Martin bailey

sharpshooter
Proven Techniques for Sharper Photographs
table of contents
Introduction........................................................ 3

What Makes it Sharp?. . ........................................ 4

Where to Focus.................................................... 6

Focus in the Macro Range................................11

Advanced Focus Techniques............................ 14

The Great Un-sharp........................................... 19

Checking Critical Sharpness.. ......................... 23

Analyzing Blurriness . . ...................................... 24

Sharpening in Post............................................ 28

Conclusion......................................................... 35

Appendix.. ............................................................. 35

sharp shooter : 2
introduction
T
There’s nothing worse than getting home thinking you’ve bagged a
world-beater, only to look at your new prize on the computer and find that
it isn’t sharp. This eBook isn’t going to transform every image you shoot into
a razor-sharp wonder, but it will give you some tools to nail that world-beater
more often than you lament it.

We’ll look at depth of field and why things are sharp in the first place, and
I’ll cover various focusing techniques and settings. But it’s important to
remember that there’s no single right way to set up your camera and shoot
the various scenes you’ll come across. Being a Sharp Shooter is about
arming yourself with an understanding of why focus is what it is, learning the
techniques required for each situation, and selecting the best method when
the time comes.

When I turned and saw these penguins coming towards me, I was shooting
with the wrong settings for this scene. I didn’t want to miss the shot, but they
were going to be too close in a second or two. There was no time to change
my settings, so the fastest and easiest way for me to focus without changing
anything was to pre-focus on the ground in front of the penguins, and then
release the shutter as the first penguin reached that point. It was a split-
second decision based on practice and experience. The more you understand
the techniques available to you, the more likely you are to reach for the right
tool at the right time, even under pressure.

I’ll show you ways to figure out why a shot didn’t work out and provide some
tips on how to fix it. We’ll also experiment with using out-of-focus areas and
intentional blur to great effect. In addition, if despite your best efforts you don’t
quite nail the focus on that dream shot, we’ll look at what can be done on the
computer so that you don’t have to throw it out.

Have fun, Sharp Shooter!

sharp shooter : 3
what makes
it sharp?
B
Depth of Field
Before we talk about techniques to get
sharper images, let’s work through some
theory, to make sure we all understand
why images are sharp—or not—in the first
place. I’m sure you already know that the
aperture you set on your camera when
shooting affects how much of the image
will be in focus, and how much is not
sharp, or “soft.” The depth of the sharp
area is called the depth of field (commonly
referred to as “DOF”).
A wide aperture gives a shallow DOF with
just a small part of the subject in focus,
and a small aperture gives a deeper DOF,
with much more of the scene in focus.
To confuse matters, wide apertures are
represented by small numbers such as
1.4, 2.8 and 4, and small apertures are
represented by bigger numbers such as
16 and 22. This is because the pioneers
of photography needed a numerical
system to represent the size of the
aperture in relation to any given focal
length, such as 24mm, 50mm or 100mm,
etc. The resulting apertures are written as
f-numbers, like f/2.8, f/5.6 and f/11, etc.
Aperture numbers are calculated by
dividing the focal length of the lens by
the width of the aperture, or the hole
through which light travels through the
lens. This means that the aperture of a
50mm lens at f/2.8 will be 17.86mm in
diameter. Likewise, an aperture of f/4 on
a 200mm lens will be 50mm in diameter.
The range of aperture numbers in full
stops is 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22,
32. These numbers are actually the square
route of 2 to the power of 0, 1, 2 and
so on, which is why they’re such weird
numbers to remember.
Focus Distance and
Focal Length’s Affect
To maintain the same DOF with the
100mm lens at f/5.6, you’d have to double
the distance to the subject by moving
on Depth of Field
Let’s look at some examples of how
distance to subject and the focal length
of your lens affect the DOF in your image.
These calculations are commonly based
back to six feet (183cm). On the next page
I’ve provided a couple of examples of this
(see Figure 1), with full-sized photos from
both the 50mm and 100mm lenses on
the left, and a 100 percent crop from each
photo on the right. See how similar the
on how sharp an image would look when bokeh is in both photos?
printed at 8x10 inches and viewed from a
distance of two to three feet. Perceived If you were to go back to the 50mm lens
sharpness will vary depending on how while still shooting from six feet away,
you eventually use an image, but these at the same aperture you’d just over
examples should help you to understand quadruple the DOF to 1.47ft (44.8cm).
the theory. And for good measure, here’s one last
If you aren’t familiar with how distance to
subject, focal length and aperture affect
depthof field, a DOF calculator can be
a very useful learning tool. (See Appendix)
If you photograph a subject three example: if you want to shoot at three
feet (91.4cm) away with a 50mm lens feet with a 100mm lens and still get
and the aperture set to f/5.6, the DOF a four-inch (10cm) DOF, you need an
is approximately 4.24in (10.8cm). If you
aperture four times smaller, taking you
photograph the same subject from the
from f/5.6 through f/8, f/11 and f/16 to
same distance with the same aperture
f/22. Remember how changing from
using a 100mm lens, the DOF decreases
100mm to 50mm at six feet quadrupled
to a shade under an inch (2.53cm),
the DOF? It’s the same thing; it’s an
just a quarter of the depth. See how
inverse square, and this is why DOF is so
doubling the focal length greatly
shallow in macro photography (discussed
decreases the DOF?
later in this eBook).
sharp shooter : 4
Figure 1

50mm @ f/5.6 from 3’ (91.4cm)

DoF = 4.24” (10.8cm)

100mm @ f/5.6 from 6’ (183cm)

DoF = 4.23” (10.7cm)

sharp shooter : 5
where to focus
O
OK, so we’ve looked at how to control our
depth of field, but where should we focus
when composing an image?

Eyes (usually) Demand

Focus
Generally, if there are people or animals in
your shot, you will want to focus on your
subject’s eyes. Without the eyes in focus,
the subject can look lifeless. In this shot of
a clothes merchant in a market in India, I
used an 85mm lens with the aperture set to
f/1.6 for razor thin DOF on the gentleman’s
face only, particularly his wonderfully
look to the little monkey. I stopped the
distinguished eyes. His nose and eyebrows
aperture down to f/6.3 so that there was
are out of focus, but we don’t care, or even
enough detail in the eye and face to make
notice, because his eyes are sharp.
it still work.

Soft Eyes Find the Lines

As usual, guidelines are just that. There are
Autofocus systems work by detecting lines
always opportunities to break the rules, and
and texture. If ever you are trying to focus
having eyes not in focus is not always a total
on something and the lens starts to search,
no-no. Tell a different story by not having
it’s often because you placed your selected
focus on the eyes. For example, in this
focus point over an area that has no texture
photograph I focused on the Snow Monkey’s
or lines. For example, focusing on a cheek
ear instead of the eye, resulting in the image
is much more likely to give you trouble than
being more about the texture of the fur, and
the eye would.
to also give a distant, somewhat thoughtful

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Foreground Bokeh like this photograph (Figure 2) of crowds Figure 2

on a bridge enjoying the cherry blossoms

(Maebokeh) in Tokyo. I had the aperture of my lens

The Japanese word “bokeh” has been wide open to make the foreground cherry

assimilated into the English language, blossom as out of focus as possible.

much like sushi, tsunami and origami.

I got the inspiration for this photo from an
Bokeh is the out-of-focus part of an image
image shot by a good friend of mine, David
and can be used for effect in front of the
Lee, but David shot his image more like
main subject, as well as behind. A not-so-
this, (Figure 3) with the focus on the cherry
commonly used Japanese word for this is
blossom, rather than the people. I love
“maebokeh,” which literally means “front”
both compositions, and which you choose
or “foreground” bokeh.
is totally up to you. As photographers,

Occasionally, finding something and considering which focus option to use for

purposefully composing your shot with it in a particular scene broadens our creative

the foreground—but out of focus—can give horizons; there is usually more than one way

a beautifully ethereal feel to your images, to portray a scene or subject and still make
a successful image.

Figure 3
sharp shooter : 7
Hyperfocal Distance
Whereas shallow DOF is a great creative tool for the
photographer, sometimes we want to see everything in focus.
Rather than just stopping your aperture down as far as you
dare and hoping for the best, you can use a calculated distance
known as the hyperfocal distance to help you get most—if
not all—of the scene, from the foreground to infinity, in sharp
focus. This is especially useful when shooting landscapes,
for example, when we might want sharp focus throughout
the image. Let’s look at some examples of focal length and
aperture combinations, and the resulting hyper-focal distances.

If shooting with a 50mm lens at f/16, the hyperfocal distance

is just over 17 feet (5 metres). The area of acceptable focus
doesn’t start from the point at which we focus; rather, that’s
the sharpest point. The focus extends about one-third in front
of that point, and two-thirds back from it. When focused
at the hyperfocal distance, the area in focus starts halfway
between the camera and the point at which we’ve focused
and continues to infinity. This means if we focus on a point 17
feet from the camera, everything from 8.6 feet (2.6 metres)
to infinity will be in focus. Some lenses have a distance scale
on them in a small window, which you can reference to set an
approximate focus distance.

We noted earlier that wide-angle lenses have deeper DOF, and

this means our hyperfocal distance is also closer. So if using a
24mm lens at f/16, the hyperfocal distance is just four feet (1.2
metres). If we focus on this point, everything from two feet
(0.6 metres) to infinity will be in focus. This is literally right in
front of the lens, so you can appreciate how much DOF you
can get with wide-angle lenses.

sharp shooter : 8
 Conversely, of course, this means that long telephoto lenses are not really
suited for shooting using the hyperfocal distance. As shown here (Figure
4), at 200mm with an aperture of f/16, the hyperfocal distance is 274 feet
(83 metres) with acceptable focus starting at 137 feet (42 metres), which
is obviously not going to cut it if we want the foreground in focus. We can
also see here that from around 50mm, getting mid-foreground in focus is
pretty easy, and wide-angle lenses are great for getting everything in focus
using the hyperfocal distance.

Figure 4

sharp shooter : 9
Hyperfocal Guidelines
There are links to some hyperfocal
distance calculators in the Appendix.
They are great tools for learning
about hyperfocal distance. Although I
occasionally use mine in the field, once
you have an idea of how your lenses
and various focal lengths perform, you
won’t have to get out a calculator every
time you want to shoot at the hyperfocal
distance. I often just stop the lens down
to between f/11 and f/14 and focus about
one-third of the way into the scene. For
very wide-angle lenses, I focus on the
foreground and this is usually enough to
give me good DOF in my images.
Diffraction
In practice, I try to avoid stopping my
lenses down past f/16. It varies from lens
to lens, but most lenses start to suffer
from diffraction with apertures around f/16
and smaller. Diffraction is what happens
when light rays start to spread out as
they pass through a small hole, which
prevents the light from being focused to a
small enough dot to create a sharp image.
This means that even the areas that are
within the depth of field—and therefore
supposed to be sharp—actually become
softer. Because of this, I like to give
myself a soft limit of f/14, and try to avoid
using f/16 or smaller when possible.
There are tools such as Canon’s Digital
Lens Optimizer—which is built into Digital
Photo Professional (DPP), the software
distributed with Canon Digital SLR
cameras—that actually do a very good job
of removing diffraction caused by using
small apertures. However, I have to have
a serious problem to deal with before I’ll
use DPP, so generally I accept the slight
softness if I absolutely have to go smaller
than f/16.
sharp shooter : 10
focus in the
A
Shallow Depth of Field in Macro
As we learned earlier, the closer we get to our subject, the shallower the depth of field gets, so let’s look at some

macro range techniques for focusing in the macro range. For example, if you are going to shoot something at life-size* or
closer, f/11 will only give you 4mm of DOF.

Of course, shallow DOF is not necessarily something to avoid. This photo of a dandelion
seed was shot at f/3.2 to ensure that only a part of the seed ball was in
focus and that the background was totally blurred. As the subject
gets closer, though, it’s usually best to stop down to around
f/8 or f/11 to get a reasonable amount of focus.

Focus Stacking
Sometimes we want to see everything
totally in focus, but cannot accomplish
this by stopping down the aperture.
In this case, I sometimes use a
technique called focus stacking.
This can be used for normal
photographs such as
landscapes, if you are using
a long focal length, or for
macro shots, both of
which usually result in a
shallow depth of field,
even when stopped
down some. Let’s look
at how to focus stack in
the macro range.

* Life-size or 1:1 is the closest most macro lenses will enable you to photograph, and this basically
means that an object 20mm wide would measure 20mm on your sensor. Perhaps easier to
envision is a 35mm slide frame or negative. Imagine using a ruler to measure the subject on the
piece of film. It would be 20mm across, which would be life-size or 1:1 in macro terms.
sharp shooter : 11
Shooting for a Focus Stack
Focus stacking is the process of shooting multiple images, focusing on
different points across the subject and stacking them together for a single
image with deeper DOF.

For macro stacking, I like to shoot at around f/11, as I did for this shot.
Although we’ll auto-align the images, if you handhold, you will likely move
slightly as you shoot (especially in the macro range) so using a tripod is
highly recommended. Also, if you are shooting outside, try to pick a
calm day, so your subject isn’t blowing around in the breeze.

Set up your tripod and frame your subject for how you
want your final image to look. Note that when you focus
a macro lens you are actually going to zoom a little,
even with a fixed focal length like a 100mm macro
lens. Because of this, focus on the nearest part of
your subject to begin with, and don’t frame your
subject too tightly. You’ll need a little space as
some of the edges will need to be trimmed away
after aligning and stacking your images.

Lock your exposure down, preferably shooting

in manual exposure mode to avoid any shift in
exposure, which will cause problems and need
correcting before you proceed. If you have Live
View on your camera it can help to use it,
especially if you also have a live histogram. If
you don’t see your histogram in Live View,
try hitting the Info button on the back of the
camera until it’s displayed. Not all cameras
have a Live Histogram and the button to turn
it on can vary, so if it doesn’t appear, check your
manual. If necessary, take some test shots and adjust
exposure using the histogram from these shots.

sharp shooter : 12
Once you have your exposure where you
want it, turn off the histogram (if shooting
in Live View) and turn off auto-focus as you
don’t want the focus to jump around as you
press the shutter button. Manually focus on
the furthest part of your subject that you
want to be in focus and expose your first
frame. Then, trying not to move the camera,
manually shift the focus a little closer and
shoot another image. Continue this until
you have moved the focus gradually across
your subject, shooting a series of images
for the entire subject or all of the parts that
you want to be in sharp focus. You’ll need
to experiment a little to see how many
frames you need for each subject, but you
can usually see quite clearly as the focus
advances. To get this image of a flower, I
shot six frames.
Figure 5
Processing a Focus Stack
To process a focus stack, import the photos
into your computer and open them in
Photoshop as layers in a single image. If you
are working in Lightroom, select all images
for your stack, right click on one, select
Edit In, and then select Open as Layers in
Photoshop. If you want to open the images
as layers from within Photoshop, select
Edit > Automate > Photomerge, and then
select your images from your hard drive.
I find it better to turn off Blend Images
Together in this dialog as it produces some
strange results. Select Auto under the
Layout menu, and then click OK.
If you’ve opened your images from
Lightroom, ensure that all layers are
selected, and then from the Edit menu
select Auto-Align Layers and make sure Auto
is selected under Projection. Whether you
started from Lightroom or opened your files
from within Photoshop, by the time you’ve
reached this point, you’ll have something
like the example image we see in Figure 5.
Your layers will be open and selected in
Photoshop, and probably have a little bit of
transparent space around them from the
alignment process. This will happen even
if you used a tripod because of the slight
change in perspective due to the zooming
effect as you shifted focus.
Figure 6
Next, select Auto-Blend Layers from the Edit
menu. Once auto-blending has run, check to
make sure Photoshop has done a good job.
You may need to jump in and change some
of the masking that Photoshop did or you
may need to reshoot your images with a
smaller aperture or more incremental focus
steps. In this sample image (Figure 6), I
masked out the sharp stem of the flower,
opting to leave it soft and out of focus. Once
the masking looks good, the last step is
to trim away any transparency or artefacts
around the edge of the image to clean it up,
and you’re done!
sharp shooter : 13
advanced focus very bottom of Figure 8. At times like that, need to locate the button and switch it over

techniques
if every time you half-press your shutter
release button the focus snaps to something
that you didn’t intend to focus on, your only
alternative is to switch your lens to manual
focus mode.
to AI Servo/Continuous-Servo really quickly,
and by the time you were using continuous
focus again the opportunity could be gone.
Sure, there are ways to set buttons to
toggle between AI Servo and One Shot, or
Continuous and Single Servo AF, but even

W
We’ve looked at what makes our images
sharp, how to control both depth of field and
bokeh for creative effect. There are times,
however, when you need to apply slightly
more advanced techniques to get a sharp
shot, so let’s take a look at these.
some getting used to, there are some major
benefits to using the back AF button.
For example, if the shutter button activates
the autofocus, this means that you have to
keep a focus point over your subject the
entire time you are pressing the shutter
Possibly the biggest benefit of back button
focus is that you can leave your camera in AI
Servo (Canon) or Continuous Focus (Nikon)
mode, to get the best of all three modes.
For example, if you suddenly needed to
focus on a fast-moving subject and you’d
switched to One Shot/Single Servo, you’d
that isn’t as fast as simply not pressing a
button to go to manual AF, pressing and
then releasing that button for the equivalent
of One Shot/Single Servo, or pressing and
holding that same button for continuous
focus. You basically have access to all three
AF modes without changing a thing.
Figure 8

button. If you’re using One Shot (Canon)

Back Button Focus
Many sports and wildlife photographers
disable focusing with the shutter button in
the custom settings and use the AF button
(see Figure 7) on the back of the camera to
focus. This can sound like a pretty wacky
thing to do at first, and although it takes
or Single Servo (Nikon), half-pressing the
shutter button will lock the focus, and then
as you recompose, you have to keep the
button half-pressed the entire time. Using
the back AF button allows you to focus, then
release your thumb from the button to stop
focusing, and that means you no longer
have to worry about where the focus points
fall in the frame as you recompose. It’s like
being able to toggle manual focus on and off
in an instant.

There are also times when the main subject

that you want in focus is near to the edge
of the frame and not covered by any of
Figure 7 your focus points, like the leaves at the

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Center, Manually Selected,
or All Focus Points
Whether your camera has 9 or 61 focus points,
you choose which to focus with. Many people
favour the center focus point, because it’s often
the most accurate and simply because it’s in
the middle. Also, using all of your focus points
with automatic selection can lead to the camera
focusing on the wrong part of the scene. Another
option is to either use just one or a small group
of focus points, but select something other than
the central group. Let’s explore when and why
you might use these various methods.
Center Focus Point
When shooting with a reasonably deep depth of
field, or when your subject is far away, using the
center focus point is good for quick and accurate
focusing. It’s also much easier to focus using the
center focus or a selected focus point—rather
than the entire range of focus points—when
there is a lot of texture in the background or
objects in the foreground. Autofocus systems
generally look for contrasting lines and textures,
and will often jump to these things more readily
than your intended subject. Selecting your focus
point enables you to tell the camera exactly
where you want it to focus.
Note that if you are shooting with a long
telephoto lens—especially if you are using the
back AF button to focus—half-pressing your
shutter button will activate the image stabilization
on your lens and make it easier to keep your
focus point over your subject.
Manually Selected
Focus Point
The problem with focusing with the center focus
point and then recomposing your shot is that the
plane of focus shifts as you recompose. Looking
at this example image, imagine that you were
photographing a person from the waist up with
a 50mm f/1.4 lens, which has just one centimeter
of depth of field when used wide open. You can
see here that you might initially move the Figure 9
camera upwards and focus on the eye (signified
by the green line), but as you move the camera
down and reduce the space above your subject’s
head, the focus that should have been over the
left eye is now closer to the right, as shown by
the blue line.
That may not seem like a big shift, but in Figure
9 I rotated the camera on its sensor plane,
which is close to the back of the camera. In
reality, you are more likely to move the camera
forward and perhaps down a little on an arc,
creating a difference more like Figure 10, where
the shift is the difference between having the
face sharp or not. This second example was
photographed by moving the camera on the
ball head without moving the tripod. This is the
Figure 10
actual amount of shift.
sharp shooter : 15
 When shooting at a relatively close
distance with a very wide aperture, it’s
better to select a focus point closest to
the eye, or a specific part of the scene on
which you want to focus to avoid this kind
of focusing error.
Moving Subjects – Automatic Focus
Point Selection
Although automatic selection using all
of your focus points is available in One
Shot (Canon) or Single Servo (Nikon)
focusing modes, I rarely use it in these
modes because it’s too prone to error,
often jumping to higher contrast objects
in the frame. However, I do make good
use of automatic selection from all focus
points when using AI Servo (Canon) or
Continuous Servo (Nikon) focusing
mode. When using continuous focus,
most cameras use a single focus
point—often selectable—to gain initial
focus, and then automatically switch to
using all focus points to track the subject
around the frame. This allows you to
recompose your photo or track a fast-
moving subject more easily once you have
locked your initial focus on your subject.
It’s great for tracking birds in flight or
focusing on a subject like a soccer player
darting around the pitch.
Continuous focus works best when the
subject is over a plain background. When
Figure 11
there is a lot of texture or contrast in the
background, the camera can lose focus on
your subject, often at a critical moment.
That being said, cameras are getting
better, and we can tweak the settings to
make focusing more accurate.
You will need different settings for
different subjects and scenes, but as an
example, for fast-paced bird photography
over high contrast backgrounds, I set
my camera’s Tracking Sensitivity to -1,
Acceleration/deceleration Tracking to +1
and AF Point auto switching to +1 (see
Figure 12). I add these three options to
My Menu so that I can access and tweak
them quickly in the field; I rarely go back
to the preset scenes.
Figure 12
Continuous focus works better if you have
time to stay locked on your subject, to
allow the camera time to refine the focus.
In the photo on the next page (Figure 13),
I stayed with a Steller’s Sea Eagle from
way up in the sky, staying locked on as
it darted downwards and then I fired off
sharp shooter : 16
Figure 13
nine frames as the eagle levelled out just
above the water and swooped across the
surface, catching a fish in his talons.
The first and last frames of the series
were slightly soft, as the camera learned
the direction and speed of the subject,
but the seven frames in the middle of the
series were all tack sharp. The sea ice in
the background is good at stealing focus,
but with my selected settings—based on a
lot of bird photography over high contrast
backgrounds—I’m pretty happy with how the
focus system stayed locked on the subject.
Steadying Super Telephoto If you are shooting when there isn’t much so you can manually tweak focus in this
light (such as dawn or dusk), and your ISO position if needed.
Lenses is cranked up as high as you dare, you’ll
need to start taking extra precautions as Another way to apply pressure to reduce
If you shoot with super telephoto lenses,
your shutter speeds drop to 1/250 of a lens shudder is to lay your left arm over
like a 400mm f/2.8 or a 500 or 600mm f/4,
second or lower. the top of the lens (see Figure 15). This
these beasts are so big that you can often
also puts your hand over the focus ring
get vibration in the lens caused simply by the
All super telephoto lenses have tripod for manual tweaking, and is easier to do
action of the mirror jumping up and down as
feet on them, and you can reduce lens for long periods of time than the previous
you release the shutter, and even sometimes
shudder by wrapping your left hand around method. Whether you are applying pressure
caused by the shutter itself opening and
the tripod foot, with your small finger, ring from below or above the lens, you can
closing. The best way to get sharp images
finger and middle finger around the foot, also push your face against the back of the
with these long lenses is to shoot with a fast
then push up against the barrel of the lens camera as you look through the viewfinder.
enough shutter speed to beat the shuddering
with your thumb and index finger (see This helps to remove any play between the
of the lens (approximately 1/320 of a second
Figure 14). This usually puts your fingers camera and the lens.
and higher).
against the focus ring of the lens as well,
sharp shooter : 17
A third way I apply pressure to stop lens
shudder is a method that bird photography
legend Arthur Morris taught me in an
email exchange (and an eBook sale) a
number of years ago. When using a long
lens and going really slow (under 1/100
of a second), using a gimbal setup such
as the Wimberley Head, push up at the
elbow, applying pressure to the swing
arm knob while pushing down on the lens
with your hand (see Figure 16). Pulling
the camera down with your right hand
and pushing your face against the back
can really help to steady a long lens with
slower shutter speeds.

Another option to support the lens and

reduce shudder is the Really Right Stuff
Long Lens Support Package (see Figure
17). I sometimes combine the third Figure 14 Figure 16
technique above with this setup when
shooting in very low light. Which side
you place the arm of a gimbal head
depends on the method you use to
reduce shudder. If you don’t use the
third method with the elbow under the
knob, you might find it easier to have the
gimbal arm to the right of the camera, so
that you can get your left arm up and over
the lens unencumbered.

Figure 15 Figure 17

sharp shooter : 18
the great
un-sharp

G
Good photographs aren’t always about having everything perfectly sharp. In fact,
images with only a small part of them sharp are often more aesthetically pleasing,
as they lead the eye directly to the intended subject, and the dreamy bokeh or
intentionally blurred areas become supporting actors. Here are some ways to create
intentionally blurred areas in your images.

Wide Apertures
As shown previously, wide apertures provide a shallow depth of field, which can give
a beautiful ethereal feel to our images. I love looking for patches of flowers with a
pleasing background and shooting them with a long lens and a wide-open aperture, like
this “Flowerscape” of equinox flowers shot at 150mm with the aperture set to f/2.8.
Just because the background and foreground are out of focus, it doesn’t mean that you
just accept where the elements fall; I take great care to find the right camera angle and
height so that the background elements enhance the image.

sharp shooter : 19
Panning
Panning to make your main subject
sharp with a blurry background is a very
effective technique, but the faster and
more erratic your subject’s movement, the
more difficult it can be to get them sharp.
If you can accept that you’re going to have
a low success rate—even when you get
good at it—this technique is a lot of fun.
With longer focal lengths and a fast-
moving subject, you need a faster
shutter speed; however, the goal is to
move the camera fast enough to blur the
background, and the more you can blur it,
the better the results will be.
For example, when photographing birds,
you will most likely want to capture a bit
of wing movement while getting the head
as sharp as possible.
When shooting a subject like this Steller’s
Sea Eagle, you’ll need a shutter speed of
around 1/100 to 1/125 of a second. For
slower moving objects or things further
away, you’ll be able to go slower, down to
around 1/50, or even 1/25 of a second. To
get a slow shutter speed in full sunlight,
you might need to use a small aperture
such as f/11 or f/16. There’s no need to
worry about your depth of field being too
deep because everything that isn’t moving
with your pan will be blurred anyway.
sharp shooter : 20
The most successful panning shots are Figure 18

when the subject you are following is

crisply sharp, but if they’re a little soft
don’t worry about it too much. If the
results are pleasing to look at, you’ve
done a good job.

Panning Technique

The best panning technique I’ve found is

to stand with your feet shoulder width
apart, point your body slightly toward
where you think the pan will end, wind
yourself back like a spring (toward the
start of the panning action) and then
rotate from the waist while unwinding.
This gives you a very smooth panning
action and, although you’ll lose shots,
you’ll have a good chance of getting one
or two that really work. You’ll also need to
have your camera set in AI Servo (Canon)
or Continuous Focus (Nikon), so that you
can continue to focus on the subject as
they move towards or away from you.
trees in the snow, which was used as the and release the shutter as the bottom style tripod head, you can lock down
cover of issue two of the Craft & Vision of the trees comes into frame. You don’t the horizontal axis and use the vertical
Intentional Movement digital magazine, PHOTOGRAPH. necessarily have to include the bottom of axis for a pan like this, or vice versa for a

Blur the trees, but I find it more pleasing to do horizontal pan.

In contrast to tack-sharp images, some
scenes can actually work very well by
intentionally moving the camera while
photographing a static scene, blurring
everything! I used this technique for this
photograph of a simple copse of birch
To get an image like this (Figure 18), you’ll
need a shutter speed between 1/10 and
1/30 of a second and use as small an
aperture as necessary to stop the image
from over-exposing. You may even need
to use a neutral density filter in bright
conditions. Then move the camera down
so, especially with a snow scene like this.
Note that you need to ensure that you pan
perfectly with the vertical lines. If you start
to move diagonally, the blur will be less
pleasing, even messy. I usually hand hold
for this sort of shot, but if you have a tilt-pan
You can use this technique with fields
of flowers or grasses, for buildings or a
crowded street. You might also try rotating
your camera or zooming while making the
exposure. Experiment with these techniques
and see what you come up with.

sharp shooter : 21
Long Exposures
Long exposures are a great way to allow the moving
elements of a scene, such as water and clouds, to blur
into areas of beautiful smooth softness. For long exposure
shots, you’ll need to invest in a sturdy tripod. Without a
good tripod, even the tiniest bit of wind or vibration will
result in camera shudder. I use a mix of Really Right Stuff
and Gitzo tripods, all of which are tall enough to get the
camera’s viewfinder to eye level or higher without having to
stoop. They also have thick leg sections for utmost rigidity.
Although I use the Wimberley Head gimbal to aid tracking
when using my super telephoto lens, for everything else
I use the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head or the BH-40
when I’m traveling and weight is an issue. Both are as
rigid as can be and, in my opinion, the best ball heads
on the market.
Use mirror lockup to get the mirror mechanism up and out
of the way before the exposure starts, but if you are using
some of the latest Live View cameras, Live View pretty
much equals mirror lockup. You also need to get your hands
away from the camera well before the exposure starts. A
cable release is a good tool for long exposures, but wrap
it around something to stop it from dangling if possible.
Even with a sturdy tripod, a dangling cable release can bang
against a tripod leg and introduce vibration, especially when
windy. If you don’t have a cable release or some kind of
remote release, use your camera’s two-second timer and
trip the shutter with your finger, then move your hand away
from the camera immediately as the timer starts.
sharp shooter : 22
checking critical
sharpness
A
After you’ve shot your images and
transferred them to your computer, you’re
now ready to edit your selection down
to just your best shots. If you are only
shooting for the web, you can simply
browse through your images and, if they
look good on the screen, you’re good to
go. But if you want to do any printing,
submit your images to a stock photo
agency or enter them into competitions,
etc., you really should check for critical
sharpness before you take any photo
through your post-processing workflow.
At what point you do this is up to you,
but I’m a big believer in checking for
critical sharpness early because I like to
weed out flawed images before I invest
much time and emotional energy on
them. Generally, my first pass through
my images is to look for images that I
like based on composition and artistic
merit. I use star ratings to mark what I
like, and at this point I also hit the X key
in Lightroom to reject technically flawed
images or those that make me wonder
what I was thinking when I shot it.
I usually give my initial selects four
stars to give me leeway to promote or
demote images and filter them out of my
current view in Lightroom. You can do
the same in Bridge, Aperture and most
other image browsing software. Which
rating system you use is a matter of
personal preference; I’m just explaining a
few elements of my workflow to make it
easier to follow the process.
Once I have starred all of my “likes,” I
do a second pass and try to reduce the
number of selects by comparing finer
compositional nuances and checking
the critical sharpness of the images.
I might start to gravitate towards one
image over the others because of a slight
compositional difference, but before I
allow myself to get too attached to that
image, I zoom in to 100 percent to check
that it is sharp where I intended it to
be. Some people recommend zooming
to 50 percent and others recommend
200 percent. With the new Mac Retina
screens, it can sometimes be necessary
to zoom past 100 percent depending on
your screen settings, but most of the
time, 100 percent is enough for me.
In my opinion, zooming to 50 percent
is not enough to really assess critical
sharpness unless you know that you
never want to produce large prints or sell
your images. They don’t necessarily
have to be totally tack sharp (later we’ll
look at what to do when you don’t quite
nail the focus), but when you have a
choice from multiple images, it’s better
to initially spend time and select the
sharpest of the batch, rather than have to
go back to your original files and search
for an alternative later.
The dilemma begins when you have
one image that is compositionally better
than another, but less sharp. A decision
must be made as to whether or not the
less sharp image is sharp enough and can
be saved—by the techniques covered later
in this eBook—or the sharper image is
compositionally good enough to be
“the one.”
sharp shooter : 23
analyzing
blurriness
T
There are a number of reasons that
images might end up blurred or soft;
to enable you to fix the problem, you
need to investigate the cause. Blur is
typically caused by camera shake, subject
movement, focus error or a combination
of the three. Let’s examine a few ways
to tell the difference, and I’ll give you
some tips on how to overcome these
issues in addition to the techniques
we’ve already covered.
Camera Shake
If everything in your image is blurred,
including foreground and background
objects, it most likely means that your
camera moved during the exposure. To
reduce the risk of camera shake, ensure
that you are supporting your camera
properly when hand holding. If you are
shooting with an SLR camera, hold the
grip with your right hand and your finger
on the shutter button. Most people find
the best way to support the camera is
to cup your left hand under the lens,
palm facing upwards, with your fingers
wrapped around the barrel of the lens.
This also enables you to adjust the zoom
ring or manually tweak the focus when
Figure 19
necessary. It also helps to tuck your
elbows into your sides, and if you know
that you are pushing it a bit on the shutter
speed, find something solid to lean
against, like a tree or a wall.
You might also need a faster shutter
speed to eliminate camera shake. To
recap on a well-known guideline, the
golden rule regarding the slowest shutter
speeds for hand-held shooting is to use
the focal length
at which you are I only rely on Image Stabilization
shooting as the once light levels drop so low that
shutter speed.
I can’t push my ISO any higher.
For example, if
you are shooting
with a 50mm lens, use a shutter speed of
1/50 of a second or faster to avoid camera
shake. If you are shooting at 200mm,
you will want a shutter speed of 1/200 of
a second or higher; the longer the focal
length, the faster your shutter speed
needs to be.
Image Stabilization (Canon) or Vibration
Reduction (Nikon) can also help
by providing two or more stops of
stabilization. This means that if you have
three stops of stabilization, you could
most likely get away with a shutter
speed as low as 1/25 of a second at
200mm. The problem with going this
slow is that you may start to see
blur because of subject movement,
so I generally try to use the focal-
length-as-shutter-speed rule as a base
measurement, regardless of whether or
not I’m using image stabilization.
Of course, an alternative to hand-holding
is to use a tripod, and so long as you buy
something sturdy enough to hold your
gear and withstand a bit of wind, that will
certainly help in most cases. But since
tripods aren’t always available or practical,
it’s still useful to learn good hand-held
shooting techniques.
sharp shooter : 24
Subject Movement
Upon inspection of a blurry image, if you can see that some
parts of the image are sharp (like the ground around a subject’s
feet) but your main subject is blurry, it may be unwanted subject
movement. To overcome this, increase the shutter speed. How
you achieve a faster shutter speed will depend on your chosen
shooting mode, but you will generally need to select a higher
ISO to make your sensor more sensitive, a wider aperture to
let in more light, or a combination of the two.

How fast you need to take your shutter speed will depend on
the subject, but to freeze the motion of a child running around a
lawn, you’ll probably want 1/500 of a second or faster. The freeze
a large bird in flight, you’ll want between 1/800 to 1/1250, and
for smaller birds or fast paced sports, you may need as high as
1/2000 of a second or faster.

sharp shooter : 25
Focus Errors mentioned, if you are using the back AF
button, you might choose to stay in AI
When looking at a blurred subject, if Servo or Continuous Servo and just take
you can see something in the foreground your finger off the button to stop focusing.
or background that is sharp, chances are
you missed the focus. This is a common Another useful technique for landscape
problem when shooting with a shallow and still life photography is, when using
depth of field. Using a smaller aperture a tripod, to use Live View and then zoom
will help to get more of the subject in to 5X or 10X on the camera’s LCD and
sharp, but assuming you want to have manually adjust the focus (see Figure
fun with shallow depth of field, let’s 20). Zooming in Live View is generally
think about what we can do to reduce activated using the same buttons that
our focus errors. you use to zoom in on a photo during
playback, but it also works in Live View
We’ve already looked at the various focus on most cameras that I’ve come across in
modes (so I won’t go into detail on this), recent years. This is a great way to adjust
but when shooting a relatively stationary focus for static subjects, but doesn’t
subject with a wide aperture, select One make much sense for hand-held shooting
Shot on a Canon or Single Servo mode or for moving subjects.
on a Nikon
Figure 20
camera. This
locks the focus
when focus is
achieved and
keeps it there
as long as you
half-press the
shutter button
or while you
hold the back
AF button if
you use the
back AF button
to focus. As
previously

sharp shooter : 26
Another common focusing problem is accidentally focusing on the
wrong part of your subject, such as the eyelashes of this snow monkey.
To overcome this, I focused manually instead of relying on the camera’s
focusing system. There are times when it’s just easier to take full control.

To successfully use manual focus, you need to be able to clearly see your
subject. I know this sounds silly, but you wouldn’t believe the number
of people I’ve met who aren’t aware of the diopter on their camera. The
diopter is a small adjustment dial next to the viewfinder that allows you to
adjust the viewfinder sharpness to match your eyesight. Check where this
is on your camera and ensure it’s set to enable you to see through your
finder as clearly as possible. If the range of the diopter is not great enough
to match your eyesight, you can even buy viewfinder eyepieces with fitted
dioptric lenses from your camera manufacturer.

sharp shooter : 27
sharpening in post
O
Once you’ve done all you can in camera
and selected the best of the bunch, what
can you do with a photograph that’s not
quite critically sharp, but it’s so close you
don’t want to throw it out?

Saving the “Almost

There” Shots
Sometimes, you get so close that not
being quite perfect is not a good enough
reason to throw something out. Here are
a few tricks you can use to save the ones
that almost got away.

Selective Sharpening

I love this photograph of a Japanese

White Eye bird surrounded by the early
flowering Kanzakura cherry blossoms, but
truth be told, I didn’t quite nail the focus
on the bird’s eye. To give me that beautiful
dreamy background, I shot this at f/4 at
420mm, so the DOF is razor thin. When
viewed at 100 percent, you can see that
the focus is about 5mm behind the eye.
There’s a line of sharpness on the bird’s
body, just in front of its legs.

sharp shooter : 28
 I could argue that this is the best place to
have the focus at this aperture, otherwise
the shape of the bird would have been
slightly less defined, but excuses aside,
a wildlife shot usually doesn’t work if the
eyes aren’t acceptably sharp. Because I
didn’t want to just throw this out, I used the
Adjustment Brush <K> in Lightroom to paint
in some sharpness. I didn’t want to sharpen
the entire image as I wanted the soft parts
to remain nice and dreamy. They wouldn’t
sharpen up much, but I wanted it as dreamy
as possible. As shown in Figure 21, I painted
Figure 21
a relatively rough area over the bird and
turned the sharpness up to 100.
The amount of sharpness you need
will depend upon the sharpness of the
original photograph. If you go too crazy
with Sharpness, it can look digitized and
pixelated, so adjust to taste. I often take
a slider way up, then pull it back to where
I think it looks good, but for this photo, it
didn’t look over-sharpened even at 100, so I
left it there. By the way, the resulting image
has been licensed a few times by Popular
Photography Magazine, so I’m pleased I
didn’t throw it out.
Localized Sharpening in
Photoshop
As much as I love Lightroom, when I
need very detailed sharpening, I do it in
Photoshop. My sharpening filter of choice
is Smart Sharpen, found under the Filter >
Sharpen menu. The amount of sharpening
required depends on the amount of softness
you are dealing with. For my White-Eye
Figure 22
shot where I missed focus on the eye, I
needed quite heavy settings to get the eye
sharp.
Having set the Remove pull-down menu to
Lens Blur and clicking the More Accurate
checkbox, I selected an Amount of 100
percent and a Radius of 2.3 px. The problem
with going this heavy on the sharpening is
that it can create halos around the edges,
as seen here in the Smart Sharpen Preview
window (Figure 22). Both the edge around
the bird and the pink cherry blossoms look
pretty nasty here. An easy way to apply
sharpening to only the parts of the image
that need it is to use a layer mask.
sharp shooter : 29
 Select the photograph in the Layers pallet
(see Figure 23), and select Duplicate Layer
from the Layer menu. If the new layer isn’t
selected, select it, and then apply your
Smart Sharpen filter to this duplicate layer.
Then while holding down the Alt key on
your keyboard, click the
Add Layer Mask button at the bottom of the
Layer Pallet (circled in red here). Holding
Figure 23 down the Alt key automatically fills the
Mask layer with black, and remember:
black conceals, white reveals. This is how I
remember to use black to hide whatever is
below that part of the mask, and white to
allow the effect to show through.

Select the mask and, with the Brush tool

selected (circled on the left), set the size
big enough to paint over the areas you
want to show the sharpening effect on
with pure white (see Figure 24). Use a big
brush to paint in the bulk of the area, and
then reduce the size of the brush to refine
the edges as necessary. The bracket keys
(“ [ ” and “ ] ”) on your keyboard change
the brush size. If you paint too far over the
edges, ensure your background color is
black, and hit the X key on your keyboard
to toggle between the background and
foreground colors. Paint over the unwanted
areas with black to hide them again. You
should see your sharpened areas as white
in the mask (circled to the right).

Figure 24

sharp shooter : 30
Other Sharpening Tools

Another way to sharpen images is

Nik Software’s Sharpener Pro 3, RAW
Presharpener (see Figure 25). For me,
Lightroom is often enough, or Photoshop
for fine detail sharpening, but I do like the
visual clues as to exactly what is being
sharpened in Sharpener Pro. Just like the
other Nik Software plug-ins, Sharpener Pro
Presharpener uses Control Points, so in
addition to generic global sharpening, you
can apply varying degrees of sharpness
applied to very specific tonal ranges.

The sharpening effect only works on similar

tones to those on which you drop a Control
Point. You can vary the size and percentage
of the sharpening individually applied to each
control point, and use minus Control Points
to remove the effect from areas that you
didn’t want to sharpen. In this screenshot,
I have turned on the Effect Mask, to show
which parts of the image
are being sharpened. There is also an
Effect Overlay, which looks similar to
Lightroom’s local adjustment display, but
with greater detail. Figure 25

sharp shooter : 31
Sharpening for Print
In Lightroom
No matter how sharp they may be, all
photographs have to be sharpened
for print regardless of any sharpening
that you do to the image in your
usual workflow. Lightroom makes the
sharpening-for-print process extremely
easy; all you need to do is to select the
type of paper in the Print Job panel.
There are two options: Glossy and Matte.
If you are printing on lustre or satin paper,
Glossy will work just fine. Standard
usually gives plenty of sharpening,
unless you are printing large. If you
print from a low resolution file or you’re
printing larger than 17 x 24”, Lightroom
sharpening may need to be turned up to
High, especially for matte papers, because
the ink spreads a little on matte papers so
they need more sharpening.
My usual approach is to use Lightroom
sharpening if I have 200ppi (pixels
per inch) or higher. To see how much
resolution your image has to print with,
turn on Show Guides in the Guides panel
and ensure Dimensions is checked.
Uncheck Print Resolution in the panel so
your print resolution is displayed in the
top left corner of your image (see Figure
26). If it is lower than 300ppi but more
than 200ppi, click the Print Resolution
checkbox and type in 300. This makes
Lightroom “res-up” the image for printing.
Later on we’ll look at what to do if your
image resolution is below 200ppi.
You’ll need to adjust the Amount and
Radius sliders to get the image to the
point where it starts to look slightly over-
sharpened. An amount of 80 percent
and a radius of 1.0px is a good place to
start, but it will depend on how sharp
your base image is and the kind and size
of paper you are printing on; you’ll need
to experiment to get optimal sharpness.
You can then save presets of your Smart
Sharpen settings and for various types
of paper and print sizes, in order to
remember what settings you used.
Note that you only need to sharpen
this much for print, so don’t apply this

In Photoshop sharpening and then save your original

images. Save a copy, and name it in such
If I need to sharpen for print in a way that you can tell it was for a gloss
Photoshop, I use Smart Sharpen (see or matte print and include the print size
Figure 27). Select Smart Sharpen from and other relevant information.
the Filter > Sharpen
menu and ensure the
Preview checkbox is
selected so you can
see the effects on the
image in the preview
window, and then
select Lens Blur
from the Remove
pull-down menu
and click the More
Accurate checkbox
Figure 26
at the bottom of
the dialog box. Figure 27

sharp shooter : 32
 Figure 30

Enlarging for Print first came out, it defaulted to 8 bit, which

If printing at 24 x 36” or larger or
printing a heavily cropped or otherwise
low-resolution image, you will probably
need to enlarge and sharpen your image
specifically for print. When I need to
enlarge an image like this, I use onOne
Software’s Perfect Resize 7.5.
is going to crush fine gradations in your
photos and should be avoided whenever
possible. Although most printers will print
at 600ppi or higher, I usually only enlarge
to 300ppi. The difference in printing with
higher resolution is unnoticeable with the
naked eye, so the additional files size and
processing time isn’t really worth it.

If you are going to print without

borders, to enlarge your image
to a given size, just select a
size from one of the Perfect
Resize Presets or type in your
required size into the Width and
Height fields (see Figure 29).
I generally print with borders
around my images, so I enter
the exact size that I need the
Figure 28
image to be in the image cell in
Lightroom. For example, for a
24 x 36” print, I need to
Once installed, launch Perfect Resize
7.5 in Lightroom by selecting it from
Plug-in Extras under the File menu. In
Photoshop, you’ll find it under the
File > Automate menu.
When using Perfect Resize for the first
time, I recommend you open Preferences
and ensure that Bit Depth is set to 16 bit
and that Resolution is set to 300 pixels/
inch (see Figure 28). The reason I call this
Figure 29
out is because when Perfect Resize 7.5
enlarge to 20.8 x 31.2 inches to accommodate
my chosen border sizes. I explain how I
calculate these border sizes in my Craft &
Vision eBook, Making the Print. I also have
a spreadsheet that calculates the size of the
borders and image cells that you can download
from my blog.
I leave most of the options in the Settings
panel at their defaults and use Genuine
Fractals as the Method; this seems to give
more pleasing results. I often just leave the
Image Type at General Purpose, but if you are
printing a portrait, the Portrait preset might
work better. Since all of the presets are simply
slider adjustments, it’s a good idea to zoom in
to a part of the image at 100 percent and make
a few adjustments to see how it affects the
image (see Figure 30).
If I’m preparing to print on a gloss
paper, I usually leave the Type set to
Unsharp Mask in the Sharpening panel. Matte
paper usually requires more sharpening than
gloss, but I jump between Unsharp Mask and
Progressive. Progressive gives nearly over-
sharpened results, but that’s usually what
you need for matte paper. If I’m printing for a
gallery wrap and don’t want to do any further
sharpening before I print, by default I use
Progressive as I think it looks better on
a highly-textured canvas surface.

sharp shooter : 33
Note that at the time of writing
Making the Print, I used Nik
Software’s Sharpener Pro before
printing large prints. With Perfect
Resize 7.5, I’m finding that including
Progressive Sharpening as part of
the blow-up process is usually as
aggressive as I need to go.

When I’ve sharpened the image

when increasing resolution (even if I
print from Lightroom), I usually turn
Lightroom sharpening off until I’ve
printed a small part of the image as a
test. If necessary, I turn it back on,
but usually the external sharpening
I’ve done is enough.

As seen in the Pixel Dimensions panel,

this image will be almost doubled
from an uncropped 18 megapixel file—
enlarged by 183 percent—for printing
at 24 x 36” with a border. I’ve also
printed 10 megapixel photos cropped
down to a 1:2 panorama as large
as 24 x 48” and they still look great
after enlarging for print using onOne
Software’s Perfect Resize.

sharp shooter : 34
conclusion appendix
W
We’ve worked through why our camera and lens decisions make our photographs Links
sharp—or not—and how to control depth of field for creative effect. We’ve looked at
techniques for focusing on tricky subjects, and holding or supporting our cameras for Camera Supports
sharp images. Our cameras are getting better with every generation, but even with the
latest and greatest camera body, you won’t nail focus on every shot. It’s always going Really Right Stuff: www.reallyrightstuff.com

to be challenging; that’s why it’s so satisfying when we come home with an image so Gitzo Tripods: www.gitzo.com

sharp that it makes the hair on the back of your head stand up! Wimberley: www.tripodhead.com

Don’t be afraid to pixel peep. Anti-peepers are often just defending their decision to Software
live with soft shots or not spend the time necessary to check. I’m not saying that you
Nik Software: www.niksoftware.com
should throw out everything that isn’t totally sharp, but with sharp-shooting techniques
onOne Software: www.ononesoftware.com
you can be better. Shoot with quality in mind, and use the post-processing techniques
discussed here when you got close, but no cigar. There are also times when we live
with the soft image despite hoping we’d done better. It’s an individual decision and Depth of Field Calculators
that’s fine, but don’t just sweep it aside as pixel peeping, or give yourself permission My favourite DOF Calculator is in my iPhone app: http://mbp.ac/app
to be mediocre and to stop trying to improve your craft. There’s also a great online calculator here: http://mbp.ac/dof

Enjoy your photography, and be the best that you can.

Martin’s Web Site

I also encourage you to visit my Blog and listen to my Podcast, as

I share information weekly when I’m not traveling. See you there!
www.martinbaileyphotography.com

Martin Bailey
Tokyo, 2013

sharp shooter : 35
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O T O G R A P H
PH
A QUARTE
R LY MAGAZIN
E FOR CRE
AT I V E PHOTOGR
APHERS
I S S U E 1 , FA
LL 2012
craft&vision
Pixelated Image Communications Inc.
PO BOX 29115, 1535 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC Canada V6J 5C2

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AR T WO LF
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David duChemin, Publisher / Editor in Chief

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Eileen Rothe, Production Coordinator
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LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY, NOT PLATITUDES.
The CRAFT&VISION library has over 45 titles to help you learn this
craft, and make stronger photographs. All sold as downloadable PDF
ebooks, and almost all of them for only $5. If you’ve grown tired of the Notice of Rights
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sharp shooter : 36