Roman, yours has become one of the best KZfaq channels for photography. Great photos, great content. Congrats.

Roman - I always appreciate your videos. Firstly, from one who travels alone (I'm divorced), it can be lonely and quite hard at times. There is nobody around to add some motivation, and you really have to be focused not to fall into a dark hole and not come out again. I like it that you are always on the top of things and don't let other things in life distract from your purpose (photography). Secondly, for the uninitiated, most people don't realise the time and editing and filming that goes into make a good YT video. Also, I think you are self-sponsored, so the way things are now for professional photographers, you wouldn't be rolling in money, but you still manage to be out there for us, day in day out, making your wonderful content. You are much appreciated!

Hi Roman. I have been a working photographer for years and still love your videos. For another possible opinion, One thing I was told by a military marksman was that actually exhale in a steady controlled manner as this releases tension and reduces shake. Apparently that’s how they train for really long accurate shots. Thanks for all your work.

Thank you so much Roman…fan of your channel and love the clarity you bring to every topic

Another well thought out video Roman, really great suggestions, thank you. You seem to have covered the full range of issues for taking sharp photos. When shooting handheld, as a one-handed southpaw, I generally shoot while looking through the viewfinder (my second point of contact) and exhale during the shot. I try to ensure I have a solid stance with my feet at least shoulder wideth apart and one foot forward of the other. Great channel Roman.

Roman I look forward every week to your videos I have an XT 4 and find all your tips invaluable Thankyou This one is no exception and thoroughly enjoyable and very educational Thanks heaps again 😊

Thanks Roman, so many practical tips I can use! 🎉

So many great tips! Thank You!

Many thanks Roman for your very helpful tips - much appreciated. 👍

Always amazing content, thank you and congrats Roman

Thanks for all you do and for the free inspiration you always give ♥

thanks for sharing your knowledge, the way you dissect it to the simplest form, is such an enjoyable learning experience.

Hi Roman, This is an excellent video and you have covered all the aspects of getting a sharp photo. Enjoy watching your videos, keep up the good work.

that bit at 13:30 about using the spot removal tool? THANK YOU! I felt like an absolute madman for regularly doing that meself for images, or what I like to jokingly call "dandruff scrubbing". but once done, it makes SO MUCH DIFFERENCE. really makes the image POP more, when done well. (the trick I find especially, is to remove clutter from areas you don't want peeps to focus on, but then leave SOME clutter in the areas you DO want focus on... as a little clutter contrast to draw the eye)

Marvelous video, Roman. Congrats!!! I might say that all the meanfull topics related to sharpness have been covered through a natural and understandable narrative. Awesome! See ya, blue skies 🤙🏻🍀📸

Great video, as always. Clear, precise, to the point. Thanks! 👌

This is an ongoing topic that you've covered before and certainly will again! And, your explanation is always clear and easy to understand. Here's something that I'm not sure about in terms of how often it is requested. But, every time I watch you especially I wonder about it because I suck at it! What am I talking about? Shooting via the LCD instead of the EVF. I seem to have such a mental block about it which seems silly given that before getting my X-T3 I was shooting with my Pixel 2 XL for a few years! Oh well.... Thanks again for your content. Have a great weekend!

Great advice, Roman! Thank you. 👍

Outstanding video clear explanations, good and inspiring illustrations, perfect script… congratulations Roman! It is amazing to realize the path you have been through so far

Hahah I'm glad you pointed out to hold our breaths! I must say that is one of the overlooked things when it comes to taking pinpoint sharp photos... I found myself guilty sometimes of this, especially when doing photowalks. Sometimes I walk fast and stop and shoot, chances are I'm breathing heavily/catching my breath while composing a shot, resulting in a not-so-sharp photo or worse, out of focus. Great vids as always! I mostly watch your videos when I came back to photography again after retiring my film camera due to prices/practicality. I main a Fuji X-T2 now with a 27/35 lens combo (from my father's Nikon d300).

A BIG thank you for this one Roman....

Nice! Always expecting your weekly videos. Thanks Roman.

What a wonderful and useful channel! Thank you so much

This was a really well thought out and succinct overview of the subject! Thorsten Overgaard has interesting articles about perceived sharpness, addressing what is more a mental or psychological perspective. It is a fascinating subject. I would add to your comments that the aperture selection also depends upon the sensor resolution. Some (Red Dot Forum discussions, for instance) suggest not stopping down past a certain point (camera and lens specific) due to the effects of pixel density. Similarly, some sensors yield good results at high ISO values such that the photographer can let the ISO value float and just concentrate on shutter/aperture selection.

Thank you, Roman!

Thank you! I needed to see this.

There are some cases when you really would want f/22 and above, but honestly those days with digital cameras (variable ISO, image stabilization and focus stacking), you almost never need it. If you do need it, then diffraction is acceptable compared to areas being out of focus. One should look into hyperfocal distance as well and understanding for example where to set focus manually to get the nearest and furthest points in focus, which can be difficult with modern lenses. Most of the time though you really need only the subject in focus, it’s okay i unimportant foreground or background elements are out of focus.

Picked up a tip or two for sure. Thankyou

Excellent video !! Thank you.

Excellent, thank you

Very well disserted, Roman! Well done again

Unbelievably valuable video. I've been shooting for a good few years now but still feel like I've learnt from this video

Thanks for the great tips.

U can also use back button focusing, and continuous AF, just press the focus once and it will act like one shot af. When you need to track then just hold the button down.

Great video. Very helpful.

Very helpful tips!

Thanks Rome, few things here to consider

First of all greetings from Portugal. Nice views from the beautiful of Porto and River Douro. Cool tips for rookies and the ones like me that can not afford to buy a better equipment. I´m gonna give a try on those tips. Thanks to share with us. I will share this video in my blog also.

I watch two photography channels, Roman and James Popsys, I don’t need to see anyone else.

Roman I am just starting my photography journey and I wanted to say thank you for all your videos especially in pertaining to shooting with fujifilm as I’ve become smitten with the images they produce. Im hoping to pick up an xt5 or xh2s for Black Friday I just can’t decide between the two haha. Thank you once again and cheers from Los Angeles.

Great video Roman. Love your channel mate. really liked the tip regarding using Masking when sharpening. It's something I've not used before as I did not really know what it did. TBH I really never worried much about using the sharpening tool but will do so now on the photos that can benefit from it.

Great video 😊 thank you 🙏

Thank you so much. You just made me a better photographer in 15 minutes.

All good information and insight. You did make me laugh sitting there holding the mic for the entire video. 😊

Roman, I always watch and "like" your videos, but on a TV, which means I can't often comment. They're always interesting, but thanks for this one in particular which I found very helpful.

Single point AF is faster than other modes on DSLR… the logic of focusing speed on dslr vs mirrorless is literally inverted between the two… dslr locks on fast, but has to obtain lock every time. Dslr locks on faster with less focus points, while mirrorless locks on faster with more points, and more focus-time (continuous, pre-focusing)… the two strategies are almost exactly inversions of each other, when considering focus speed logic

I like the simple, bite size break down of the main areas, followed by the further simple, break down in those main areas. I couldn't get over you sitting in a chair in front of your sofa though. Lovely room. Muted colours to show off the colour in the art hanging up. I see what you did there.

Nice topic, Roman. Pixel peepers like me - an admitted pixel peeper - will always find something NOT sharp. To me, the sharpness is just another attribute that can either add to the image or can be agnostic to the image, depending on your intent. If I'm shooting street photography midday, I'm already at F8/F11 ISO 800 or thereabouts (although shooting ISO auto mostly these days when traveling) or I'm shooting manual and the entire issue is much less a factor. So my expectations are quite different than for example, shooting low light, versus shooting at 5.6 portrait style. At 5.6 I don't tolerate noise or sharpness as well because my expectations are different. In essence, it's all part of the intent.

Those are great tips, but I noticed you don't use a lens hood. That's the quickest and cheapest way to improve sharpness. Shading your eyes with your hands (even on a dull day) demonstrates how effective this is--and our eyes are better than any camera lens!

Roman if i could ask ,what lens are you using in the talking part's of video? Looks great, from colours you grade to isolation woww. Great job.

Solid video 🔥

Great Work, do you have any issues with Lightroom I have heard a few times that LR and Fuji qualitywise not the greatest Combo?

Excellent video as ever. I really need to break my dependence on single shot and try something different and you have inspired me to do so. One thing I would say…as a Fuji user…I run all my ‘keepers’ through the Enhance feature in LR. It takes ages and produces a DNG file but in terms of perceived sharpness - it is like night an day. Give it a go on an unedited RAW and then edit as per normal…

Hi Roman. When were you in Porto? Beautiful photos, especially the ones you took inside the tram. 👌🙂

Very good video

Distortion not refraction 👍 also depending on what you are focusing on, a single POV or the general scene or sharp from front to back.

Nice video

Thanks Roman, i think it's one of the most comprehensive guide on focus I've ever seen. You switch to an XH2? why you ditch the X-T5?

Sharp tips!

Porto ❤

Hey! what soft is used at the end video? thanks

Roman what's your veiw thoughts on micro 4 3rds

Pl do similar for iPhone as well. I have 15 pro. Would love some great tips

Thank you for sharing these tips. With regards to squarespace, if you post your image without a title, is the image number still in the background for easy access if a person wishes to purchase that image? I understand that your video wasn't about squarespace but I thought I would ask this question anyway. Thank you.

I kept on thinking “is he going to eat that cookie or what…”

Great video as always. I have one out of topic question. Did you switch from your X-T5 to X-H2 for street ? I remember you talking about smaller size of X-T5 which is nice for street but lately it is X-H2 in your videos so I was just curious.

Spray and pray, spray and pray😂

Get a camera with IBIS, even better one that will combine that with any in lens stabilisation (in the M43 world most Olympus and many Panasonic cameras do the job)

top tip - don't have 6 shots of espresso before going out shooting! 😆Great vid as always Roman.

When creating the image exports, do you use the export setting "Sharpen for screen" or do you export without sharpening?

I'll take the advantage of the blurriness :) It's part of the artistic decision and the image can look better with it.

How do you know when it's time to recalibrate a lens? My 56 drives me nuts, never seems to nail focus. I'm sure I'm also part of the problem but I have my suspicions that something is up with the lens...

As a fellow fuji photographer @an_african_tale, I came into possession of a Q2 this week. Superb, truly. Interested to see you with one in the thumbnail.

I take photos on my cheddar camera and its super sharp

thx - very useful. Question on shutter speed being 1/ double the focal length of the lens- this needs adjustment for crop, ie 35mm on APS-C = 50mm FF which would then translate into 1/100th min shutter speed ?

super Grüße aus Berlin es grüßt der Berliner

Most modern primes are pretty much as sharp as they get by about 1 stop under. So for a 1.4 say f/2. And more generally 5.6 tends to be the best for most lenses 2.8 and faster. That said all the gear stuff usually not the problem most people are having. Mostly it's shit technique.

Sensor size does not correlate to better lowlight performance

Nerd… But passionate. I like it.

When I look back at all photographs I have taken over many years, those suffering from sharpness issues are due to a shutter speed too slow and the shutter speed chosen being a result from program mode (P) or aperture priority mode where most cameras are notoriously trying to keep the ISO low at the expense of an unsuitable shutter speed.

There is a lot of videos on taking sharp photos BUT I would say this is most complete one. By far. I just would have included the sharpness setting in all cameras and the AI help nowadays (ahead of traditional editing), but I fully understand why you didn't.

Great video. You can also use electronic shutter (as long as the subject isn't moving). I use luminar neo and need to see if it can sharpen edges only.

Sharpening won’t sharpen a flat sky, it has no edges unless there’s clouds. You didn’t mention the DOF relationship to sharpness.

Are you in OPorto?

The discussion of ISO is incomplete here. High ISO with low light is better than low ISO corrected in post. The noise will be much less with proper ISO.

I thought you gonna tell about Leica Q 😅

At f.16 or higher, most lenses looses their sharpness.

Want sharp fotos? Here's how. Dress sharp, look sharp, think sharp, and get a sharp camera. Also don't forget the sharp lens.

I honestly find sharpness overrated. If a photo is compelling it does not need to be crazy sharp. I get the best photos when I am thinking more about composition, moment, light, and colors.

Sharpness is overrated. I hate that all lens manufacturers are aiming for their lenses to be as sharp as possible instead of trying to make a lens with a specific rendering, like they used to make. Also if you are noticing that your photo is not sharp enough, it's probably just a boring photo or you are bad at focusing or understanding how to properly use aperture.

Interesting video however the thumbnail shows a Leica

"...if you have a mid-range camera and lens from the last 5-6 years, you have everything you need to take a perfectly sharp picture..." *stares at my nearly decade old mid-range DSLR body* I have phase detect, so I know my old DSLR isn't THAT bad, I still thought it was funny how my cam is almost twice as old as the range they said was "good enough" less than a minute into the video 🤣

Yoooo. When holding mics stops being trendy, are you still gonna do it?

La nitidez arruina la fotografía, porque la hace ver más digital, sin alma.

Leica in the thumbnail lol why do this when you clearly don’t use one?

dont understand why people want sharp stuff. to me the sharper, the colder, more sterile and more lifeless images become