Good advice. You could set up your back focus button as your shutter release and use the shutter release button as your focus button. This helps gets rid of the shake too.
🤣🤣🤣Loved that intro!!! My photos are not sharp because I got tired of comparing 40 photos to find the sharpest. Any software you could recommend that would do that for me?
Nice try, but far away from her heartbeat. Not authentic at all. Snoop would have no comment on it. For good reasons, Thank god Tony is tony and Chelsea is also herself with much more facets about focus in the business and in live, general. THX 4 sharing!
1. There are a few problems with the reciprocal rule, but one of them is cropped sensor folks don't apply the crop factor. So a 100mm lens becomes a 150mm lens. The reciprocal is 1/150. In a photo course I took I was taught to go at least double the reciprocal rule or higher as you state. 2. Also with a zoom, lets say the 70 - 200mm lens, you have to use 200 as the number you are working with in reciprocal shutter speed, even if you shooting at the 70mm range. Now take that same zoom on a crop camera, and you have to know your long mm is not 200 but 300mm. 3. A tip I read in a Canadian photo mag is that the photographer shooting birds tried out, with great success, using a hunting shelter (tent) blind to photograph birds. You have to wait roughly 20 minutes for the birds to settle down after they have detected your presence. The photographer found this technique worked so well, he stopped using longer telephoto lenses, and stuck with his 70 - 200 mm lens. You can pick up one of these blinds for about $130 much cheaper than a Canon 600 lens. 4. And I just learned this and I can't explain it to you, can't say why it works. If a photographer is shooting in cold snow conditions, take your lens hood off, counter intuitive I know. 5. You did a review of I think four long zooms and you weren't happy with how the Sigma 150 - 600mm performed. At the time I can remember thinking, well did you make an adjustment to the lens using the Sigma USB docking station. If you had have said, - "you know what, we tried making adjustments to the 150 - 600 mm lens and we still got poor results" - I would have agreed with you. You did not.
Excellent list! I’ll be recommending this video to my students and photographers in a local forum. One tip that was missed in the section on image stabilization, you mentioned making sure that it was turned on. However, if you are using a tripod, it must be turned off. I’m a college photography instructor, and I tell my students this all the time when it comes to architecture, landscape, and Astro work - and it’s definitely one of the most common mistakes! (And as a commercial architecture photographer, I can definitely admit that I still catch myself on this mistake once in a while!) Some cameras and lenses supposedly have a ‘tripod sensor,’ but in my experience, they simply cannot be relied upon. My personal rule is image stabilization is always off, and I turn it on when I need it (handheld portraits, events, general walkaround evening, etc.). ((And sometimes I forget to turn it back off again 🤦🏼♂️). Regardless, it must be turned off when you’re using a tripod.
Something I found to work well when I get a picture slightly out of focus is to turn the picture into black and white and crank up the sharpness and play around with the light. I mostly take action pictures of mountain biking so the solution work well for me. It usually ends up looking like those old vintage action pictures from old magazines
Your videos are excellent and I always learn something new. My sharp pictures started with dull eyes. When photos were not sharp, I thought it must be the camera. On a hunch, I read about the diopter dial on my Nikon and made adjustments up and down while taking pictures. Found out, camera ok, i am not. Got glasses for day to day and made an adjustment on the diopter because shooting weatng glases is a pain. Everything perfect now and I owe it to the camera!
There is a program called "Amped Replay" that will actually remove camera movement blur and object motion blur. It's actually designed as a tool for law enforcement forensic video analysis. For example removing motion blur on license plates to enable identification of vehicles. I've tried it myself and it really works. There is probably some quality compromise somewhere in the process, but nothing that I have noticed. Thanks both of you for great videos through the years. You guys are very appreciated!
Thanks for these reminders, it took years of learning this by making all these mistakes. Wish I had this 20 years ago!! I Love Chelsea's sense of humor, my favorite is still when you do the wildlife shoot and she comes by to ask all the questions and give advice, well done!!
Wow! Thank you so much for this video! I know my camera is not the best (Canon 1200D/Rebel T5). I bought it when I entered college for all around media+graphic design. What you guys said about the ISO opened my eyes. Lowering the ISO really helped. Putting my camera on a tripod and lowering aperture solved the problem (use more light if needed). I can fix it in post most of the time. I love these educational video's. I find it hard to find information about these topics. If I do find them, they use terminology is so complex, that a beginner of some what advanced person can not understand it. Your explanation is clear and thorough. The examples really help with the visualization and helps me understand so i can process the information better. English is not my native language, so it really helps. Much love.
Great discussion. thank you. when shooting from a commercial airline at 30k, by setting the lens to max aperture and adjusting to get best max shutter speed, the plane window"disappears"and the underlying vibration of the plane(which can feel like its still)is almost eliminated. . also by shooting wider angle much of the shake can be reduced. then I can crop. I have often been amazed at the detail I can get of the ground , etc. This has also held true , to some extent when shooting through windows of the car and home. I would like you all to talk about the different focus pattern settings and how best to use them-
Fabulous video. It's been 6 - 12 months since I saw one of you twos videos. You are truly fabulous together and both experts in photography. Thank you. I've got 45 years experience and 120,000 photos one at a time. I have a Sony A7 mark 1 and 24-105 F4 G Lens. The lens is truly legendary and the camera is my first super digital camera it's like taking my 1981 Contax 139 35 mm camera the tops in it's day and adding a Supercomputer to it. I got it for $500 3 years ago used 1 week open box Best Buy Canada. I gig the lens half price only used for 1 day it was a Covid special as the oringal buy was ready to tour the world until Covid hit and I bought it $1,000 off in perfect condition. It is a dream lens. I took 75,000 photos in under 3 years with that camera and lens. Your Videos Tony and Chelsea and the best in photography. They also have entertainment value.
Just Love you Chelsea, that is a great Intro, you really add so much to your UA-cam Channel don't ever Stop! Great Show , Broadway is waiting for you Chelsea!!
Thanks for this vid. I've been searching for the Holy Grail of explanations for this biggest of problems and NOTHING has come even close to this comprehensive and fun-nerdy list. You guys are great! Thanks again.
Also for camera shake, and not so much cause by you, the user, but if you're using a DSLR, see if you camera support mirror-up mode. Some do, and this can help reduce vibration from the camera if you can use this mode. I know people doing long exposures find this useful (like landscape shooters or astro shooters). It helps minimize the vibration from the mirror coming up before the exposure is taken, and allow the sensor and camera to settle a little before the exposure is taken (pair this with a short self-timer, like 2 or 5 seconds). For missed focus, just take the extra second and make sure that the AF point is where you want it and also that the camera confirms focus (either by a beep or by the focus point changing color, like on NIkon ML bodies, its turns from red to green when focus is locked). For apertures, if I have the time, I've just started doing some focus stacking (mainly when doing landscapes and shooting things that aren't moving as this method can take a bit longer... an additional say 20-30 seconds more in some cases). This way you can get the best of both worlds (use the "sweet" spot and get everything in focus, but it's only really needed when you need most or all of the scene in focus and the depth of the scene is deep, like a grand landscape, although you can get away with something like f/11 or f/16 in most cases and don't always need to focus stack -- I mainly use it when I have a foreground, mid-ground and background that all need to be in sharp focus).
I always love how you guys bring so much information. One of the things I never realized is the effect of backlighting on sharpness. I have an RX100 that I have been using for a while because I really value portability. But I have noticed that it doesn't love backlit subjects so much. I get a little bit of a haze that I have trouble resolving in post. I had always thought that lenses just make it so that the light from a certain part of the view goes straight to a certain part of the sensor. And I thought that worked perfectly with every lens. In retrospect, I can see that that was a foolish belief, but thanks for disabusing me of it!
You guys are so helpful in understanding photography! I have been using SonyA6000's and Sony A6400. Auto Focus has always been challenging. I got plenty of in focus, but sometimes when I thought I had a good shot it's all blurry. I'm finding if I keep the F stop at f8 and below things work great when at air shows. I have been watching you guys since I bought my first Sony A5000. Thanks so much!
Love the intro! Recently I learned that my point-and-shoot cameras automatically have more depth of field. When I started moving into bigger-sensor cameras, I was surprised that my pictures were not as sharp as expected. So I took some experimental pictures at different f-stops and shutter speeds to see what the differences were, and which gave the best results.
An additional one I found is refraction caused by my lens being 20+ degrees hotter than the air around me outside. I’m thinking the front glass is heating up a layer of air held there by my large lens hood on my 600mm. I take the hood off and the problem went away, put it back on and the problem immediately came back. Plus in high wind situations or I let my gear adjust to the environment for at least an hour I don’t have that problem.
What I have learn from this video is that Tony changed a lot over the course of the time ... while Chelsea remains the same. I have bookmarked this video and had already repeated 10 times to memorizing all the points, I hope these points will pop in my head next time that I am about to shoot. Thank you so so so much for this video and this helps a lot.
This is terrific guys. You covered so much useful information, rapid fire, making this one packed video. Excellent. You explained some issues I have encountered and given me a solution. How good is that. Thanks so much.
Great video guys. Interested to get your thoughts on how turning off image stabilization can affect sharpness, ie when using a tripod, or shooting at super high shutter speeds (birds in flight).
Thank you! Chelsea - your journey from the heavier and lower-res Canon kit to Sony A7riii was identical to me... accept it's taken 3 years of frustration for me to realise that it's my fault! My airshow low-shutter-speed trying to capture propellor movement has been a constant frustration to me. I even got the new A1 on evaluation from Sony NZ to experiment with - I sucked with that too. It was simply your start to this video that showed me that my technique was at fault. My Canon 5D3 had the battery grip and 100-400mm lens and it weighed a ton! That 21mp combo had so much mass that it didn't shake lol. In the past 2 weeks I've got the extra battery grip for my A7riii and changed how I hold my camera (plus the awareness that I need to reduce movement) and I'm finally winning. Just this morning I've shot a heli at 5000' - me looking straight up with my A7riii + 200-600 at 600mm. 6/8 shots were sharp! YESSSS! Thank you, both off you for these videos.
Being 74, but not without any hint of Parkinsons (yet), I still have some "age shake". So, I have found that the 20fps of my R5 with electronic shutter allws me to even take lunar photos hand-held (EF 100-400 with a 2x converter (i.e. f11 even with the EF/RF converter)). Yes, I have to go through a bunch of shots and yes I "ususally" get 10-50% or so that are usable.
Humor and knowledge! I love you, guys. You helped me set the first steps on probably a long journey. Even so the set-up of the Nikon D7200 is quite a challenge you made it easier with the information and most important fun to try. Thanks a lot, greetings from Holland
Thanks for sharing.... great video & comments to help with understanding out of focus pics.....I always find its when I am in a hurry to get the photo because it is moving..... cheers 😀
Little tip from me as a street photographer. Regarding shutterspeed. When my shutterspeed gets low because I'm at the max iso I set I search for something to hold my camera against. Wall, poles, structures or even on the floor. I know it's not always available, but you will be surprised how much you can find to stabilize more. Like I said, just a little tip.
Per Google, pinch zooming when you take the shot will be sharper than cropping because of the computational photography features. With a combination of pixel shift and "AI" they can produce sharper digitally zoomed photos and cleaner low light photos. Honestly, I've found that Night Sight on a Pixel can often be an easier option in many low light situations than trying to manually manage all the tradeoffs with my X-T3. The computational photography features on modern smartphones are impressive, and not all of them can be easily replicated on larger cameras with post processing software.
Is there any difference between mechanical shutter or electronic shutter in connection with sharpness of images. (Sony A7IV) Very nice video with lots of tips.
As someone using a bottom of the range Canon with cheaper lens, I’m always looking for ways to improve the sharpness, this has to be the most comprehensive and informative video I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much, you’ve given me lots to consider and try out 👍
Good advice, as always. Just want to say, though, that the kit lens with my Nikon Z6II, the 24-70/4 S, seems to work well. Two points, it is an S series lens, which is the better line, is it not? And I don't see how it serves the camera manufacturer to provide a poor lens as a kit lens. People will just be getting a bad experience on a camera the company just worked so hard to make better. Maybe take a moment to re-think what you said about kit lenses. (I have bought other lenses, by the way, but I still go back to the kit lens as an all round, does a bunch of different things lens.) The kit lens on my D7500 was okay, too.
Hello Tony & Chelsea, love ur videos over the years and the lessons learned over the years were helpful. However.....I am now legally blind/low vision and resorted to using my smartphone to take photos. I parked my beloved DSLR gears......*sigh* Any tips or suggestions you can give a blind tog?? I now shoot mainly landscapes and sunsets.....ohhh and I can't see colors anymore. So lemme know if you have any suggestions, thanks 😁
Long telephotos act like a sail and even a light breeze can cause a tremor with an average tripod. This shows as a slight motion blur that is mostly side to side. If you are not shooting into the sun taking the lens hood off can help because it reduces the area catching the breeze. Otherwise you will have to raise the shutter speed - and save up for a tripod that puts rigidity ahead of cosmetics, which is a minority of what is out there for sale.
Also sudden change of temperature fogs your lens up. Acclimate your gear before you take a shot. Leave your gear where you intend to shoot for a few minutes for your gear to warm up or cool down so fogging isn't a problem.
Fogging cost me valuable time on a shoot in the Dominican Republic. Cold hotel room then brought the camera equipment to the beach. Every minute to clear the fog in the lens seemed like an eternity while the clients were waiting. Lesson learned that day.
This comment has nothing to do with your topic today but I was watching one of your videos recently I just purchased a Canon 6d for astrophotography from Japan. Because you said there is no place to have it fixed if something goes wrong I'm putting it in a box today and sending it back thank you so much for saving me money really appreciate it! If you have another suggestion for another camera I would sure appreciate you letting me know
Extra: (cheap) Action camera video sharpness degrades over time. I have a multicam setup (50+) that film on location from dawn till dusk. On average, one of those 50 cameras needs to be replaced each month.
Great video 👌 I was just out the other day trying to shot fast moving bird's, when I got home 🏡 noticed that the Iso was too high for some of the shots. I am shooting with a Canon 90d and 18- 300 Sigma lens. I am looking at a Canon 70-200 f-4 what do you think please any input will help.
When it comes to depth of field everyone talks about f stop but few talk about the effect of focal length. The older manual zoom lenses often had the depth of field lines on the outside of the lens. Newer lenses don't have those. The depth of field lines on older lenses would remind photographers that the focal length has a much greater affect on the depth of field than the f stop. If you want sharper images with more depth of field than don't push your zoom to the maximum focal length. Newer cameras have so many pixels that you often will get sharper images by not going to the maximum zoom.
I do need help, when i first got my T7i i got sharp pictures. now all my picks seem out of focus. there are times looking through the viewfinder when the camera is auto focusing the picture is very sharp but passes by this to settle on out of focus shot. I must all so say, i take my camera on my motorcycle. I have tried to look it up to find if the vibration of my bike is bad for my camera, and can not find any info if it is bad or not bad? Any feed back would be helpful.
Great video guys! So many great tips, especially rolling the finger over the shutter rather than just pressing the lens which I do. Also. I remember a previous video when Tony mentioned taking the pictures as you exhale for minimal shake when taking the pic. Love watching your videos! Keep up the great work!
Thanks great info, I recently have stopped using back button focus as a default choosing to use it selectively as needed found my portraits much crisper as the shutter release and focus are instant. Also this video is a lot more richer and sharper, in addition the lighting appears color balanced is this something new?
Great video. I'm still using a 7Dii. Topaz Denoise and or DXO photolab deep prime AI Denoise have helped a lot with noise softness. I just have to make sure not to overdo it. These software solutions have really helped me increase shutter speed
Air quality is the issue that just breaks my heart sometimes with wildlife photography. With proper planning, timing, and gear, you can generally account for everything else, but then when you review your images after an amazing morning of subject encounters, you discover that the four hundred yards between you and the grizzly family were full of mucky air (especially in early mornings when dew is evaporating in the early morning sun). It really crushes your spirit.
Adding a polarizing filter can actually make matters worse because you lose light and will have to compensate by shooting at a slower shutter speed or jacking up the iso. (Usually in such conditions you are already shooting wide open.)
use your surroundings as tripod putting camera on wall. touch something fix and slowly exhale like sniper or stop breathing during a burst. keep your hands and body warm. try super resolution to earn details or do a light HDR. use AI noise reducing software (dxo pureraw or others). shoot multiple and sort, burst is your best friend especially now that there is silent shutter no one will notice. if something move fast use mechanical shutter. use a flash it will freeze the subject because the light is on a very short amount of time. use more light to increase the shutter speed. remove the filters it cuts light and each layer of glass reduces sharpness. use eye AF or any help of the camera ;) Don't worry be happy on the internet almost no one will notice ;) it is mostly valid for printing and screen wallpapers
Awesome energetic review! Even if I am totally not into the high res pixel - peepable sharpness, I should not exaggerate! And think about your tips, maybe even use some. Talking about blurry photos - I wonder how small the number of photo people on UA-cam is, who really have studied the works of classical photojournalists. Even epic Henri Cartier-Bresson published (!) out of focus photos! In his heyday, 1940ies & 50ies, the choice of 35mm / Leica, Zeiss, meant a serious drop in image quality. Not to mention that eye AF did not exist for rangefinders. Even the crumpy photos of Weegee the Famous were mostly taken on the Speed Graphics 4x5, a camera offering a film size of roughly 15 times of the Leica. The amazing autobiography of Robert Capa is titled Slightly out of Focus. I thought this was for a reason. I now think it was for a range of reasons. Coming back to sharpness. In certain scenarios long exposure on a poorly fixed camera are unavoidable. In this case even longer shutter speeds might be okay to marginalize the initial shake - Found myself next to the landmark Pont dArc in Southern France with very little of the daylight left. And felt like trying for a shot. Camera adjustments were partly tricky as only the more basic settings on my Nikon are illuminated. The camera stood on a tree stump. As I somehow lost touch with the self timer setting ( it should have next, to the left of the quiet shooting mode I mostly use) I opted for a rather long shutter speed. Worked fine- as a souvenir or even for IG as the last of a series of photographs few people are looking at to the end
Go to squarespace.com/Chelsea & save 10% off your first website or domain with code “Chelsea"
Good advice. You could set up your back focus button as your shutter release and use the shutter release button as your focus button. This helps gets rid of the shake too.
@@ytr8989 the pll76
🤣🤣🤣Loved that intro!!! My photos are not sharp because I got tired of comparing 40 photos to find the sharpest. Any software you could recommend that would do that for me?
Chelsea's humour is the best, loved the intro. Also a well done informative video that will surely help new shooters.
Chelsea surely is a wonderful girl - and her intro was amazing! ❤🩹
Don't call me Shirley! 😂
Nice try, but far away from her heartbeat. Not authentic at all. Snoop would have no comment on it. For good reasons, Thank god Tony is tony and Chelsea is also herself with much more facets about focus in the business and in live, general.
THX 4 sharing!
It’s so fun watching you two working together. Thanks for all the good information. Keep up the great work.
1. There are a few problems with the reciprocal rule, but one of them is cropped sensor folks don't apply the crop factor. So a 100mm lens becomes a 150mm lens. The reciprocal is 1/150. In a photo course I took I was taught to go at least double the reciprocal rule or higher as you state. 2. Also with a zoom, lets say the 70 - 200mm lens, you have to use 200 as the number you are working with in reciprocal shutter speed, even if you shooting at the 70mm range. Now take that same zoom on a crop camera, and you have to know your long mm is not 200 but 300mm. 3. A tip I read in a Canadian photo mag is that the photographer shooting birds tried out, with great success, using a hunting shelter (tent) blind to photograph birds. You have to wait roughly 20 minutes for the birds to settle down after they have detected your presence. The photographer found this technique worked so well, he stopped using longer telephoto lenses, and stuck with his 70 - 200 mm lens. You can pick up one of these blinds for about $130 much cheaper than a Canon 600 lens. 4. And I just learned this and I can't explain it to you, can't say why it works. If a photographer is shooting in cold snow conditions, take your lens hood off, counter intuitive I know. 5. You did a review of I think four long zooms and you weren't happy with how the Sigma 150 - 600mm performed. At the time I can remember thinking, well did you make an adjustment to the lens using the Sigma USB docking station. If you had have said, - "you know what, we tried making adjustments to the 150 - 600 mm lens and we still got poor results" - I would have agreed with you. You did not.
Excellent list! I’ll be recommending this video to my students and photographers in a local forum. One tip that was missed in the section on image stabilization, you mentioned making sure that it was turned on. However, if you are using a tripod, it must be turned off. I’m a college photography instructor, and I tell my students this all the time when it comes to architecture, landscape, and Astro work - and it’s definitely one of the most common mistakes! (And as a commercial architecture photographer, I can definitely admit that I still catch myself on this mistake once in a while!) Some cameras and lenses supposedly have a ‘tripod sensor,’ but in my experience, they simply cannot be relied upon. My personal rule is image stabilization is always off, and I turn it on when I need it (handheld portraits, events, general walkaround evening, etc.). ((And sometimes I forget to turn it back off again 🤦🏼♂️). Regardless, it must be turned off when you’re using a tripod.
Something I found to work well when I get a picture slightly out of focus is to turn the picture into black and white and crank up the sharpness and play around with the light. I mostly take action pictures of mountain biking so the solution work well for me. It usually ends up looking like those old vintage action pictures from old magazines
Your videos are excellent and I always learn something new. My sharp pictures started with dull eyes. When photos were not sharp, I thought it must be the camera. On a hunch, I read about the diopter dial on my Nikon and made adjustments up and down while taking pictures. Found out, camera ok, i am not. Got glasses for day to day and made an adjustment on the diopter because shooting weatng glases is a pain. Everything perfect now and I owe it to the camera!
This was magnificent, exactly what I was looking for. Keep up the great work!
There is a program called "Amped Replay" that will actually remove camera movement blur and object motion blur.
It's actually designed as a tool for law enforcement forensic video analysis. For example removing motion blur on license plates
to enable identification of vehicles. I've tried it myself and it really works. There is probably some quality compromise somewhere
in the process, but nothing that I have noticed. Thanks both of you for great videos through the years. You guys are very appreciated!
Tony your books are well written & nicely hyperlinked. And Chelsea is a delight to learn from.
Thanks for these reminders, it took years of learning this by making all these mistakes. Wish I had this 20 years ago!! I Love Chelsea's sense of humor, my favorite is still when you do the wildlife shoot and she comes by to ask all the questions and give advice, well done!!
Wow! Thank you so much for this video! I know my camera is not the best (Canon 1200D/Rebel T5). I bought it when I entered college for all around media+graphic design. What you guys said about the ISO opened my eyes. Lowering the ISO really helped. Putting my camera on a tripod and lowering aperture solved the problem (use more light if needed). I can fix it in post most of the time. I love these educational video's. I find it hard to find information about these topics. If I do find them, they use terminology is so complex, that a beginner of some what advanced person can not understand it. Your explanation is clear and thorough. The examples really help with the visualization and helps me understand so i can process the information better. English is not my native language, so it really helps. Much love.
Great discussion. thank you. when shooting from a commercial airline at 30k, by setting the lens to max aperture and adjusting to get best max shutter speed, the plane window"disappears"and the underlying vibration of the plane(which can feel like its still)is almost eliminated. . also by shooting wider angle much of the shake can be reduced. then I can crop. I have often been amazed at the detail I can get of the ground , etc. This has also held true , to some extent when shooting through windows of the car and home. I would like you all to talk about the different focus pattern settings and how best to use them-
I think this is one of your best videos yet. 😊
Yea this was a good one.
Fabulous video. It's been 6 - 12 months since I saw one of you twos videos. You are truly fabulous together and both experts in photography. Thank you. I've got 45 years experience and 120,000 photos one at a time. I have a Sony A7 mark 1 and 24-105 F4 G Lens. The lens is truly legendary and the camera is my first super digital camera it's like taking my 1981 Contax 139 35 mm camera the tops in it's day and adding a Supercomputer to it. I got it for $500 3 years ago used 1 week open box Best Buy Canada. I gig the lens half price only used for 1 day it was a Covid special as the oringal buy was ready to tour the world until Covid hit and I bought it $1,000 off in perfect condition. It is a dream lens. I took 75,000 photos in under 3 years with that camera and lens. Your Videos Tony and Chelsea and the best in photography. They also have entertainment value.
Just Love you Chelsea, that is a great Intro, you really add so much to your UA-cam Channel don't ever Stop! Great Show , Broadway is waiting for you Chelsea!!
intro was 10 million out of 10
you always provide value and education. Massive respect to you both. Keep it up!
Thanks for this vid. I've been searching for the Holy Grail of explanations for this biggest of problems and NOTHING has come even close to this comprehensive and fun-nerdy list. You guys are great! Thanks again.
Also for camera shake, and not so much cause by you, the user, but if you're using a DSLR, see if you camera support mirror-up mode. Some do, and this can help reduce vibration from the camera if you can use this mode. I know people doing long exposures find this useful (like landscape shooters or astro shooters). It helps minimize the vibration from the mirror coming up before the exposure is taken, and allow the sensor and camera to settle a little before the exposure is taken (pair this with a short self-timer, like 2 or 5 seconds).
For missed focus, just take the extra second and make sure that the AF point is where you want it and also that the camera confirms focus (either by a beep or by the focus point changing color, like on NIkon ML bodies, its turns from red to green when focus is locked).
For apertures, if I have the time, I've just started doing some focus stacking (mainly when doing landscapes and shooting things that aren't moving as this method can take a bit longer... an additional say 20-30 seconds more in some cases). This way you can get the best of both worlds (use the "sweet" spot and get everything in focus, but it's only really needed when you need most or all of the scene in focus and the depth of the scene is deep, like a grand landscape, although you can get away with something like f/11 or f/16 in most cases and don't always need to focus stack -- I mainly use it when I have a foreground, mid-ground and background that all need to be in sharp focus).
I always love how you guys bring so much information. One of the things I never realized is the effect of backlighting on sharpness. I have an RX100 that I have been using for a while because I really value portability. But I have noticed that it doesn't love backlit subjects so much. I get a little bit of a haze that I have trouble resolving in post.
I had always thought that lenses just make it so that the light from a certain part of the view goes straight to a certain part of the sensor. And I thought that worked perfectly with every lens. In retrospect, I can see that that was a foolish belief, but thanks for disabusing me of it!
Great paced video that left no rock unturned. Fantastic, both of you.
what a great intro xD. Chelsea nailed it!
You guys are so helpful in understanding photography! I have been using SonyA6000's and Sony A6400. Auto Focus has always been challenging. I got plenty of in focus, but sometimes when I thought I had a good shot it's all blurry. I'm finding if I keep the F stop at f8 and below things work great when at air shows. I have been watching you guys since I bought my first Sony A5000. Thanks so much!
Great intro - and always a pleasure watching you two work together. TY for the tips.
Love the intro! Recently I learned that my point-and-shoot cameras automatically have more depth of field. When I started moving into bigger-sensor cameras, I was surprised that my pictures were not as sharp as expected. So I took some experimental pictures at different f-stops and shutter speeds to see what the differences were, and which gave the best results.
Great video. Despite almost 70 years taking pictures I find that my focus is off sometimes. This covers the solutions really well.
GASP ! It was Chelsea all along ! ;-) As always, thanks.
An additional one I found is refraction caused by my lens being 20+ degrees hotter than the air around me outside. I’m thinking the front glass is heating up a layer of air held there by my large lens hood on my 600mm. I take the hood off and the problem went away, put it back on and the problem immediately came back. Plus in high wind situations or I let my gear adjust to the environment for at least an hour I don’t have that problem.
That was such a great post Tony and Chelsea! Another suggestion would be to get sharp photographs you should use a tripod whenever possible!📷
What I have learn from this video is that Tony changed a lot over the course of the time ... while Chelsea remains the same.
I have bookmarked this video and had already repeated 10 times to memorizing all the points, I hope these points will pop in my head next time that I am about to shoot.
Thank you so so so much for this video and this helps a lot.
you guys are a riot. i love you both.
This is terrific guys. You covered so much useful information, rapid fire, making this one packed video. Excellent. You explained some issues I have encountered and given me a solution. How good is that. Thanks so much.
Great information and reminders to stay sharp. You two are the best!
Great video guys.
Interested to get your thoughts on how turning off image stabilization can affect sharpness, ie when using a tripod, or shooting at super high shutter speeds (birds in flight).
I'm not a pro, but have been advised many times that on a tripod the IS should be turned off
Love your show. Always useful, detailed and extremely helpful information.
Awesome videos. One additional tip: Use single point focus. Try to avoid "zone" or other types of selection which select multiple auto focus points.
Great advice!
Thank you for a well done podcast, the info you provide as always is second to none.
10:19 - Joke's on you guys: I'm always a creep
Your tips are always worth my time.👍
Dude I love you Chelsea and Tony
Thank you! Chelsea - your journey from the heavier and lower-res Canon kit to Sony A7riii was identical to me... accept it's taken 3 years of frustration for me to realise that it's my fault! My airshow low-shutter-speed trying to capture propellor movement has been a constant frustration to me. I even got the new A1 on evaluation from Sony NZ to experiment with - I sucked with that too. It was simply your start to this video that showed me that my technique was at fault.
My Canon 5D3 had the battery grip and 100-400mm lens and it weighed a ton! That 21mp combo had so much mass that it didn't shake lol. In the past 2 weeks I've got the extra battery grip for my A7riii and changed how I hold my camera (plus the awareness that I need to reduce movement) and I'm finally winning. Just this morning I've shot a heli at 5000' - me looking straight up with my A7riii + 200-600 at 600mm. 6/8 shots were sharp! YESSSS! Thank you, both off you for these videos.
Quality content and great intro!
Great video! I’m going to watch this many times over the years.
You guys are great! I appreciate you taking the time to give us information.
Being 74, but not without any hint of Parkinsons (yet), I still have some "age shake". So, I have found that the 20fps of my R5 with electronic shutter allws me to even take lunar photos hand-held (EF 100-400 with a 2x converter (i.e. f11 even with the EF/RF converter)). Yes, I have to go through a bunch of shots and yes I "ususally" get 10-50% or so that are usable.
best intro ever
Humor and knowledge! I love you, guys. You helped me set the first steps on probably a long journey. Even so the set-up of the Nikon D7200 is quite a challenge you made it easier with the information and most important fun to try. Thanks a lot, greetings from Holland
Thanks for sharing.... great video & comments to help with understanding out of focus pics.....I always find its when I am in a hurry to get the photo because it is moving..... cheers 😀
Extremely useful. Great reminders and some new considerations.
Thanks for excellent teaching. To me I would like to hear about shooting modes, such as aperture priority, speed priority or manual.
Little tip from me as a street photographer. Regarding shutterspeed. When my shutterspeed gets low because I'm at the max iso I set I search for something to hold my camera against. Wall, poles, structures or even on the floor. I know it's not always available, but you will be surprised how much you can find to stabilize more. Like I said, just a little tip.
Your videos are such a blessing to me!
Really great video! Thanks for all the tips and I am looking forward to trying them. Keep up the great videos!
Thank you for these tips. Is micro adjustments the same as lens calibration correction?
Great work guys thanks for your videos they are so help! 👇
Thanks. This is helpful. I know a lot of this, but it is good to know others do not get perfect focus all the time either.
I was hypnotic during the square space ad because of the glimpse of the Girl with the pearl Earing. Haven't seen that in a while.
This Is a true power couple. Love this guys.
lol I love your humor!
Have to say, best intro ever......lol love the hat, I think Peters got some competition on the cool factor now lol
Is this a Peter thing? I think I learned it from everyone who copies him 🤣
Omg the Snoop 420. I freaking love you and Tony!
That intro was bomb 💥💥💥
Per Google, pinch zooming when you take the shot will be sharper than cropping because of the computational photography features. With a combination of pixel shift and "AI" they can produce sharper digitally zoomed photos and cleaner low light photos.
Honestly, I've found that Night Sight on a Pixel can often be an easier option in many low light situations than trying to manually manage all the tradeoffs with my X-T3.
The computational photography features on modern smartphones are impressive, and not all of them can be easily replicated on larger cameras with post processing software.
Thank you guys for your great content.
You had me at the intro! Chelsea is the best! 😄
All i can hope for in life is to have a relationship like Chelsea and Tony. You two are great together 😍
Is there any difference between mechanical shutter or electronic shutter in connection with sharpness of images. (Sony A7IV) Very nice video with lots of tips.
you guys did a great job! sharp and unsharp filters are useable as well - thanks
Love the intro, you are amazing, thanks for the videos
As someone using a bottom of the range Canon with cheaper lens, I’m always looking for ways to improve the sharpness, this has to be the most comprehensive and informative video I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much, you’ve given me lots to consider and try out 👍
Love your humor Chelsea and all the content you both post! Would you please share what camera and lens are you using to recording this? TIA
Good advice, as always. Just want to say, though, that the kit lens with my Nikon Z6II, the 24-70/4 S, seems to work well. Two points, it is an S series lens, which is the better line, is it not? And I don't see how it serves the camera manufacturer to provide a poor lens as a kit lens. People will just be getting a bad experience on a camera the company just worked so hard to make better. Maybe take a moment to re-think what you said about kit lenses. (I have bought other lenses, by the way, but I still go back to the kit lens as an all round, does a bunch of different things lens.) The kit lens on my D7500 was okay, too.
Great Video,very informative and educational.
Hello Tony & Chelsea, love ur videos over the years and the lessons learned over the years were helpful. However.....I am now legally blind/low vision and resorted to using my smartphone to take photos. I parked my beloved DSLR gears......*sigh*
Any tips or suggestions you can give a blind tog?? I now shoot mainly landscapes and sunsets.....ohhh and I can't see colors anymore. So lemme know if you have any suggestions, thanks 😁
Great intro Chelsea! LOL! That was awesome.
I had to take a double take on that first take :-) love you guys!
Long telephotos act like a sail and even a light breeze can cause a tremor with an average tripod. This shows as a slight motion blur that is mostly side to side. If you are not shooting into the sun taking the lens hood off can help because it reduces the area catching the breeze. Otherwise you will have to raise the shutter speed - and save up for a tripod that puts rigidity ahead of cosmetics, which is a minority of what is out there for sale.
Also sudden change of temperature fogs your lens up. Acclimate your gear before you take a shot. Leave your gear where you intend to shoot for a few minutes for your gear to warm up or cool down so fogging isn't a problem.
Fogging cost me valuable time on a shoot in the Dominican Republic. Cold hotel room then brought the camera equipment to the beach. Every minute to clear the fog in the lens seemed like an eternity while the clients were waiting. Lesson learned that day.
This comment has nothing to do with your topic today but I was watching one of your videos recently I just purchased a Canon 6d for astrophotography from Japan. Because you said there is no place to have it fixed if something goes wrong I'm putting it in a box today and sending it back thank you so much for saving me money really appreciate it! If you have another suggestion for another camera I would sure appreciate you letting me know
Extra: (cheap) Action camera video sharpness degrades over time. I have a multicam setup (50+) that film on location from dawn till dusk. On average, one of those 50 cameras needs to be replaced each month.
@@SS77S7 yeah I'm glad someone's asking because without understanding how/why they fail, we gain little from this information.
Been following you guys since 2009. Love all the information reviews…and continuing ed .
Great video 👌 I was just out the other day trying to shot fast moving bird's, when I got home 🏡 noticed that the Iso was too high for some of the shots. I am shooting with a Canon 90d and 18- 300 Sigma lens. I am looking at a Canon 70-200 f-4 what do you think please any input will help.
When it comes to depth of field everyone talks about f stop but few talk about the effect of focal length. The older manual zoom lenses often had the depth of field lines on the outside of the lens. Newer lenses don't have those. The depth of field lines on older lenses would remind photographers that the focal length has a much greater affect on the depth of field than the f stop. If you want sharper images with more depth of field than don't push your zoom to the maximum focal length. Newer cameras have so many pixels that you often will get sharper images by not going to the maximum zoom.
I'm a newbie and you two are adorable and so talented...I'm eating up your book and course.
Always appreciate your valuable input. Many thanks
I do need help, when i first got my T7i i got sharp pictures. now all my picks seem out of focus. there are times looking through the viewfinder when the camera is auto focusing the picture is very sharp but passes by this to settle on out of focus shot. I must all so say, i take my camera on my motorcycle. I have tried to look it up to find if the vibration of my bike is bad for my camera, and can not find any info if it is bad or not bad? Any feed back would be helpful.
Great video guys! So many great tips, especially rolling the finger over the shutter rather than just pressing the lens which I do. Also. I remember a previous video when Tony mentioned taking the pictures as you exhale for minimal shake when taking the pic. Love watching your videos! Keep up the great work!
What's UP?! Because I love Tony, if he is not hearing, Girl I seriously love you, the sharp, F22, high shutter one!
Thanks great info, I recently have stopped using back button focus as a default choosing to use it selectively as needed found my portraits much crisper as the shutter release and focus are instant.
Also this video is a lot more richer and sharper, in addition the lighting appears color balanced is this something new?
ok at 7:37 how did you get the background wobble
Great video. I'm still using a 7Dii. Topaz Denoise and or DXO photolab deep prime AI Denoise have helped a lot with noise softness. I just have to make sure not to overdo it. These software solutions have really helped me increase shutter speed
Haha, that was excellent Chelsea. Thanks for another very helpful video.
Air quality is the issue that just breaks my heart sometimes with wildlife photography. With proper planning, timing, and gear, you can generally account for everything else, but then when you review your images after an amazing morning of subject encounters, you discover that the four hundred yards between you and the grizzly family were full of mucky air (especially in early mornings when dew is evaporating in the early morning sun). It really crushes your spirit.
Polarizer filter does not help in these situations?
@@YariJaluff not enough; it can deflect some scattered light to help with contrast but can't grab sharpness through the haze
@@smithcon Thank you! Nice to know! ;)
Adding a polarizing filter can actually make matters worse because you lose light and will have to compensate by shooting at a slower shutter speed or jacking up the iso. (Usually in such conditions you are already shooting wide open.)
use your surroundings as tripod putting camera on wall. touch something fix and slowly exhale like sniper or stop breathing during a burst. keep your hands and body warm. try super resolution to earn details or do a light HDR. use AI noise reducing software (dxo pureraw or others). shoot multiple and sort, burst is your best friend especially now that there is silent shutter no one will notice. if something move fast use mechanical shutter. use a flash it will freeze the subject because the light is on a very short amount of time. use more light to increase the shutter speed. remove the filters it cuts light and each layer of glass reduces sharpness. use eye AF or any help of the camera ;)
Don't worry be happy on the internet almost no one will notice ;) it is mostly valid for printing and screen wallpapers
Awesome energetic review! Even if I am totally not into the high res pixel - peepable sharpness, I should not exaggerate! And think about your tips, maybe even use some.
Talking about blurry photos - I wonder how small the number of photo people on UA-cam is, who really have studied the works of classical photojournalists. Even epic Henri Cartier-Bresson published (!) out of focus photos! In his heyday, 1940ies & 50ies, the choice of 35mm / Leica, Zeiss, meant a serious drop in image quality. Not to mention that eye AF did not exist for rangefinders. Even the crumpy photos of Weegee the Famous were mostly taken on the Speed Graphics 4x5, a camera offering a film size of roughly 15 times of the Leica.
The amazing autobiography of Robert Capa is titled Slightly out of Focus. I thought this was for a reason. I now think it was for a range of reasons.
Coming back to sharpness. In certain scenarios long exposure on a poorly fixed camera are unavoidable. In this case even longer shutter speeds might be okay to marginalize the initial shake - Found myself next to the landmark Pont dArc in Southern France with very little of the daylight left. And felt like trying for a shot. Camera adjustments were partly tricky as only the more basic settings on my Nikon are illuminated. The camera stood on a tree stump. As I somehow lost touch with the self timer setting ( it should have next, to the left of the quiet shooting mode I mostly use) I opted for a rather long shutter speed. Worked fine- as a souvenir or even for IG as the last of a series of photographs few people are looking at to the end
whatever you did with the color grading and iq in the garden, keep it up! very pleasing image!
One of your best vids IMO--thank you.
That moment when you hit dislike, when you actually meant to hit Like! 🤦🏼♂️ Excellent video and so very helpful, thank you.
Thanks for this! Lots of good tips!
Chelsea...your humor is awesome. STRAIGHT MAN tONY IS GREAT TOO