Have you ever shot in the field, examined your shot on your camera's LCD (they look just beautiful and sharp), and got home just to find your shots soft (not sharp) on your computer screen? The images look sharp on the camera's LCD because it takes a very large image and shrinks it to fit your LCD. Anytime you shrink images they look sharper. However, when you blow them up on a big screen you can see whether or not they are sharp. The larger you print the sharper your images need to be. Printing a 4X6 or an 8X10 does not typically show sharpness issues, but try printing a 20X30 or a 40X60 and examine the sharpness then. The larger your print the further the viewer stands to enjoy it but somehow these big prints just do not look that sharp. I have seen many people, these days, stepping right up to large prints to have a closer look. Our images just have to be sharp.

          So how do we get sharp images?

• Use good lenses, they impact sharpness very much

• For landscape images use your lens' sharpest F.Stop (typically F8 - F11 for a full frame camera)

• Use a sturdy tripod (please read an earlier blog on tripods) and a good tripod head - make sure your tripod is well placed and steady

• Use mirror lockup or shoot in live view - when the mirror slaps up for your camera to take the shot it causes internal vibrations and the minute your camera moves or vibrates you loose sharpness. Remember, when shooting landscapes we are typically shooting in low light and using small F.Stops, so our shutter speeds are really slow to allow the camera enough time to gather enough light. Slow shutter speeds necessitate that the camera does not vibrate if you want sharp images.

• Use a cable or wireless remote release - we do not want to be touching the camera's shutter button when we shoot (for the same reason mentioned above)

• Hang your camera bag or a weight on your tripod on a windy day so that the wind will not shake your tripod

• Once nothing is touching your camera anymore wait a few seconds for any vibrations to stop before shooting (via your remote release)

• Focus on the hyper focal distance to get everything sharp from foreground to background (assuming you are shooting a landscape) (read my blog on 5 must have apps; yes there is an app for that)

          Post process for sharpness

• Use a mask in Adobe Camera Raw when sharpening so that you only sharpen detail and not where there is no detail (sky, water, etc.)

• Sharpen your raw file sparingly - over sharpening ruins your image

• Once your image is fully processed in PhotoShop sharpen it for final output (sharpen for screen use or print use) - this is the last thing I do when I process files. I use Nik Software's Sharpener Filter. I also use a mask here to only sharpen the elements in the image I want sharpened.

          All digital files need sharpening. Let's get those shots sharp.