How to Take Super Sharp Photos

what's up guys welcome back to the channel my name is Sean Dalton I'm a travel and lifestyle photographer and I teach people like you how to become the best photographer that you can be so today we're gonna talk about how you can get super sharp tack sharp photos with every photo that you take I remember when I first started out as a photographer people were telling me to shoot in manual mode and I thought that they were also talking about manual focus and I was super confused by that and I was confused a little settings and buh-buh-buh-buh-buh stop calm down this stuff actually doesn't need to be complicated it's actually really really simple it's so simple in fact after you watch this video I promise you you will never ever take a blurry photo again before we jump into the content guys I just want to remind you I'm giving away a free orange and teal preset pack full pack six presets link is in the description you guys can check that out download those presets and use them on your your mobile phone on your desktop laptop tablet wherever those are for you guys to enjoy but now let's jump into the content starting off with point number one and that is to always use autofocus in fact manual focus throw it out the window 99% of the time you're not going to be using manual as we're doesn't sound cameras see things in a way that we don't and they can see things almost better than us they can see contrast better they can see lines better and cameras detect all those lines and contrast and everything going on in the image and they will choose your focus in a way that's super super effective and often very very accurate only in certain situations are we ever going to be using manual mode and that might be if you're shooting in difficult lighting environments say for example there's a subject that's backlit and it's really the cameras just having a really hard time finding that subject you might use manual focus in that situation if you're shooting Astro photography you're going to want to use manual focus because it's hard to get those stars in focus and then maybe if you're shooting like macro photography or for me or not used to shoot coffee and food I would use manual focus because when you get so close to a subject you need to make sure it's exactly right on point that's when you would use manual focus but any other situation you're not going to be using manual focus because it just isn't practical now in terms of auto focus modes most of the time you guys can just use single-shot auto focus or one shot auto focus it's the same thing depend and manufacturer that's gonna be the best and that's basically where you have press the shutter button it beeps twice and then it locks your focus and then you can move the camera reframe and take your shot that's the easiest focus mode to use and that's the one that I'm using a lot I'm if you're shooting moving subjects then you might want to use continuous autofocus that's also are called continuous servo auto focus depending on your camera manufacturer and that auto focus mode is essentially where the camera just keeps changing focus depending on what's happening in the frame so it's not gonna lock the focus it's just gonna keep adjusting it so right now I'm using continuous AF and if I hold my hand up in front of the frame it's gonna focus on my hand and then if I move away it's gonna focus on the background my focus point is in the middle it's right on me so it's just going to focus on whatever is in this area and that leads me on to point number 2 which is slam that like button and subscribe to my youtube channel just kidding guys that's not point number two but if you're new here please consider doing that it really helps out the channel and I promise you're gonna be getting plenty of content that's going to help you as a photographer so the real point number two is to use single point autofocus so when we're shooting we need to be telling our cameras exactly where we want it to focus and if we use a small single point then that camera will know exactly where we're focusing if we're using one of those modes like why the autofocus or zone auto focus it's just gonna kind of look throughout the whole frame and find something to focus on but we don't want that oftentimes the cameras gonna focus on something that we just don't really want to be in focus but if we use a single point we can be very direct with where we want our camera to focus so most cameras will allow you to move your autofocus point it allow you to move from side to side top to bottom so you can position your subject in one part of the frame and then just move the focus point over to focus on them personally I like to keep my focus point in the middle at all times and instead of moving my focus point to focus on them what I'll do is I'll focus on them in the middle of my frame and then I'll reframe so once the camera locks focus I'll reframe and then take my shot if you'd rather just move your focus point you can do that so you set your composition and then you move your focus point wherever on the screen you want your camera to focus however I just find that that really slows me down I don't like to move my focus point around and make sure it's in the right place because then if I want to recompose my focus points in the wrong spot I just think it slows me down too much and none of these you want to point number three which is back button autofocus so most of us when we take pictures we have to press the shutter button the camera will focus while here to beeps and then when we fully press the shutter button the camera will take the picture back button autofocus is when we separate the two so we just use a button on the back of the camera to select focus and the shutter button remains only for taking pictures there's no focusing involved with the shutter button so when I want to focus on something I use my thumb I find my subject I focus with my thumb using back button autofocus and then I take the picture with the shutter button why do I do this well I do this because what I'm shooting with shutter autofocus enabled so half press the shutter button and the camera focus every time I want to take a picture I have to refocus and it's so annoying especially when you're shooting like portraits or something like that you have to keep refocusing every single time and I find that super super annoying with back button autofocus I can get my focus and then as long as I'm not adjusting my depth between me and the subject the focus plane isn't going to change nothing is going to go out of focus so the model can move around as long as they're on the same plane and I can just keep snapping away photos and changing the composition like I said as long as I'm not adjusting the depth I don't have to refocus and when you're using auto focus with your shutter button your refocusing on every shot and I just think that's impractical moving on to point number four and that is your shutter speed is too slow if you're using too slow of a shutter speed your shots are gonna be blurry and that's always gonna be the case this is a super basic principle and this might be already something that you know but it's a mistake that I even make sometimes sometimes I'm shooting with the lens and I'm not paying attention to my camera settings and my shutter speed dips a little bit too low and then I go home to look at the photos and they're blurry and it happens more often than I'd like to admit the reason why your photos are gonna be blurry if your shutter speed gets too low is because our hands shake you know we aren't perfect tripods our hands are going to move around and that's going to cause our images to be blurry if our shutter speed is too slow now in terms of the exact shutter speed that you should use to make sure that you're not getting glorious photos from your hand shaking that's going to depend on what focal length you're shooting at a good rule of thumb is to use the reciprocal of whatever focal length is shooting us if you're shooting with a 50 millimeter lens you shouldn't go below one fiftieth of a second for your shutter speed if you're shooting with a 35 millimeter lens that'll be 135th of a second and then if you're shooting with a hundred millimeter lens you shouldn't go below 1/100 of a second so if you don't want to remember that a good rule of thumb is just to not go below one sixtieth of a second and then if you're shooting with the longer lens like a telephoto lens just try not to go below 1/100 of a second and you're probably going to be fine most of the time just know that we're shooting at longer focal lengths you should use a faster shutter speed because all of those micro jitters are really exemplified the further you are zoomed in I found this out the hard way when I first got my new 70-200 of shooting at 200 millimetres and I was using like one fiftieth of a second of a shutter speed all my photos came out blurry I will start disappointed but I learned you know I learned the hard way so just make sure your try to speed isn't too slow and your images are gonna be nice and crispy point number five is aperture apertures super super important for focus because aperture is what's going to dictate your depth of field if you're shooting out like f 1.2 or f 1.4 your depth of field is so incredibly shallow you need to make sure that your focus point is right on target if your focus point is a little bit off target it can completely change the focus of your photo also if you're shooting really close to something say you're shooting macro photography or you're shooting food and you're getting pretty close to your subject and you're shooting at F 1.4 F 1.2 you're dip the field is going to be so shallow that most of the frame is going to be out of focus and it's actually not practical to use a super wide aperture in that situation so what can you do you can stop down to maybe F 2.8 maybe f/4 to make sure that you have more uniform focus throughout the frame aperture and depth of field is really going to have a big impact on the focus of your images so just play close attention to the aperture that you're shooting at and ensure that it's the right aperture for capturing the focus that you want within your frame and that leads me to point number six which is know exactly where you want to focus be deliberate with your focus point one of the biggest mistakes I see with newer photographers is they go out they start shooting but they're not choosing their focus point and they're just letting the camera focus on whatever they're just pointing their camera at something focus and taking a picture you should be very specific and deliberate with where you want your focus to be within your frame for example if you're shooting a portrait you want to make sure you're focusing in the eye you're focusing on the nose that's not going to look great especially if you're shooting with an aperture of like F 1.2 their eyes are gonna be out of focus if you're shooting a portrait F 1.2 and you're focusing on their nose and that's because the depth of field is going to be so incredibly shallow at Apple points you if you're shooting food be deliberate with which part of the food you want to be in focus so if you're shooting a piece of cake which part of the cake do you want to be in focus if you're shooting a landscape do you want the foreground to be in focus do you want the background to be in focus so really be deliberate with where you're focusing within each image that's really gonna play a big role and making sure that your images are sharp and that they look good and lastly you should know the minimum focusing distance of your lens not all lenses are able to get really close to the subject and still focus usually there's a gap maybe it's six inches maybe it's 12 inches maybe it's 2 feet and your camera is just not going to focus on anything within that area so you have to make sure you're standing a certain distance away from something before you can actually focus on it some lenses have really amazing minimum focusing distances and you can get really close to things and the lens will still focus on those things macro lenses often have really awesome minimum focusing distance but most other lenses don't so just make sure you're not getting too close to the subject because nothing is going to be in focus if that's the case but that's it guys these are the tips I have for you to making sure that you get super sharp photos and every one of the images that you take and I promise if you guys follow these tips you're gonna get sharp photos this is how I make sure that all my photos are sharp and as long as I'm not making stupid decisions with shutter speed like I told you with the 70-200 my images are going to be sharp every single time anyways guys I really hope you enjoyed this content if you enjoyed it please give it a thumbs up if you're new here please consider subscribing we would love to have you here and also don't forget to go to my website and download my free orange and teal preset pack I think you guys will really like that and I can't wait to hear what you guys think about it but that's it from me guys thanks again for watching I will see you very very soon and I hope you have an absolutely awesome day

Channel: Sean Dalton

Views: 326,063

Keywords: how to take sharp photos, tack sharp photos, how to capture sharp photos, how to get sharp photos, how to make my photos sharp, photography tips for beginners, photography tips and tricks, how to get super sharp photos, how to stop taking blurry images, how to use your camera, photography tips, how to get sharp images, how to take sharp images, photography tutorial, camera tutorial, camera settings tutorial, camera settings for sharp photos, sean dalton, photography teacher

Id: QwBZHNC9Rz4

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020