How to Capture Extremely Sharp Portraits (Step by Step)

Today’s post is dedicated, as the title says, to explaining how to achieve (extremely) sharp portraits. I would like to warn you that achieving maximum sharpness is not going to achieve the best portrait, your image will be sharper, of course, but it will not be better for that. There are many factors that will help you achieve a great portrait and you can read about them in this mega guide on portrait photography with many more tricks, tips and inspiration (more than you can imagine). Now, if what you are specifically looking for is sharpness because you already know everything else, go ahead, you are in the right place. Go taking note 😉

And since we are not professionals here, nor do we learn by infused science (right?), I’d better tell it step by step, to make it very easy, okay?

1. Equipment for shooting sharp portraits

It is true that the equipment influences when it comes to achieving sharpness in an image, but you should not be obsessed with that subject unless your bread and that of your family depend on it. One does not make better photos because they are sharper.

In fact you can capture an extremely sharp image and be totally uninteresting. If it is “empty” it will go unnoticed in the eyes of anyone. That’s why you shouldn’t worry about changing equipment, take advantage of the one you have and get the most out of it, change only when you really need it.

To get the most out of what you have, keep it clean (it’s time for a refresher), use a fixed lens if you have it, configure the parameters of your camera correctly (I’ll explain how later) and follow the steps below.

If you’re looking for portrait lenses, here are our recommendations.

2. Lighting for sharper portraits

For a sharp portrait you’re going to need good light and I don’t mean bright midday light. I mean proper light. I always advise you to use natural light whenever possible, however, today, as what we are trying to achieve is maximum sharpness, I will tell you that if you have a flash (or more than one), that you use them, it is not about closing doors, but about opening them. If you have a beauty dish, light window, or handheld flash, use them to illuminate your model for extra sharpness. If you have several of these elements, you can combine them and play with them to achieve the result that most satisfies you. Here’s a guide to lighting your portraits.

3. Camera settings for sharp portraits

• Adjust the sharpness. Your camera should become an extension of your body, ideally you get to know it so well that you don’t have to search through the menu or think too much about where the buttons are, and that comes with practice. You may not know it but there are some functions that allow you to adjust certain parameters such as sharpness or contrast. If you haven’t done so yet, the time has come to read the instruction manual 😉 . Do different tests until you find the combination that you like the most.
• Minimum ISO. Put the ISO value at 100, the lowest, in this way you will avoid that annoying noise that dirty the images. There are some cameras that work very well with higher ISO values, if you have to raise it, do it, you know the limit of your camera, but do not exceed it, because it is about achieving a very, very sharp portrait…

• RAW. If you are looking for sharp portraits, you will have to work in RAW and if you do it in JPG, try to use a quality JPG format, which compresses very little, the more you compress the image, the more information you lose and that translates into… less sharpness, exactly! !
• Work with high speeds. Use fast shutter speeds, although you will have to compensate to find the ideal balance between the three fundamental ingredients of the triangle of light, (ISO, speed and aperture).
• intermediate openings. There are many of us who love wide apertures, especially in portraiture, as it allows the subject to stand out, or a part of his face and blur the rest. What happens in these cases is that if you use a very wide aperture you will only get a minimal part in focus (for example, the eyes yes and the nose no), in addition, the lenses have their maximum performance in terms of sharpness at intermediate apertures. Know the sweet spot of your lens and work with it to achieve sharper portraits.
  

4. Good focus, essential for sharp portraits

• Manual focus. It’s time to make another change, focus manually. If you already do it, fantastic, you have a long way to go and if you haven’t dared yet, start practicing.

• Auto focus. If you’re hesitant to focus manually, don’t have time, or any other excuse that comes to mind, use “AF-S” (Nikon) or “One Shot” (Canon) mode, ideal for static subjects.
• If you have focus accessoriesuse them.
• Avoid filters. Especially with automatic focus, because the filters prevent a good focus and reduce sharpness, especially if they are not of the best quality.
• Make a precise focus. It is not about focusing on the face (unless it is a full-length portrait from afar), what must be well focused (yes or yes, as long as you are not looking for a specific effect) are the eyes. You can have a very sharp portrait but if your gaze is out of focus, moved or blurred… it will lose a lot of strength.

5. Movement

One of the biggest enemies of sharpness is movement, which is why you should avoid it at all costs. On the one hand ensuring that your model is static and on the other hand minimizing any vibration of the camera, how?

• Use a tripod. If you can, don’t hesitate. It is true that when taking a portrait, unless you are in a studio, the tripod is not the best companion, but it will be an excellent ally to achieve greater sharpness.
• Use a remote trigger. Another way to reduce any vibration is to use a remote shutter release or, alternatively, the camera’s self-timer.
• Block the mirror. Some cameras have mirror lockup, if yours has it, turn it on. The movement of the mirror causes vibrations that you better avoid.
• Image Stabilizer. Not all lenses have it, but if the one you’re going to use has it, turn it off if you’re using a tripod and turn it on if you’re shooting handheld.
• Hold the camera well. If you are going to place the camera on a tripod you can skip this step, but if you shoot handheld you cannot skip it for anything in the world, this article is essential.

6. Background

Use a contrasting background to make the sharpness even more apparent. Observe in the following image how the hair stands out against the background.

Backgrounds the more contrasted the better

7. Some extra tips for getting sharp portraits

• A trick is to use continuous shooting, while you have the button pressed you will obtain several images, discard the first ones that have suffered the movement when pressing and keep the sharpest one.
• come closer you instead of zooming.
• Compose the image before you shoot, don’t wait to crop it on your computer.
• Improve the sharpness with some editor. Do not try to correct errors like this, but you can highlight the sharpness with “sharpness masks” or a filter that increases the degree of sharpness of your image, in some editors you will find it as “sharpness”. Be careful with abusing because you can cause grain.

Compose at the moment of shooting, not on the computer

8. Practice is the key to sharper portraits

On paper (or screen) everything seems very easy, but when you try, you may not achieve the expected results. Do not despair, you need to practice to achieve the sharp portraits you expect, only practice will help you improve and achieve excellent results. And when you achieve it, the satisfaction will be sooo great that you will discover that all the effort has been worth it.

Now all you have to do is find a suitable model, the easiest of all 😉 While you think about who will be the sucker who will stand in front of your camera, I’m going to ask you a favor: if you found the article interesting, share it and/or give it a “Like”. This is the best way we have to know if you like the contents and encourage us to continue writing them for you. Thank you and see you soon!