10 Tips To Get Sharp Focus In Your Photographs

Are you ready to get sharp focus in your phtographs? Well, I’ve put togeth­er 10 tips to get sharp focus in your photographs.

Do you ever take a pic­ture only to upload it and see that it’s out of focus? Soft focus has to be one of the most frus­trat­ing aspects of pho­tog­ra­phy. That’s why I’ve put togeth­er these 10 tips to get sharp focus in your photographs.

Tak­ing tack-sharp pho­tos is the one thing most begin­ning pho­tog­ra­phers strug­gle with! I see it every day in my Face­book Group, and it’s one of the things that I teach in The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Class.

If you are strug­gling with the same thing? You aren’t alone… it’s chal­leng­ing to get sharp focus in your pho­tog­ra­phy. It’s frus­trat­ing when your images are “soft” or out of focus. I know…it was my strug­gle when I was learn­ing to use my cam­era. But don’t you wor­ry, you can get sharp focus in your photography. 

I have put togeth­er these 10 tips to get sharp focus in your pho­tographs. Today, I am going to break it down for you. I will give you tips that will get you on your way to achiev­ing those per­fect, tack-sharp pho­tos every time.

10 Tips To Get Sharp Focus in Your Photographs

Tip #1 Aperture

The first thing so many peo­ple do when they get a new lens is to start shoot­ing wide open. You may not real­ize that your lens won’t pro­duce its sharpest pic­tures at its widest aper­ture. The best aper­ture for your lens to cre­ate tack-sharp pho­tos is usu­al­ly a few stops down from the widest aper­ture. Remem­ber this when shoot­ing, and try not to open up your lens all the way.

Tip #2 Shutter Speed

My sec­ond tip for you to get sharp focus in your phtog­ra­phy is all about Shut­ter Speed. Many times peo­ple’s pho­tos aren’t sharp because their shut­ter speed is too slow. Remem­ber that your shut­ter speed is how long your shut­ter is open. The longer the shut­ter is open, the more room for shake or move­ment, result­ing in a blur in your images and a soft, out-of-focus pho­to. I teach my stu­dents to keep their shut­ter speed above 1/100. If you go below, it helps to use a tripod.

Tip #3 ISO

The #3 tip in my 10 tips to get sharp focus in your pho­tographs is ISO. If you’re using a high ISO, you’re going to end up with more “noise” in your pho­tos, thus mak­ing the details appear fuzzy. Make sure that you are using the low­est ISO pos­si­ble when­ev­er you can.

Tip #4 Back Button Focus

This tip is a game-chang­er. When you use back but­ton focus­ing, you use a but­ton on the back of your cam­era to set and hold focus. You are sep­a­rat­ing the focus and the shut­ter into two dif­fer­ent but­tons. You sim­ply set the focus, and it stays. I dive more into back but­ton focus in The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials course.

Tips #5 Your Lens

This goes back to aper­ture and your lens work­ing at its best poten­tial. If you are shoot­ing a zoom lens, it will work best at its mid-range.

Tip #6 Posture

It’s going to hap­pen; you are going to move when tak­ing a pho­to. Whether it’s tak­ing a breath or shak­ing, move­ment will affect your pho­tos. Mak­ing your body cre­ate a “tri­pod” will help with this. Brace your elbows against your body. Stand with your feet shoul­der-width apart and snap the shut­ter slow­ly and gen­tly. This will help with any body shake that you may have.

Tip #7 Image Stabilization

Your cam­era has a nifty lit­tle tool called image sta­bi­liza­tion. It can real­ly help you get sharp images if used cor­rect­ly. Learn more about your image sta­bi­liza­tion and use it accordingly.

Tip #8 Use The Right Settings

This may be the most impor­tant tip to get sharp focus in your pho­tog­ra­phy. Under­stand­ing your set­tings and using the cor­rect set­tings is essen­tial when achiev­ing sharp focus. Adjust­ing your focal points and your focal set­tings will make a huge dif­fer­ence in the focus of your shots.

Tip #9 Learn to Shoot in Low Light

If you notice that your low light shots are con­tin­u­ous­ly blur­ry, under­stand­ing and learn­ing to shoot in low light will make all of the dif­fer­ence. There is a big dif­fer­ence in the set­tings you will use in low light and under­stand­ing that will help you achieve a bet­ter focus.

Tip #10 Use a Tripod

Buy­ing a good tri­pod can absolute­ly help you get sharp focus in your pho­tos, espe­cial­ly if shoot­ing at night. Tripods also help when you’re using a longer, heav­ier lens.

There you have it, my 10 tips to get sharp focus in your pho­tographs help you get sharp focus. If you want to learn to use your cam­era, under­stand your pho­tos and start tak­ing amaz­ing pho­tos today, make sure that you check out The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials class!