Creating Sharper, More Vibrant Images

[Gary@Red Photo]

There are a number of ways to get crisp, vibrant images. One way is to use high quality lenses. The better build quality with better glass will give you a sharper, less distorted image. The camera can also make a big difference. Pro level cameras usually have a better sensor, better resolution, and better processing. All Digital cameras are designed to capture images that are a little low in contrast and a little soft. This is so the camera can capture the greatest amount of data from a scene. You are expected in take your images into Photoshop and sharpen them and raise the contrast slightly. If you can you should shoot in RAW format. Then in a RAW processing program, like Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop, you can add some contrast, exposure, or clean up the color balance. I would also recommend adding clarity and vibrance to portrait images. I would not recommend adding saturation to a portrait. The vibrance will do this. For landscapes you would add saturation and less or no vibrance. Make sure that you do not have some funky color cast from an improper white balance light setting in your camera or a tricky lighting situation. Shooting in RAW allows you to change your white balance in post production and refine it for those tricky lighting situation. Make sure that your focus is on. Many people have focusing issues with their cameras. You can read a post here about how to fix lens focusing problems. As far as how much to sharpen, this question is right up there with 'What is the meaning of life?" There are so many answers for this. Sharpening amount is based on the file size. Bigger files need more sharpen, smaller files need less. Files for the web need more sharpening. You can go here to read some sharpening recommendations from Ken Rockwell. These recommendations should greatly improve the pop of your images. That pop is mostly sharpness and contrast, just don't over do it, because then they will look fake, like some cheap calendar from the 1950's. Unless, of course, you are after that look.

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