Taking sharp photos

Equipment

1. Good tripod and ballhead, and use it even in daylight.
If you can't use tripod use very fast shutter speed, preferable bigger than your focal length (f.e a 180mm lens, f/200). If you have little light, at least use continuous shutting mode with 10/12 shots. At least one will be focused. And use Photoshop Noise Ninja to remove the noise if you are forced to shoot with high ISO.
2. Wireless remote or self timer.

Technique

1. Mirror lock-up to reduce internal vibrations.
2. Ideally two full stops above your wide open aperture (for f/2.8, f/5.6 and f/8 are ideal)
3. Use the lowest ISO
4. Always zoom in to check sharpness.
5. Use the highlights (blinkies) on your camera. They show parts of the picture with no detail, use exposure compensation to correct it.

Post processing

Quick Unsharp mask with these settings:

People: amount 150% Radius 1 Threshold 10
Urban, travel: Amount 65% Radius 3 Threshold 2
General: Amount 85% Radius 1 Threshold 4


The best sharpening technique uses the channel palette not to affect the color content as follows:

• Mode->Lab color
• Channel palette->Lighten channel
• Apply Unsharp mask as before. And again.
• If the second filter is too sharp do Edit->Fade Unsharp mask and lower opacity to 50%, halving the effect.
• Mode->RGB