for the background.  Ideally this is done in the manual camera setting.

I understand that when I expose for the sky the couple are going to be really dark, so I might as well do a silhouette shot first.  I expose for the background, underexpose a bit more, then fire away.

Hey, there we go, a nice silhouette.  The sky retained its color and the background is balanced.  The couple is dark, but that is what I was going for.  But what if I want the best of both worlds?  Well, I use flash!


Flashes work by reading the scene then lighting the subject accordingly.  You will notice your camera pre-flashes, then the shutter opens with a main flash.  This pre-flash bounces off the subject and back to the camera.  Your camera reads this data and calculates just how much light it needs to light the subject.  Pretty neat huh?  This actually makes the shot I am trying to do really easy.


First, I  expose for the background using the manual setting.  This is very important, because in other modes the camera will automatically change your aperture and shutter speed, and we don't want that.  Once you get the exposure set, turn on your speedlite or pop-up/turn on your flash.  Now when you focus on your subject, compose, and shoot, your camera will notice how dark the subject is and illuminate it with the flash.  The flash will light your subject because it is close.  The sky, however, is a long ways away, and your flash will have zero effect on it.  This is called fill flash, and your result should look something like this:

The couple is illuminated nicely, and we have preserved the background as it looks in real-life.  All we needed to do was manually expose for the background and use a flash.

This becomes more challenging as it gets darker.  Once it starts to get hard to see your subject a tripod is essential, and if the subject is alive, they have to stand very still for a second or two when you shoot.  But with a little practice and patience, you can produce some exceptional images.

Next time you are shooting out of doors, think about if flash could help you out in a particular situation.  Remember, there's really only two things you have to do.

1. Expose for the background

2. Use the flash to illuminate the subject properly.

Happy shooting!

Huntington Beach Pier, California

Still a decent swell coming in, lots of action in the water.

Surf's up

A solid SSW swell has been peaking in Southern California, and that means the Wedge is going off. Snapped a shot today while I was heading to dinner in the area.




If you aren't familiar with the Wedge, when it's breaking the waves come in at an angle, bounce off the jetty, and then run into other waves. What you are left with are peaks that jack up when they get very close to shore. This wave right here is breaking in waist-deep water, folks.

Composition: The Strong Start

I sometimes get asked "Hey great shot, how did you think of that?" by someone who is looking at one of my images. Usually I have an answer for them - but not always. Most shots are planned, but there are also great shots that come from trial and error, and even some that are just a product of dumb luck. Regardless of how the shot was captured, there was something about it that piqued the interest of the viewer and drew them in. This "something" is almost always good composition.

Many novices have very good ideas. For instance, they are on vacation and see a beautiful landscape or unique feature. They want to capture this image, so they put their significant other in the shot, focus, and fire. In most of these types of images, they center the subject in front of the background. This results in a perfectly acceptable shot in most circumstances. What many novices don't realize is that with a bit of thought beforehand, they can turn an acceptable shot into a great one.

How do you do this? Well, there's no quick and simple way, but that's not a problem. Most of us don't shoot with speed in mind. One of the joys of photography is being able to take your time and produce a wonderful image, and many people find this very relaxing and satisfying. When you see a truly great shot, odds are a lot of things went into that image. It is true that good composition has many elements to it, but there are three things that can greatly improve your pictures that are very easy to do. The best thing is, you can use these with any type of gear - your DSLR, your point and shoot, or even your phone camera. No pro gear required!


1. Observe the rule of thirds

The rule of thirds has been around forever. It's been used by not only photographers, but by painters, videographers, and other types of artists. When viewing a picture, your eyes are naturally drawn to certain parts of the image that give it a pleasing look. By simply putting your subject or focus of your shot in these areas, your pictures will be noticeably nicer to look at. All you need to know is the sweet spots, so here they are:



The lines are 1/3rd and 2/3rds of the way horizontally and vertically across the image area (hence the name of the rule). The circled areas where these lines intersect are the "sweet spots". Imagine a symmetrical tic-tac-toe in your viewfinder when you compose your shots and it will give your images an entirely different feel. Here's an example:


It's a decent shot, wife in front of scenery on vacation. Something nice to show the family when you get home! However, observing the rule of thirds can change this shot into:




This image is much more pleasing to look at. The subject is in a nice position, and much more of the scenic background is visible. One tip when using the rule of thirds is have your subject look "into" the frame, towards the empty space. This gives the shot more depth, and is a great improvement over having someone look into the lens and smile.

2. Check your background!

I've taken many shots over my life that I thought would turn out wonderful, only to be humbled once I saw them on my screen. I've had ducks on peoples heads, telephone poles coming out of uncle Bob's head at picnics, and trees that look like funky hats. All of this could have been avoided if I checked my background.

It only takes a second, but take a look at what's behind your subject. Is there trash on the ground? Is the background really busy? The basic rule is you want a background that doesn't interfere with your subject. Ideally this is a clean, uncluttered scene, but this isn't a necessity. Once you start looking at backgrounds it will become second nature and those trees coming out of heads will be a thing of the past. Here are some examples.



Hey, it's a statue! A nice statue! Surrounded by nice shrubs and a ...... chain link fence. When I took this shot, I didn't remember being in a secure facility. Not only did I get the ugly fence in there, that tree on the left seems cluttered, the viewer doesn't know where to look. Thankfully I took another shot.



Hey, much better. By taking the background into consideration, I realized I needed to get closer and shoot at an angle where the background was uniform and wouldn't take away from my subject. (I also used the rule of thirds, I'm sneaky like that.)


3. Foregrounds are important too

How many times have you taken a shot of something where it just seems to be standing there kind of ho-hum? Those shots of the mountains you took sure don't look like those postcards on the rack. One trick you can use to bring static subjects alive is to add foreground interest. This helps to add depth to the image and frame it in it's proper context. Your eyes see in 3-D, try to add this quality to your pictures. Here are some mountain shots to illustrate.



This is a nice shot of a mountain and some trees. I added a bit of foreground to help out, but it still seems to be lacking a bit. It is a solid shot, but very generic. Let us move back a bit to grab some of the foreground in the shot.



Okay, now this is how I remember it. The mountain is smaller in this shot, but it almost looks bigger and more majestic. Another element the foreground adds is color - it makes the shot more interesting. And hey, the crest of the mountain is about 1/3rd of the way from the top, and the straight line where the meadow meets the trees is about 1/3rd of the way from the bottom. Coincidence? Nope, there's that rule of 1/3rds being helpful again.

Hopefully this helps out with your images and introduces a different way to look at your subject when taking pictures. Until next time, happy shooting!

Blog Relaunch

Greetings

Welcome to the new Depth of Field, a photography blog designed to help aspiring photographers improve their techniques. It really doesn't matter if you have an expensive SLR, a consumer hybrid, or a point and shoot - the basic premises of photography apply to nearly any type of image production. Hopefully I can pass on a few things to make photography more enjoyable for you. Whether you are a hobbyist looking to improve your images, or getting into the photography business and want to improve your bottom line, check back often for tips and tricks to help you along the way.