00:00:00
many thanks to Squarespace for
00:00:02
sponsoring this week's
00:00:04
video if your photos look blurry and
00:00:07
soft like this instead of sharp and
00:00:09
crisp like this then you're you're
00:00:12
making a simple but critical mistake and
00:00:14
it's ruining your shots but don't worry
00:00:16
because in this video I'll show you
00:00:18
exactly how to fix it see most folks
00:00:20
have no idea this setting is secretly
00:00:23
wrecking their images but once you
00:00:24
adjust it you'll instantly get sharper
00:00:27
and and cleaner photos every single time
00:00:29
and be sure to stick around because at
00:00:30
the end I'll reveal a a trick that even
00:00:33
professional photographers use to make
00:00:34
their images look Flawless every single
00:00:37
time so if your photos look soft blurry
00:00:39
or just not as crisp as you expected
00:00:42
it's not your camera it's your settings
00:00:44
most people think it's their lens or or
00:00:46
that they need an expensive camera but
00:00:48
that's not the problem that's not really
00:00:49
what's causing the issue at all in fact
00:00:51
I've seen $115,000 camera before take
00:00:54
blurry photos because of this one often
00:00:57
Overlook setting and if you don't fix
00:00:59
this you're going to keep getting bad
00:01:01
photos every time no matter how good or
00:01:03
or how expensive your gear is so to jump
00:01:06
right into it the problem here the
00:01:07
problem is see when I used to get on
00:01:09
location my first few years of of
00:01:11
outdoor landscape photography I noticed
00:01:13
that and I think a lot of people are
00:01:15
getting into this genre of Photography
00:01:17
notice that you're generally shooting in
00:01:19
a in a dimmer lighting scenario or a
00:01:21
more muted lighting scenario so sunrise
00:01:24
or sunset or maybe Woodland photography
00:01:26
these are all scenarios with a little
00:01:28
bit dimmer light and worked often told
00:01:30
that you know you don't want to shoot in
00:01:32
harsh light you want to avoid midday
00:01:33
light those kind of things so we're
00:01:35
often shooting in those kind of golden
00:01:37
hour or dimmer lighting scenarios and I
00:01:39
would get on location and I would never
00:01:41
really touch my aperture my aperture was
00:01:43
always locked in at f11 and I would
00:01:46
never touch my ISO cuz that ISO was
00:01:48
always locked in at ISO 100 so f11 ISO
00:01:52
100 and that would really only leave one
00:01:54
other camera setting for me to adjust
00:01:56
which was shutter speed so what would
00:01:58
often happen is I'm at 11 I'm at ISO 100
00:02:01
and I look at my exposure meter and I'm
00:02:03
two stops underexposed so I start to
00:02:05
slow down that shutter speed in order to
00:02:07
let more light into the center of my
00:02:09
camera to create a more balanced
00:02:11
exposure and what would happen a lot of
00:02:13
times is I would get that shutter speed
00:02:14
too low in order to handhold that
00:02:17
photograph and I would end up with
00:02:18
photographs that looked like this right
00:02:21
here when I would get home from a trip
00:02:22
just soft and out of focus when I was
00:02:24
really hoping that the image would look
00:02:26
nice and crisp and sharp like this but
00:02:29
the problem is this is the blurry image
00:02:31
right here when you're looking at this
00:02:32
on the back of your LCD you know you
00:02:34
take the photograph of your own location
00:02:36
you take your image you look on the back
00:02:38
of your camera this is kind of a
00:02:39
graphical representation of what you see
00:02:41
right here and as you can tell this
00:02:43
image looks fairly sharp but when you
00:02:45
zoom into it you can see just how out of
00:02:48
focus it actually is and you can't
00:02:50
really tell how out of focus this is
00:02:52
until you actually see this sharp
00:02:54
version right here completely different
00:02:57
so zooming in on the or looking at it in
00:02:59
the back of your camera isn't always a
00:03:00
good graphical representation as to
00:03:02
whether or not your image is sharp or
00:03:04
not that's why I always recommend don't
00:03:06
just review the image but you have to
00:03:08
zoom in and punch in and look for image
00:03:09
sharpness and image Clarity in order to
00:03:12
actually see it because these LCDs is
00:03:14
amazing as they are they're still small
00:03:16
they're still limited and let's face it
00:03:18
none of our eyes are actually getting
00:03:19
any better so that is the problem now
00:03:22
the solution here the solution is it's
00:03:25
it's for one once you know this little
00:03:27
trick it's can will solve this problem
00:03:29
in a m a second so I just got back from
00:03:31
a couple workshops in the leoen islands
00:03:33
one of the most common things I heard on
00:03:35
that workshop and and on every Workshop
00:03:37
is always related to camera settings you
00:03:39
know what aperture do I need to use what
00:03:41
ISO do I need to use what shutter speed
00:03:43
what what shooting modes do I need to
00:03:44
use and one of the biggest issues is
00:03:47
with shutter speed you know I think a
00:03:49
lot of people are comfortable with
00:03:50
aperture you know landscape photography
00:03:52
it's usually seems to be like f11 or to
00:03:54
F16 and keep your ISO as low as you
00:03:57
possibly can that's easy enough but to
00:03:59
shut speed you know one it it's
00:04:01
something that impacts creativity it
00:04:04
impacts exposure it impacts whether or
00:04:06
not your photograph is even sharp or not
00:04:07
so there's a lot of um more angst
00:04:11
associated with shutter speed so how do
00:04:13
you figure out what is the best shutter
00:04:14
speed for hand holding a photograph and
00:04:17
you don't have to sit there and take a
00:04:19
test photo and then review it on the
00:04:21
back of the camera like oh no that's how
00:04:22
to focus speed up your shutter speed
00:04:24
take another photo review it oh that
00:04:26
still looks a little bit soft let me
00:04:27
speed it up a little bit you don't have
00:04:28
to keep taking
00:04:30
these test photos in order to do it
00:04:32
there is something called the one over
00:04:33
focal length Rule and it is an absolute
00:04:36
Game Changer once you become comfortable
00:04:38
with it it's very simple basically all
00:04:40
it is is if you're shooting at let's say
00:04:42
25 mm in your hand holding that
00:04:45
photograph you have to have your shutter
00:04:47
speed at least 12 125th of a second so
00:04:50
if you're shooting it let's say 50 mm
00:04:52
and you're handh holding that photograph
00:04:54
your shutter speed has to be at least 1/
00:04:56
15th of a second when you know that you
00:04:59
don't you no longer have to experiment
00:05:01
with anything when you get on location
00:05:02
scenes unfolding very quickly you don't
00:05:04
have time to set up a tripod you're at
00:05:06
25 mm you can dial in your aperture dial
00:05:09
in your ISO and you know that your
00:05:11
shutter speed has to be at least 125 of
00:05:13
a second so that one over focal length
00:05:16
rule is huge and if you're shooting
00:05:18
action say birds in flight or tigers or
00:05:20
Bears or whatever the case is a great
00:05:23
place to start regardless of what focal
00:05:25
length you're using because things are
00:05:27
moving in your scene I always start up
00:05:29
1/ 1500 of a second and then usually
00:05:31
will work my way up from there sometimes
00:05:33
you got to go to a thousand of a second
00:05:36
but I always start at 1 1500 of a second
00:05:38
and I obviously take those photographs
00:05:40
and review and see if that shutter speed
00:05:41
is fast enough but probably the most
00:05:44
important aspect of this is and I hear
00:05:47
this all the time I used to do it
00:05:49
constantly where I wanted to make sure
00:05:51
that that ISO was as low as possible
00:05:53
because I didn't want to create a noisy
00:05:54
photograph so I would always leave it at
00:05:56
100 and I'm looking on the back of my
00:05:58
camera and I see that it's let's say two
00:06:00
stops underexposed so it's a dimmer
00:06:02
lighting scenario it's Sunset there's
00:06:04
not a lot of ambient light and my image
00:06:06
is looking very dark so instead of
00:06:08
bumping up that ISO what do I do I end
00:06:10
up slowing down that shutter speed to a
00:06:12
point that is way too slow for me to
00:06:14
handhold it so let's say I'm at at 25 mm
00:06:18
and I end up doing like a half a second
00:06:20
exposure in order to keep that image
00:06:22
bright I review it it looks okay on the
00:06:24
back of my camera I get home from my
00:06:26
trip and I end up with a photograph that
00:06:28
looks like this right here instead of
00:06:31
this right here and it's a completely
00:06:33
different it it would absolutely destroy
00:06:35
a photograph now here's the most
00:06:36
important part removing noise from a
00:06:39
photograph is so so easy to do cameras
00:06:42
are so good technology is so good it
00:06:45
takes a matter of seconds and you can
00:06:47
completely clean up any kind of noise in
00:06:48
an image but an image that is out of
00:06:50
focus like this right here due to motion
00:06:52
blur there is no way to bring this image
00:06:55
back no matter what kind of
00:06:56
post-processing Wizardry I use no matter
00:06:58
what kind of platform I used to edit it
00:07:00
in nothing is going to make this photo
00:07:02
sharp again but a little bit of noise is
00:07:05
easy to resolve so before you crank down
00:07:08
that shutter speed too low I would
00:07:10
always bump up that ISO a little bit in
00:07:11
order to create that balance exposure
00:07:13
now to kick off this video I had
00:07:16
mentioned a a pro tip that I hear a lot
00:07:18
of other professional photographers use
00:07:20
I use it as well and it's basically
00:07:22
whenever you're shooting in a lower
00:07:23
light scenario which we just discussed
00:07:25
happens often do not be afraid to put
00:07:28
your camera in auto ISO because that
00:07:31
basically means you know you have you're
00:07:33
at f11 you have your shutter speed at at
00:07:35
150th of a second because you were
00:07:37
shooting at 50 mm your camera will
00:07:40
automatically bump up that ISO to
00:07:42
whatever ISO level is required in order
00:07:44
to create that balance exposure so you
00:07:46
don't have to even worry about it you
00:07:48
can let your camera handle that any kind
00:07:50
of perceived noise that is uh is a
00:07:53
result of using say ISO 640 or ISO a000
00:07:56
whatever the case may be you can easily
00:07:58
resolve that but you will rest assure
00:08:00
that when you get home from your trip
00:08:02
you will have an image that is
00:08:03
absolutely Tac sharp like this right
00:08:05
here as opposed to something that is
00:08:07
completely out of focus and it's
00:08:09
basically just going to be relegated to
00:08:11
the trash can in your computer because
00:08:13
it's useless it's completely out of
00:08:14
focus and there's nothing you can do a
00:08:17
second caveat to this might be a little
00:08:18
bit obvious but whenever you're
00:08:20
handholding your photograph I always
00:08:22
want to enable ivis mbody image image
00:08:25
stabilization on the camera and Optical
00:08:27
image stabilization if your lens has it
00:08:29
that right there will always add at
00:08:31
least two to three stops of additional
00:08:33
stability sometimes even more camera's
00:08:36
uh embody image stabilization is getting
00:08:38
so so good but by enabling those two
00:08:40
features or even one of those features
00:08:43
plus auto ISO that is going to pretty
00:08:45
much guarantee you that you are going to
00:08:47
get those sharp perfectly INF focused
00:08:49
and clear photos that you definitely
00:08:51
want it's going to help you to avoid
00:08:52
those soft and outof focus photos that
00:08:54
uh are the real Heartbreakers when you
00:08:56
return home from a trip so I do hope
00:08:58
that that information with s and before
00:09:00
I do wrap things up here I just want to
00:09:01
say a huge thanks to the sponsor of this
00:09:03
week's video which is Squarespace who I
00:09:06
use for all of my website and e-commerce
00:09:09
needs Squarespace provides a robust and
00:09:11
beautiful online platform to develop
00:09:13
your website you can showcase your
00:09:14
photography using squarespace's new
00:09:16
blueprint design system to help guide
00:09:17
you through the options to building your
00:09:19
online presence from the ground up you
00:09:20
can even display your photography using
00:09:22
squarespace's flexible website design
00:09:24
templates and customize the layout in
00:09:26
order to make it your own and with
00:09:27
squarespace's online store feature
00:09:28
you'll have access to all the tools you
00:09:30
need to start selling your physical
00:09:32
Goods digital content or service
00:09:33
products online with ease so if you're
00:09:36
looking to start a new website or
00:09:37
possibly upgrade your current website
00:09:38
check out squarespace.com Mark Denny for
00:09:41
a free trial and 10% off your first
00:09:43
purchase so I do hope that that
00:09:45
information was helpful it's something
00:09:47
that I hear about all the time and that
00:09:48
one over focal length rule is something
00:09:50
that a lot of people aren't aware of I I
00:09:53
hear about it all the time and it is
00:09:55
something and and then I'll meet with
00:09:57
people at a workshop we'll go over this
00:09:59
we'll practice this in the field and
00:10:01
I'll get emails from them months later
00:10:02
maybe even a year later and they always
00:10:04
refer back to that one over focal length
00:10:05
rule just completely simplified shutter
00:10:08
speed and has taken a lot of angst out
00:10:10
of determining what's the best camera
00:10:12
setting for a scenario but most
00:10:13
importantly it has helped them to
00:10:15
achieve those sharp Focus or sharply
00:10:18
focused images whenever they're
00:10:20
reviewing in at home and the amount of
00:10:22
images that are blurry and out of focus
00:10:23
are drastically reduced from that one
00:10:25
simple rule so I do hope that
00:10:27
information was helpful if if you have
00:10:29
any questions about anything covered
00:10:30
here today please leave those in the
00:10:32
comment section below and I'll do my
00:10:34
best to get back in touch with you as
00:10:35
soon as humanly possible and if you
00:10:37
enjoyed this week's video give it a
00:10:38
thumbs up subscribe to the channel if
00:10:40
you're not subscribed already and as
00:10:43
always I really do appreciate you
00:10:44
carving out a little bit of time to
00:10:46
spend it with me here today and I will
00:10:48
see you all next Wednesday bye
