An experiment in sharpness

robbins.photo · Jun 22, 2014

Well, did some experimenting yesterday after a discussion we had recently on how to get extremely sharp photos - a combination of a high shutter speed (3-4x the focal length of the lens) and stopping down the lens does produce a very sharp image:

20140621 215 by robbins.photo, on Flickr

This was shot with a 70-200 mm F/2.8 at 1/600 shutter speed (3x the focal length of 200 mm) with the lens stopped down to F8. I was very pleased with the result.

pgriz · Jun 22, 2014

Yes, that does look very sharp. However, I also think that the direction of light played a role in giving that impression, with many micro-shadows helping define the texture, and thereby the perceived sharpness. Had you done the exact same shot in flat lighting, you wouldn't get anywhere near the same degree of "pop".

Warhorse · Jun 22, 2014

That is sharp!

Tripod or hand held?

robbins.photo · Jun 22, 2014

Warhorse said:
That is sharp!

Tripod or hand held?

Hand held - shot at 200 mm. Pgriz is of course quite correct (he's so annoying that way.. dang vulcans.. lol) in mentioning that light plays a big role, but I was pretty impressed with the sharpness of most of the pics I took where I could raise the shutter speed to 3-4 x the focal length. I figured it might make a difference, but didn't think it would be quite so dramatic when combined with stopping down the lens a bit.

baturn · Jun 22, 2014

Do you shut off OS when using those high shutter speeds? Great pic, by the way.

Raj_55555 · Jun 22, 2014

I'll definitely keep this in mind the next time I'm out shooting, Granted 70-200 is a very sharp lens, but it's still a very sharp shot.

robbins.photo · Jun 22, 2014

baturn said:
Do you shut off OS when using those high shutter speeds? Great pic, by the way.

Yup.. anymore I've found best results are to keep the OS shut off unless I really need it.

pgriz · Jun 22, 2014

Good to know. You're inspiring me to go and "test" your assumptions - may actually have to take a picture or three...

Derrel · Jun 22, 2014

This weekend I shot a beach session under very windy conditions...good, steady 20 to 25 MPH winds, all danged day long. The subject's hair was blowing around like crazy. She wore a straw hat for most all of the shots, both for eye shading, but also to keep her hair somewhat under control. Anyway, here's a good example of the "need for speed" AND f/stop. This has had an effect applied to it, but look at the full-sized image closely and you will see a few things. Pretty much from 1 PM to 6:30 PM the wind blew right off the Pacific Ocean, NON-stop, steady, at 20 to 25 MPH.

Look at the upper left quadrant, and see that her wildly whipping-in-the-wind hair is rendered sharply, right out the the very tips of the strands. In the lower left, look at the fine hairs on her arm, near the wrist bangle. Her right hand is juuuust outside the front DOF plane! Her sweater between the hands--sharp. Moving to the lower right hand corner, you can see that yes, the DOF plane begins right at her wrist...but as you move up the arm, the fine hairs on the arm are sharply-rendered. Her denim vest has good detail in it. The skin on her chin is well-defined and sharp. At her ears, look at the fine hair that lines the ear opening. Check out the earrings. Look at the hinge of the eyeglasses, as seen through the lens.

Even with the "effect" overlayed on it, the image looks "sharp" because of a few things. 1) Adequate depth of field, meaning f/5.6 so we can go from the body, to the back of the hair, which is probably 13,14 inches-all being shown actually IN-FOCUS, remembering that her hair is streaming out behind her a fair distance. At f/5.6 the corners AND the center of the frame are about equally sharp, so there's actual, real detail like the fine hairs on the arm, and the hair is FROZEN as it whips in the wind. Shot at 120mm zoom setting, Nikon's old 80-200 f/2.8 AF-S which has no VR. ISO level was deliberately set HIGH, to 400, even though I am on a wide-open beach with June 20th sun pouring onto the scene, so I can get....f/5.6 at 1/1000 second from 2.99 meters distant. I don't like to shoot these kinds of shots where "ONLY the eyes" are in-focus, or God forbid, "Just the near eye" is in focus, because to me, that looks like artifice, like a contrivance. I want to see the whole person looking sharp, overall, and not just say a 1- to 3 inch plane. The speed and the DOF are more-critical than the ISO level here.

Here it is at reduced size, attached. TO ACTUALLY SEE THE DETAILS, you need to look at it at FULL-size at the link below, where so you can either download or scroll around and look at it closely to see the many small things that ,together, create the impression of sharpness.