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THE MISSION
Get set to achieve
totally sharp shotsTime needed
10 minutesSkill level
BeginnerKit needed- Kit lens
- Tripod
Take your sharpest
ever landscapes
Dan Mold shares six tips you can follow on your next landscape shoot
to ramp up the clarit y, sharpne s s and wow-factor in your photos01 SET UP ON A TRIPOD
Use a tripod to stop camera-shake blurring
your shots. Go for a sturdy model like the
Manfrotto 055 we used, and extend the
thickest leg sections first for best stability.
Only extend the centre column as a last
resort – this is the wobbliest part.
02 ATTACH THE LENS HOOD
Attach your lens hood when shooting in
harsh sunlight to cut down the amount of
haze and glare, increasing contrast. The
petal and tubular shapes are the most
efficient design that blocks out flare
without the hood appearing in the frame.03 TURN OFF IMAGE STABILISATION
Image Stabilisation allows the lens to be
stabilized when hand-holding to reduce
camera-shake. But some systems can
actually introduce more blur when you’re
set up on a tripod as it has no motion to
correct for, so be sure to switch it off.STEP BY STEP GET SET UP FOR SHARPER SCENIC SHOTS
Find out everything you need to know to increase the sharpness of your landscape photography
harpness and clarity
are two features at the
front of our minds
when it comes to
buying a new lens. Perhaps
this is in part due to Canon
releasing increasingly high
resolution cameras. Pair
that with the ability to zoom
right in on a computer
monitor or the screens of
our smart devices and any
in-camera softness becomes
glaringly obvious.
But even with the sharpest of
optics and best camera bodies, it’s
still possible to get a blurry shot,
so we’re going to show you some
basic tips you can follow to get
your sharpest ever landscapes.
The beauty of landscape
photography is that you can takea bit more time to compose your
pictures, unlike other genres such
as sports or wildlife, where you
rarely have the luxury of time to
set up and get the shot. So with
landscapes it’s worth using a
tripod to eliminate the camera-
shake caused by the vibrations
in your hands. But note that
although this will remove camera-
shake, it will still be possible to
pick up subject blur.
This is where your shutter
speed is slow enough to pick up
the movement of moving objects
in your scene, such as people
walking by, the clouds in the sky,
or waves crashing in a seascape.
If you want motion to be removed
from these areas too you’ll want
to use a fast shutter speed of
around 1/500 sec.Our tips below will help you
get the best sharpness with your
kit. However, if you want even
more clarity, then you’ll need to
look at better optics or a super-
high resolution Canon body like
the 50.6Mp 5DS R. Of course, also
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capture as much exposure
information as possible. Here’s
everything you need to know...S
PROJECT 4
VIDEO ALSO ONLINE
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VIEW^ TH
E^ VIDEO
OPTIMUS
PRIME
You’ll generally see better
image quality in prime
lenses as their optics
are finessed for a single
focal length, like 50mm,
as they have no zoom
capability. That said,
premium zoom lenses will
likely perform better than
budget primes, so to be
sure look out for Canon’s
top flight L-series optics,
which deliver incredible
clarity, or from top-end
third-parties such as
Sigma’s Art range.