sharp photos

[SCraig]

First shot: As Lew wrote; it looks sharp as it is, however you shot that at focal length of 160mm, and the shutter speed was only 1/250. So you're pushing your ability to hand-hold at that focal length.

Pushing the Rule-of-thumb limit, not necessarily his abilities. Rules-of-thumb are frequently based on worst-case conditions and his may be better than that. I know for a fact that braced on a window sill I can hand-hold my 300mm down to 1/30 second with VR enabled. Got the shot to back it up

 

[Designer]

I use to use uv filters but found that they actually hurt image quality so I no longer use them. I also only shoot in jpeg not Nef. I have been wanting to switch over but am not exactly sure how because of memory and conversions. I feel like like raw or nef would help having better pictures.

Fear not. Go ahead and shoot in NEF and JPG. When you upload to your computer, you will get two files of the same picture. If you have any software that handles NEF, you can edit those files just as you would JPG. When you know you want to edit every shot, then just shoot in NEF. When you export files, you can export in JPG or TIF so other people without editing software can see them.

 

[Designer]

First shot: As Lew wrote; it looks sharp as it is, however you shot that at focal length of 160mm, and the shutter speed was only 1/250. So you're pushing your ability to hand-hold at that focal length.

Pushing the Rule-of-thumb limit, not necessarily his abilities. Rules-of-thumb are frequently based on worst-case conditions and his may be better than that. I know for a fact that braced on a window sill I can hand-hold my 300mm down to 1/30 second with VR enabled. Got the shot to back it up

My poor choice of terms. Yes, I usually brace my own camera on whatever I can, and practice good shutter technique, and I have advised others on here to brace their cameras as well, but I simply chose not to go into that much detail in that post. Thanks, Scott.

 

[SCraig]

My poor choice of terms. Yes, I usually brace my own camera on whatever I can, and practice good shutter technique, and I have advised others on here to brace their cameras as well, but I simply chose not to go into that much detail in that post. Thanks, Scott.

No sweat, just yanking your chain since I know that you know better.

I quote that rule as well but I don't necessarily agree with it. It came to be decades ago and really isn't nearly as reliable as it once was. For new shooters I feel that it is an excellent guideline, but once they gain a little experience in properly holding and bracing a camera it can easily start to slide. In addition, image stabilization plays a big part these days. I don't think it goes as far as the manufacturers like to claim it does, but a good VR system can make the difference between a blurry shot and a sharp one sometimes.

 

[rokstomper]

Thanks for the advice. I really need every bit of information I can get. I try to follow the general rules but sometimes they have to be broken or you will not have any photos.