Getting consistently sharp images takes some practice. I know we all have taken that perfect shot, only to get home and upload it and discover that the eyes are not in focus! It is so frustrating! But there are some things you can do to help you start getting tack-sharp images!

The first thing (and most important in my mind) is to make sure you are focusing on the eyes (more specifically, the irises)! The eyes are what draw you into the image! When focusing on the eyes, it helps to set your camera on a single AF point. This way your camera is not choosing on its own what it wants to focus on.

Next, use your toggle points! Sometimes when using the “focus and recompose” method, the camera can tend to lose the focus in the short time it takes you to recompose your image. When using your toggle points, you are telling the camera exactly where to focus!

Avoid motion blur and camera shake! You may not see it while you’re framing your shot, but it is nearly impossible to hold your camera completely still unless you are using a tripod. When I am using my heavier lenses, I will brace my elbows against my body, and that helps hold my camera more still.

I do believe that prime lenses are sharper than zoom lenses. My reason behind my belief is that zoom lenses have a lot more glass in them than primes do. It is harder to get tack sharp focus when trying to focus through 6 or more pieces of glass inside your lens. That is not to say that zooms are bad. This is just my own personal opinion and mainly why I choose primes over zoom lenses.

Make sure your exposure is correct! An over or under exposed image will cause the image to become soft. I also don’t suggest shooting wide open (ie: 1.2-1.6). It is hard to nail focus when you have such a small focal area! Also, shooting with a lower ISO setting can help the image to not be fuzzy!

You can sharpen the eyes in post using the high pass filter (Amanda has a great post about this!)! This is not something I typically do, only because it can be so easy to over do it, and then you end up with an image that has alien eyes (at least that’s what I call them, haha!). Over-sharpened eyes tend to look crispy and glowing. However, there is nothing wrong with enhancing the eyes a bit! Just do it in moderation!

And lastly, while I hate to actually say this, equipment can sometimes makes a big difference in image quality! Just because you buy new equipment, does not mean you will automatically be a better photographer (you still will need knowledge in how to properly expose your images). However, better equipment can play a part in the higher quality of your images, and save you some time in Photoshop! So if you are doing everything right, and still not getting high-quality images, that’s when you’ll know that it might be time to upgrade!

I do hope this post helps you and answers some questions about what you can do to get tack-sharp images. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in a comment or email me at beckie {at} beckiegkengle {dot} com.

And because no post is complete without a picture, check out these two adorable sisters!

If you enjoyed reading my post and would like to follow more of my journey through life in photography, feel free to visit my blog or follow my Facebook page!

Ever just feel like starting over with an edit? It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. When you do feel like that, there are three ways you can do all your work:

1. Close the image without saving it and the work you’ve done will be gone.
2. Go to the History panel (Undo History panel in PSE 10-6) and scroll back to the top of the list and click on the top item which is your file. This gets rid of all the steps you’ve made. You can find your History/Undo History panel by going to Windows, then clicking on that choice.
3. Use the Reset action I’m providing today.

The action is free and works in Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements. When you click to apply it, it will take your image back to it’s original state IF you have not saved the edit at some point. If you have saved it, with will not reset.

This is not a “must have” action, but one that can come in handy and save a bit of time for you. Also, if you apply it and then wish to undo that, press ‘control’ and ‘z’ (or ‘command’ and ‘z’ on a Mac).

To download the action, click HERE.

It’s been a little while since I’ve done an action edit. And I haven’t had a chance to try out the updated “City Lights” B&W set from Amanda! There were a few new actions added into that set. For this edit I chose ‘Carson City’.

The first thing I did was run Deep Clean 1 & 2 on my image and did all of my little tweaks to it.

before Deep Clean:

after Deep Clean:

Then I ran “Carson City” from the “City Lights B&W” set. I unchecked the ‘lighten shadows’ layer and brought the ‘brighten’ layer down to 70%.

Now because I have been really into that matte effect, I used the “Make Matte” action and brought it down to about 45%. It is only a siubtle change, but I really like it.

This edit only took about 2 minutes from start to finish! And I am really happy with how it turned out!

(P.S. Thank you to my gorgeous niece for being my model! We ended up using this image for her college grad pictures! She is graduating from Chico State University on May 26th!)

If you enjoyed reading my post and would like to follow more of my journey through life in photography, feel free to visit my blog or follow my Facebook page!

The other day, I did 2 college grad photo sessions. They took place at approximately 4p when the sun was still pretty high, and viciously bright and harsh! So, I thought I would talk today about finding the best light when shooting in the mid-day sun!

I like to find places that have a lot of open shade, but also don’t have a lot of bright distracting things going on in the background! When shooting in open shade, you are free to place your subject facing whichever direction to the sun that you like!

When there is no shade, I place my subjects with their backs to the sun. This helps avoid squinting when looking into the sun, and also prevents raccoon eyes! Another plus to shooting into the sun is that you can get some really pretty back-lighting! Using a reflector or fill flash can help you add light to your subject’s face if it is too dark. And shooting manual is the best way to get properly exposed back-lit photos! I also set my camera to spot-metering.

If you enjoyed reading my post and would like to follow more of my journey through life in photography, feel free to visit my blog or follow my Facebook page!

Beckie did a wonderful post last week, showing Photoshop CS users how to make their own watermarking action. Photoshop Elements users cannot MAKE actions, but they can USE actions, so today I’m sharing a free watermarking action.

To use the action, install it how you normally would (see tutorial on installing actions if you need help). Have your watermark saved as a transparent .png file (see this tutorial) and know where to find it. When you are ready to watermark, play the action.

The action will prompt you to locate your watermark, then places it on your image.

• You move the logo wherever you like on the image by clicking on the logo and dragging to a new spot.
• To make the logo smaller or larger, hold down the shift key to resize without losing the original proportions.
• Flatten and save your image – make sure to save as with a different name so you don’t overwrite the original. I put “web” at the end of my file names so that I know for certain that is the image prepped for the Internet.

If you want to resize or move the logo later, hold down the alt (option on Mac) key. For some reason it changes after the original placement.

This free action is part of the Everyday Finishes set, a companion set to Everyday Essentials. If you are installing the action on PSE 10 and older, look for the action under that category (in the drop down Photo Effects menu).

To download, click HERE.

The short, two minute video below briefly shows how to use the Add Watermark action.

To be clear – you have to have created or had someone else create a watermark. This action does NOT create the watermark for you, merely facilitates the placement of the watermark.