How can I get sharper photos in the evening?

I really enjoy taking shots during sunset or the golden hour but they never look very sharp. What can I do to improve? Here's a few I took the other day. Here's the date for the first shot: F/14 1/13, ISO-100, 55mm. 2nd shot: F/11, 1.3, ISO-100, 24mm. 3rd shot: F/16, 2.5, ISO-100, 24mm. Taken with T1i with 18-55mm kit lens. I also used a GND cokin filter kit

Are you using a tripod? Your shutter speeds are low for handheld. If you are using a tripod are you using a delayed shutter release or a remote release? These shots look fine to me BTW but at higher resolution you might very well be noticing any camera shake.

Try shooting at 24mm, f8. With your T1i zoomed to 24mm everything beyond 7 feet from your camera should be in perfect focus. F8 is kinda a sweet spot for most zooms for sharpness. Charles is dead right about the tripod too.


Just a thought.

Love you work btw.

Yes, I did use a tripod I just forgot to mention that. I have a remote shutter release that I need to practice with. I'm not very comfortable using it yet. So you think that using either a remote or the timer would improve the sharpness of my evening photos? I tried different shutter speeds and apertures to see what worked the best. I went to a slow shutter speed to blur the water a little bit in some of these photos also.

I have read that f/8 is the sweet spot for that lens but also that you want to decrease your aperture to get everything in focus. It can get confusing at times trying to remember everything I've read about.

It's good to hear that you like my work.

It is good to learn Depth of Field.

Here is link to a DOF Calculator. Lots of info on the PhotographyTalk site that will explain how to calculate DOF.


www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Hope this helps!

I can't get the link to load?

Lonestarlady61 wrote: I can't get the link to load?

Google DOF Calculator, it should come up in the first few hits.

Lonestarlady61 wrote: I have a remote shutter release that I need to practice with. I'm not very comfortable using it yet.

Why? I have used a couple different models over the years and I can assure you neither has bitten me.

So you think that using either a remote or the timer would improve the sharpness of my evening photos?

Depending on the sturdiness of your tripod and steadiness of your hand, pressing the shutter could cause enough shaking to affect your shot.

Lonestarlady61 wrote: I have read that f/8 is the sweet spot for that lens but also that you want to decrease your aperture to get everything in focus.

That's called 'stopping down' your lens, and it does increase the DOF, but it can give a softer result, relatively speaking, than a wider aperture. The lower grade your lens the more you will notice that effect.

It's difficult to tell in the bottom two photos, but in the first one the mountains are somewhat out of focus. Despite shooting at f/14, if you were focused on a point only a few feet in front of you, it makes sense that the mountains were still not sharp. Instead of stopping down further - which would require a longer shutter speed, you could have focused on a more distant point.

VT Hiker wrote:

Lonestarlady61 wrote: I have a remote shutter release that I need to practice with. I'm not very comfortable using it yet.

Why? I have used a couple different models over the years and I can assure you neither has bitten me.

So you think that using either a remote or the timer would improve the sharpness of my evening photos?

Depending on the sturdiness of your tripod and steadiness of your hand, pressing the shutter could cause enough shaking to affect your shot.

Lonestarlady61 wrote: I have read that f/8 is the sweet spot for that lens but also that you want to decrease your aperture to get everything in focus.

That's called 'stopping down' your lens, and it does increase the DOF, but it can give a softer result, relatively speaking, than a wider aperture. The lower grade your lens the more you will notice that effect.

It's difficult to tell in the bottom two photos, but in the first one the mountains are somewhat out of focus. Despite shooting at f/14, if you were focused on a point only a few feet in front of you, it makes sense that the mountains were still not sharp. Instead of stopping down further - which would require a longer shutter speed, you could have focused on a more distant point.