Portrait Photography How To

We all strive for sharp images, but the trick is to achieve them judiciously without a crispy heavy-handed approach. In the video below you’ll learn how to create amazingly sharp images that retain a clean, natural look.

Bach photography is a great source of behind-the-scenes videos that simplify popular photographic tasks. This episode provides seven easy tips for nailing focus every time—both with in-camera techniques and when editing your images. While this video looks at sharpening from the perspective of portrait images, you can use these tricks for all sorts of photography.

The tutorial explains the important difference between sharpness and contrast, and why the right amount of contrast is essential for an image to be perceived as critically sharp. There’s a lot you can do while shooting to maximize the sharpness of an image, beginning with making sure that your camera is absolutely still when tripping the shutter.

At their most basic, in-camera techniques begin with bracing the camera properly, employing a light touch, paying close attention to your shutter speed, and using a tripod with long lenses and when shooting under dim light.

Proper focusing techniques are another key to sharp images, and you’ll see why shooting multiple images in continuous mode often eliminates motion blur and delivers the best results. The tutorial also covers ISO settings and explains the tradeoffs between greater sensitivity, a loss of detail, and higher noise levels.

After discussing these and other shooting techniques, the tutorial moves on to simple post-processing methods that can enhance the sharpness of an image. Bottom line: If you capture photos with skill and edit them properly you won’t have to worry about soft photos again.

There are more helpful tutorials on the Bach Photography YouTube channel, and be sure to check out our earlier story with another pro’s take on how to sharpen and reduce noise in photos using Lightroom.