HOW TO GET SHARPER PHOTOS WITH YOUR DSLR CAMERA

Hey beginner photographers! If you've ever second guessed your camera settings, so have the rest of us! Learning camera settings takes practice and time, but once it clicks, you've got yourself a new motivation for learning photography. (For the sake of this blog post AND for getting better at your camera settings, consider going to the "for photographers" page and downloading the FREE camera settings and gear guide at the bottom that contains the photography cheat sheet to show you the 3 most important camera settings- shutter speed, aperture, and iso and how to use them). Now, let's get into it!

Today, let's discuss shutter speed. If you've been paying attention and reading my other blog posts, you will know that shutter speed is how slow or how fast the shutter opens and closes in your dslr camera. Seems simple right? That's because it is!

When you want to take a shot of a non moving subject, I suggest slowing your shutter speed way down so you can prioritize your other two important settings- iso and aperture AND because you don't need to freeze motion- because there isn't anyone moving in the photo with still subjects. If you are photographing a boy doing a wheelie on his bike, you're going to want to freeze motion. How do you do that? By changing your shutter speed to fast of course! But how fast? (refer to the FREE photography cheat sheet on the "for photographers" page)

My recommendation for anything that is really fast is a shutter speed of 1000 or more. When you adjust your shutter speed to 1/1000, you're going to need to adjust your other two. The trick is to prioritize shutter speed first then the other two so that you're clear on what you are trying to achieve in the photo.

Now, if you're a portrait photographer like me, I turn my shutter speed up even when I know I won't have much motion because I feel it makes my images CRISPER. For example, if I'm photographing one subject but I want a super blurry background, I'm going to turn my aperture way down to let's say f1.4 and since it's so low, I'm going to need to turn my shutter speed up so that my subjects whole face is in focus, not just her eyes or face, but her whole body. Aperture will make your photos look softer when you turn it all the way down to an f-stop number like 1.4. If you're using an f stop of 2.8 or above, you are probably not going to have to turn your shutter speed up because the nose and eyes and face will most likely be in focus. Some lenses have a "sweet spot" where everything comes into focus except the background, which you want blurry of course. Did you know that?

I hope you learned something here today to help you on your photography journey! If you are learning beginner photography and are ready to dive into more, I have created a guide called "The Ultimate Guide to Beginner Photography" that will teach you everything you can possibly imagine in beginner photography like what photography gear you need, cameras, lenses, how to shoot in manual mode in your camera, how to take better photos, photography techniques, lighting, composition, photography tips, and so much more! Go check it out on the "for photographers" page!