Your Photos Don't Look Sharp? Maybe one of these 3 things is the cause

Your Photos Don't Look Sharp? Maybe one of these 3 things is the cause

If your photos are not sharp maybe these 3 things could be the cause.

We need to admit that attractive and eye-catching photos don't have to be sharp! After all, if the aesthetic treatment of your shot requires areas to be blurred or fuzzy, then sharpness may not be the desired result.

But nine times out of ten, most shots require some part of the image to be clearly defined, so if you find on close inspection that you missed your mark then one of the three reasons outlined here is most likely to blame.

The author says it is 'likely' that there is softness in the image caused by misty or misty climatic conditions, strong backlighting creating a 'glow' around the subject that is not clearly visible or the lens' poor optical performance.

We're not suggesting you use the latter as an excuse for not-sharp shots, but a cheap lens with a lack of resolving power at the end of the zoom range, for example, won't be able to produce super-sharp results, especially at the edges of the frame. So if your photos aren't sharp maybe these 3 things could be the cause.

Camera shake due to movement

If your camera and lens move while the shutter is open to record an image, no matter how precise your focusing is, the resulting image will be blurry.

You will be able to observe the effect of camera shake across the frame, and the amount of strokes or double-shaded edges will be consistent. If parts of the scene are sharp and don't show any problems, camera shake is not the problem, and misfocusing or subject movement will be the cause of the blur.

Camera shake doesn't have to be extreme to capture the effect, but a lens that magnifies the subject – such as a macro or telephoto model – will make the problem stand out more.

Wrong focus when shooting

A common cause of blur in shots is a relatively simple one: focusing on the wrong part of the image.

This is expressed in its clearest form as the subject is soft-edged and fuzzy on a sharply focused background but has more subtle variants, such as when the eyes of a portrait are soft, but the tip of the nose is sharp.

When you see this in your images, it's a simple case of user error, and means you've positioned the active AF target in the wrong part of the scene or subject. This is easy to do, especially with moving subjects such as pets that won't stay still.

Our lack of precision in photographing moving subjects

If your shot shows the main subject being blurred – or parts of the subject that are blurred – this indicates that even though the camera was still while the shutter was open, some subject movement occurred during the exposure.

This is sometimes a desirable effect – for example if you want to record motion blur of water in a landscape – but if you don't want to achieve it, you will be disappointed.

It doesn't matter how stable your camera is, if the shutter is held open long enough for movement in the scene to be recorded then blur will occur. Blur from moving subjects can be mistaken for focusing error, but the difference is that motion always has a direction, so it will be 'striped' instead of soft.

Conclusion

How prominent the effect is depends on how fast the subject is moving, but whether motion blur actually spoils the shot often depends on where it happens.

For example, if motion blur occurs on the wings of a bird or the limbs of an athlete, it can provide shots with extra energy and excitement.

But if that's the case with the subject's head and facial features, the shot will likely be a shot meant for the trash. Always magnify the camera screen to check the image after shooting.

Hopefully you can avoid those three things. Oh yes, you can order the best cameras and lenses at DOSS by clicking the link below and get interesting benefits.