Wow! That's a very complicated way of saying "get the focus and exposure right, keep the camera as still as possible."
;-) We already knew all that, didn't we? But you did a great job expanding and explaining all of that. To expand further on the exposure front, let's not forget bracketting. I never once bracketted with film due to film's exposure latitude and the fact that none of my cameras had an auto-bracketting feature. Plus, with film it cost money. But now it's virtually free and it's certainly easy. I use it in every situation but on the street where time and remaining inconspicuous are paramount. Even then there are times I'll bracket in the street. It's a near necessity easy for digital imho. Cheers, frank "What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof." -- Christopher Hitchens --- Original Message --- From: Bruce Walker <bruce.wal...@gmail.com> Sent: May 30, 2012 5/30/12 To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <pdml@pdml.net> Subject: Re: Improving the technical quality of my photography Sharpness: easy one. When it matters: - use low ISO (no higher than 200) - light your subject well (exposure!) - use the center focus point on something lit and detailed - focus on eyes in portraits (use manual focus-point setting) - use higher shutter speeds (125th and up) - use tripod, monopod, or lean against something solid - don't breath while pressing shutter - use pro glass (eg DA*) - keep your glass clean - avoid using filters (like UV); *especially* cheap ones - set aperture in sweet range for lens (eg not wide open) - use mirror lockup when you can - use timed shutter or remote release when you can - use input and output sharpening passes in post-processing - avoid too much noise-reduction - shoot RAW Do *all* of the above together for max sharpness. On exposure: not sure what to say to you here. You need to be mindful of how well your matrix metering works so you know when you need to compensate; when you need to switch to spot metering; when you should use a light meter. You've been doing the difficult boundary cases so long this should be like shooting fish in a barrel for you by now. What other "poor technical quality" did you have in mind? Eg: poor contrast / too much contrast? Over / under saturated? For most stuff like that, I recommend looking at a lot of images, then keeping what you have seen in mind when post-processing. I spend more time looking at other people's work than I do at my own. I seek out work that's like what I want to do and spend quality time *really* appreciating it. I think that what did the most for the technical quality of my own work was to get the gear to the point where it was all evenly matched -- ie no weak links -- then forgetting about technical quality and concentrating on subject matter, composition, light, intent, vision, ... On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 4:54 PM, Larry Colen <l...@red4est.com> wrote: > It often seems that the bulk of my photography is in situations where I'm > pretty much trying to make the best of a bad situation, and I'm not so much > going for a sharp photo, but a photo that is as sharp as I can get at the > moment. > > Call me bourgeois, but the poor technical quality (sharpness, exposure etc.) > of my photos has been bothering me lately. > > What have you done, if anything, to improve the technical quality of your > photography, and how much difference did it make? > I can't really afford equipment upgrades at the moment, but if changing gear > made a huge difference, that's important to know. > > In a related note, if people have noticed consistent technical flaws that I > make, like camera motion, or poor focus, that would also be helpful, and they > could send me recommendations wither on, or off, list. > > One thing that I do intend to do is start taking some photos in situations > where it's theoretically possible to get extremely sharp photos, so that, > frankly, I don't have any excuses that I can blame on the gear. > > -- > Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
