Comments on: 4 Reasons Why You Aren’t Getting Sharp Images

By: pete guaron

pete guaron — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:38:31 +0000

The longer the distance, the greater the risk – likelihood! – of haze. Haze can come frrom different directions – eg, moisture evaporating from the sea or a lake between you and your subject – moisture in the atmosphere – or dust particles in te air.

Post rocessing programs claim to get rid of it. In my experience, only partly (which is scarcely surprising, when you examine the cause of it)
.

By: Helena

Helena — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 01:55:29 +0000

Thank you, very good points! Here is a great article on enhancing blurry images, but it's always better to get it right in the camera. There is only so much you can do in post, so learning how to avoid the most common mistakes that result in blurry photos is very important.

By: KC

KC — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 12:08:00 +0000

All great points. I want to jump back to autofocus: it’s not perfect. Far from it. It’s a separate article unto itself, but ask yourself: is the camera focusing on what I think is important, or what it can lock onto to?

Truth be told, over the decades, I’ve run into very few bad lenses, just less great ones. I refer primes for crispness and zooms for convenience, but that’s me.

I do like a good tripod. Look closely at the weight rating. Tripods are rated to hold cameras within certain weight ranges. But that doesn’t say much about the balance with a long lens. Think about it. The mounting screw is on the camera body. Now add a foot or two of lens in front of that. Some long lenses have a tripod mount on them. There may be plates to shift the camera back on the tripod to distribute the weight.

There’s an old “hack” about hanging your camera bag off your tripod to add stability. Yes, if the bag touches the ground. Otherwise it’s a pendulum.

By: Graciela Vance

Graciela Vance — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 22:58:00 +0000

In reply to Mike930. This helped a lot! This time I set the ISO to 800 and adjusted the shutter speed. The pictures turned out much better and sharper. Thanks for the help!

By: John Skiggs

John Skiggs — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 09:12:00 +0000

Focus issues > I’ve had a magnificent
Minolta 70-200mm 2.8 lens in the drawer for several years but
never got an “in-focus” image out of it. Recently I put it on
the camera, mounted it on the camera table with a remote shutter
cord attached, and tried to focus on some half inch high
printing on a test card at a distance of about 30 feet across
the studio. What I learned was that it was a very sharp lens
indeed; the camera table probably weighs 150-lbs, yet with
magnification the image on the screen could wobble from the top
of the screen to the bottom; and just carry on wobbling; it
wouldn’t stop; it would go on wobbling for a second or more
??.. My options very clearly were a very high shutter speed or
to use a few more little grey cells and re-mount it using the
mounting position on the lens; not the mounting position on the
camera, or both, (which fixed the problem, Okay a blinding flash
of the obvious; it gave me a truly useful lens and gave me a
mini educational) Mounting positions on lenses are there for a
reason.. Best of luck in your focusing issues. Please post a
reply if you have something to
contribute..

By: John Skiggs

John Skiggs — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 08:37:00 +0000

In reply to Dave Melges. In America most people get guns to shoot people. (you know this) Just trying to be helpful. ;)

By: John Skiggs

John Skiggs — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 08:34:00 +0000

In reply to Dave Melges. Great article; small point, > In America most people get guns to shoot people. (you know this) Just trying to be helpful. ;)

By: frodoboy

frodoboy — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 05:59:00 +0000

In reply to Dave Melges. They do???????????????????????????

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 14:42:00 +0000

Great points. There is also the possibility that the camera autofocus or a lens is not calibrated or because of a “drop” (even in a camera bag) the body is now out of calibration.. This could result in some shots in focus and others not, and is really frustrating. Some cameras can be adjusted by you for minor adjustments but my Nikon body needed a visit to the local Nikon service shop. In this situation LiveView images are in focus but autofocus images are not, in narrow depth-of-field shots. Calibration processes are available on the Internet such as https://www.slrlounge.com/calibrate-lenses-simple-fix-blurry-images/.

By: denise belanger

denise belanger — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 10:03:00 +0000

I use the self-timer and walk a few feet away. This eliminates any shaking which may come from me.