One of the most common questions I get asked in my photography education group is, “WHY are my images so blurry?” There are many things that play into the clarity of your image. In this post, I am going to share my top three tips for creating sharper images.
Check Your Gear
The first tip that I ALWAYS recommend is to get your lenses and your camera body calibrated. Contrary to popular belief, your brand new gear does NOT come out of the box calibrated. You have to get them calibrated regularly. I like to get mine calibrated between wedding seasons which is roughly every 4-6 months. When your calibration is off on either your lens or your camera, your focus points are off. This leads to, you guessed it, out of focus and blurry images. There are ways for you to calibrate it yourself, but I recommend finding a local camera shop to do it.
Check Your Aperture
Once you have completed step one, if you still have out of focus images I recommend examining your f stop. If you are unsure what aperture is and what it is in reference to your camera, I want you to download my FREE Guide to Manual Mode! If your f stop is too low to compensate, then you may have some parts of your image out of focus. It is important that your f stop number is high enough to ensure that your entire subjects are in focus.
Check Your Shutter Speed
My third and final tip is to make sure your shutter speed is not too low. Shutter speed gets slept on a little in the exposure triangle. It can be seen as the setting that balances the triangle out with a few adjustments. This leads some to believe that it has little impact on the overall exposure of the image. Here’s the thing, if your shutter speed is too low it CAN cause motion blur. The lower the shutter speed, the longer the shutter stays open. This allows motion blur to be captured. Ensuring that you have a high shutter speed is key to prevent motion blur.
Ready to Create Sharper Images?
Understanding your camera and mastering manual mode is key in creating sharper images. You can download my Free Guide to Manual Mode to jumpstart your manual mode journey. I also have created a Manual Mode Mini Course that simplifies each component of manual mode. Plus, my go to settings and my troubleshooting method.
Craving more community and education? Be sure to join my FREE Photography Education Group! Check out the latest blog post on Manual Mode!
