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1. _ _ e 3 e TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 122. A STEP BY a STEP GUIC James Brandon ST ABOUT ME AND THIS EBOOK 7 LOVE ICD TEA CHIPOTLE AND MY DIFE KRISTIN BUT NOT IN THAT ORDER ABOUT ME My name is James Brandon and l m a photographer and writer living in Fort Worth Texas with my beautiful wife Kristin our soon to be born baby Isaac and two dogs Kylie and Kensie give full credit for any talents or abilities may have to Jesus Christ because without Him l d be nothing As far as photography goes specialize in both travel and portrait imagery and have an insatiable desire to travel the world and see new things have a blog that update often and you can always find me on Google or Twitter So be sure to follow me and say hi I m also a writer for Digital Photography School where write photography related articles reviews tutorials and more ABOUT THIS EBOOK This eBook is a step by step guide for any photographer who has ever struggled with getting sharp images While the first part of the book is geared towards beginners things get somewhat advanced toward the end and will cover topics that some of you may not know about The secret to a sharp image isn t just one thing It s an entire process and every situation is different should also point out that I m a Canon shooter Therefore when give examples or settings it will be from a Canon point of view All of this stuff is easily interchangeable but i
3. off that you have to make If you have a 50mm f 1 4 lens then your maximum aperture is f 1 4 That setting will allow the maximum amount of light into the sensor and will also produce the most shallow depth of field the lens can produce As you increase the aperture it gets smaller therefore letting in less light By doing this you also create a larger depth of field in your image which allows more of the scene to be in focus Trust me Know this can be confusing but just give it time if you are having trouble An aperture is a set of blades inside your camera that open and close to a predetermined diameter to let in the amount of light needed for the correct exposure TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM rap Apert Ml Fe 444 3 f CA tp NET ONE To remember how depth of field works try this although it isn t an exact science Imagine that you have ten people lined up in a row where the first person in line is close to you and the last person in line is far away in descending order lf you want just the first person to be in focus use f 1 If you want the first five people in focus use f 5 If you want all ten people in focus use f 10 The higher the f number and the smaller the aperture itself the greater or deeper the depth of field will be ZE Ze nu e a ee SSS h E sa PAGE 5 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
4. TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 6 BACK BUTTON AF ON FOCUS U e a ee E discovered back button focus the same day discovered Al Servo Both settings completely rocked my world and I still use them everyday The default setting for focus on any camera works like this You see your subject you press your shutter button half way down your camera focuses on the subject you press the shutter button all the way down the camera takes the pictures Well this is crap Let me explain why O C Your shutter button should serve one purpose and one purpose alone releasing the shutter and taking a picture It should not double as a focus button or anything else The advantages of back button focus really become apparent when you start using it in concert with other advanced functions in your camera Here are some reasons why back button focus is far superior than the normal method e Set focus and done e With stationary subjects you can hit the back button to focus on your subject get the focus just the way you want it then take as many pictures as you want With the old method you d have to refocus your subject each time you take a picture What if you want your subject far off center away from any focus point in your grid zo z Gem TE EE Se e e SE ee TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE When Servo back button focus and single point AF points are all used in harmony you can be
5. a better camera or better lenses although that can help it s because of techniques I ve developed and or learned from other pros in the field that have completely changed the way used my camera Focus is one of the most important parts to a good image right along with composition and exposure Combine all three of these and you re sure to have an incredible image Take any one of these out of the equation and you re well on your way to having a new file in your trash bin gt ge BE ee e EE SSS ee SE F iS e SSS h E E E TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 3 F OUNDATIONS IN FOCUS D youre o gona to become a master at getting sharp e we Fi images YOU had hetter _ become M er at N e mg ur camera den first V Ge you are 005 on any le el ni t how the at et tings determine Cer age ooks be amp te pay e weit e gg ege e Ge ARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 4 yb Aperture is often the first decision you will make when deciding how to capture a scene There is no right or wrong aperture to use it just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your vision RE Re re Your camera s aperture determines how much light will make it to the camera s sensor It also affects the depth of field in your image at the same time This is a constant trade
6. jects face and placing the center focus point over the subjects eye to achieve focus Most photographers using the focus recompose method know that nobody wants to see an eye or face right smack dab in the middle of the frame so they then recompose the scene by moving the camera down to get the entire body in the frame or to simply move the subjects face off center This new camera angle is represented by B in the diagram lm certainly not a mathematician but one of the few things remember from geometry is the Pythagorean Theorem and the common sense that the length of A is longer than the length of B and that if you were to lay the A line down on top of the B line you would see the difference in length between the two _ Na a Se ge eee a Ri a ree g SES ae es KH EE PR ee 5 enee SE e WS e Se _ TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 9 BONUS EXAMPLES gt at aha WR me 4 L d ki A eh d gt M e 4 f5 s 4 Dm e kb A 2s 7 e BIEN x TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 10 Here s one of my favorite images in my portfolio shot this in Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre region of Italy When you shoot at apertures around f 18 you start to get a Starburst effect in strong light sources like lamps or street lights wanted to create that in this image so took one exposure at f 18 which gave me some
7. s still using the factory settings on their camera realize that you can press the shutter half way down hold it there while you recompose the image and then press it all the way down to take the shot but why bother with have to do that every single time With back button focus as long as your subject isn t moving and you aren t moving you can simply set focus and take as many pictures as you d like There is simply no other way of achieving this without these settings s 5 me V n _ _ a es Geer vi a e 5 S Es ER E ve g e EE O n m SE Si S e TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 8 FOCUS RECOMPOSE amp WHY IT FAILS m sure just about everyone reading this knows what focus recompose is regardless of whether you re familiar with the term Have you ever seen photographers maybe even yourself bobbing your camera up and down while taking pictures Focus recompose is the act of using the center focus point on your camera to achieve focus on your subject and then recomposing the scene to taste without changing focus wrote an in depth article over at DPS on this topic and wanted to include it here because it ruffled quite a few feathers It seems people don t like discovering they ve been doing something wrong for years and years In the diagram to the left A represents pointing the camera up towards the sub
8. sure that the amount of sharp images you get will increase dramatically This process eventually becomes second nature and won t even require much thought at all You simply view a subject through your viewfinder decide which focus point to use select the appropriate focus point tap or hold down the back focus button and fire off the shutter Those five steps happen in a fraction of a second and the result will almost always be a better framed better focused image This stuff isn t rocket science it s just not well known by most photographers because camera manuals aren t very fun to read ve taught these techniques to countless photographers and while some embrace it immediately and never look back there are always a few here and there who arent sure about it because it s so different admit it s a bit uncomfortable at first trying to completely change your thought process before a shot but promise it becomes a non issue after just a day or so of putting these techniques through the ropes Don t fall into the trap of laziness that so many fall victim to Just because it s different and takes some getting used to doesn t mean you should just abandon the whole process and stick with what you Know meet so many photographers through meet ups and photo walks who struggle with getting sharp images or get frustrated because they can t place the subject in a certain part of the frame It s always the same thing they are alway
9. t may require that you open up the user manual and decode what I m saying if you re a Nikonian or if you simply have a different Camera model All content James Brandon Photography 2011 All Rights Reserved ON FOCUS You d be surprised to know just how much actually goes in to getting consistently sharp images It isn t rocket science or physics or anything like that but there are definitely steps and processes involved that the majority of photographers probably don t know about even some professionals Some of these steps are easy and you ll be able to implement them right away without a problem if you so choose In fact some of you have probably even heard of or already used some of these techniques If that s the case simply move on to the next one On the flip side some of these tips may be more difficult and will require a bit of practice and time to really get down and develop into rote encourage you to at least try out each tip and work hard at mastering each one Don t just give up because it s so different from what you re used to ve always laughed at the saying that Pro photographers still take blurry images they just don t post them online certainly make a conscious effort to only post my best work for the world to see but can also definitively say that take far less blurry soft images than a lot of the photographers l ve shot with throughout the years This isn t because have
10. thing like a 1 minute exposure The problem with this was that all the boats in the harbor became blurred because they were slowly bobbing up and down from the slight movement in the water To counteract this took another quick exposure at f 2 8 to freeze the boats in place then blended the exposures together manually in Photoshop to get the look was going for Learning to see a scene like your camera sees it can be invaluable to the end result of an image Take the time to know your camera inside and out It will always pay huge dividends m 5 e ES BEE _ SS ee e OO E e Saat D s SS h E es TACK SHARP FLATBOOKS COM PAGE 11 FULL VERSION TABLE OF CONTENTS r SS SS ee Foundations In Focus 5 Back Button AF ON Focus 18 Aperture 6 Servo Focusing 22 Shutter Speed 7 Single Point AF 24 ISO 8 The Focus Trifecta 29 Do Lenses Really Matter 9 Infinite Focus 30 Hand Holding Your Camera 10 Depth of Field Preview 32 Carry A Tripod 11 Focus Recompose And Why It Fails 33 Tips For Buying A New Tripod 12 Bonus Examples 36 Advanced Techniques 14 More Content To Help You Excel 44 Using A Self Timer Or Remote 15 Discounts 45 Live View And Manual Focus 16 SE E em 5 SS e me 3 O o M O SS OS e e SE u g me me EE EE SS a S Es TH HN 8 SE g Ee ee gt
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