Focus advice

Luis Alfonso Castro Leon

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Luis
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Hey guys! I just want general recommendations or advice with getting the proper focus, I've training with my manual professional mode for a while now and I'm getting brilliant exposures, so I guess this is not a problem anymore. However, I still have to remove some pretty good shots due to lack of sharpness, most of the time I use auto single point focus, but I'm not sure how to get this technique into perfection.

Any advice for getting the proper focus for a sharp image?

Best,
Luis.
 
you dont mention what kit you have ( camera and lenses ) but in general most lenses have there optimum sharpness around 2 stops down . a couple of sample shots would help too so we can see where you may be going wrong.
 
also if you are shooting raw nearly every raw file benefits from some sharpening in PP

plus unsharpness can be caused by missed focus (ie focusing on the wrong thing) , insufficient depth of feild, subject movement, or camera wobble - or a combination of any of them
 
another thing not mentioned above, many digital sensors have AA filters over them, that intentionally reduce sharpness to prevent Moire. How aggressive this is depends on model
 
Thanks guys! I'm going to reply to all of you with just one post to avoid extra spam.

@dean messenger : I have a Nikon D3300 with the regular 18-55mm kit lens and a telephoto from Nikon 55-300mm, both with VR, I'll be posting some shots later on. when you are saying 2 stops down, is that for the aperture?

@big soft moose: Im shooting RAW, but not sure about what is PP.

@boyfalldown Not sure about that is AA, sounds bad, how can I take it off?

Also, what can you guys tell me about hand shake? I'm using the proper stand, but is it something that gets better with practice?
 
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Not sure about the Nikon but I can fine tune the focus for each lens on my Canon cameras, my 24-70 2.8 was fine but every other lens needed adjustment, my 16-35 was was, way out. All great now after adjusting the focus. You only need do it once per lens then the camera applies the correction each time it's fitted. Might be worth looking at.
 
Without sample shots it's difficult to speculate, but there are many reasons for a lack of sharpness other than focus technique. You also don't say what the subjects are, which will make a difference.
 
I think in the 'holy thread revival bat man' style it may have been missed that luis asked this question in september last year and hasnt been seen since
 
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