Photo — Peak sharpness

#photo/quality · Note 4 of 7 · part of Photography

Getting everything 24 megapixels can actually give. In rough order of how much each one matters.

1. Shutter speed — the biggest cause of "soft" photos

Most images blamed on a lens are camera shake. The floor from Photo — Exposure, plainly is 1/60 for this combination without IS. If a shot matters, double it. Sharpness you gave away to motion cannot be sharpened back.

2. Nail the focus, not the focus mode

At f/1.8, depth of field at two metres is a few centimetres. At macro distance it is millimetres.

Eye AF for anything with eyes.
Single point when the camera keeps choosing the wrong thing.
Back-button focus — move AF off the shutter button onto AF-ON. It separates "focus" from "take the picture", and it is the single habit that most improves a hit rate.

3. The aperture sweet spot

The RF 35mm f/1.8 is good wide open and sharpest around f/4–f/5.6, especially in the corners.

f/1.8 — for the look, not for the sharpness
f/4–f/5.6 — peak
f/8 — still excellent, more depth of field
f/11 and beyond — diffraction. On 24MP APS-C the softening is visible. Stopping down past f/11 buys depth of field at the cost of overall detail, and never adds sharpness.

That last point surprises people. There is no aperture at which everything is sharp; there is a trade.

4. Shoot RAW

JPEG bakes in sharpening, noise reduction and white balance, then discards the data that would let you change your mind. RAW costs card space, which is cheap.

The R50's C-RAW is roughly 40% smaller with no practical quality loss. Use it if space is a concern.

5. Stabilisation, used correctly

Handheld, static subject: IS on
On a tripod: IS off
Panning: IS on (the lens detects the pan)

6. The unglamorous ones

Clean the front element. A smeared lens is a contrast-killer that looks like softness.
Micro-contrast is a light problem, not a gear problem. Flat light will look soft no matter the settings.
Sharpen at the end, for the output size, not in the middle of editing.

What will not help

Buying a sharper lens before doing the six things above. The RF 35mm f/1.8 out-resolves 24MP comfortably; it is very unlikely to be the limiting factor.

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