The Sweet Spot

No, we’re not talking about some spot inside a girl's body every man is in constant search of. What we’re talking about is the exact spot your lens achieves its optimum performance and sharpness from corner to corner. This spot we have in mind allows you to capture a moment in its sharpest form possible. That means there are no fuzzy corners, no soft parts or no out-of-focus elements in your photo. That’s the power of your lens’ sweet spot.

Before you get your camera and tinker with it, let’s familiarize ourselves first with what should be familiarized.

There are three controls in your camera you should train yourself with constantly – the shutter speed, aperture and the ISO. According to handy-dandy Mr. Wikipedia, shutter speed represents the amount of time the shutter is open when taking a photo. Aperture, on the other hand, is an opening inside your lens in which the light travels. The smaller aperture value your lens has (f2.8, 1.8, 1.4), the more capability it has to let light in your camera. This is very useful when a good source of light is hard to find or you want to isolate your subject from a distracting background. Last, and definitely not the least, is the ISO. The ISO, by definition in its use in modern DSLRs, is the ability of the sensor to be sensitive to light. You can raise your camera’s ISO to be able to take photos in places where light is scarce. Be careful about doing this, though.The higher the ISO value used in a camera, the amount of digital noise will also increase. Just imagine you photos losing detail and becoming grainier if you decide to shoot in high ISO.

There’ll be more on those three in the future but for now, let’s get back to the sweet spot.

I mentioned your lens’ aperture and how it’s responsible for allowing light into your camera. Have you ever noticed some of your shots were sharper than the others or some parts of it were much more detailed than what you’ve thought? There are many factors for your pictures’ sharpness but the foremost among them would be your lens’ aperture.

Typically, the most common of lenses, like your handy-dandy kit lens, has an aperture of f.35 at its widest focal length and f5.6 at its farthest reach. There are other lenses too with a wider opening like zooms with a constant f2.8 aperture and primes with the ability to go all the way to f1.2.

While they are really useful for low-light conditions, these lenses perform like a bummer in its widest settings. To get the optimal sharpness from your lens, whether the one that came with your camera or something you’ve bought after, you have to lower your aperture a couple of stops down.

What does this mean?

It’s really simple. If you’re used to an aperture setting of f5.6 with your kit lens, lower it further down to f8-11. That also means if you’re using a 50mm 1.8 prime lens, you have to lower it to f4-8 to attain sharpness in every pixel. The keyword here is experimentation. Experiment until you find the result that satisfies you.

Here, we have two photos taken with the help of a Nikon D90, 50mm 1.8 prime lens and a Benro A-500EX tripod to stabilize the setup. An aperture of f1.8 was used in taking the photo on the left while f.8 was used on the right. See if you can spot the difference between the two.

Too small for inspection, eh?

Now, we have samples of the two photos zoomed in on the upper left corner of each. As you can see, the one taken with f1.8 on the left is a little bit fuzzy. The one taken with f8 on the right is sharper and you can see that the letters are very well detailed.

There you go

Once you’ve changed the aperture and have taken a photo with it, examine the result in your computer. Zoom in and check the corners of your photo as well. Don’t forget to check the EXIF data of the photo too so you would be reminded of the settings you’ve used. You’ll see that sharpness has increased and the details are crisper than the photos you’ve taken before. With the sweet spot in your mental arsenal, you’re sure to have sharper shots, especially if you’re into landscapes.

Some of you may find it hard to use lower apertures in your everyday shooting but worry not. The addition of a speedlight or a tripod can also compensate for a slower shutter caused by using a lower aperture value. Plus, you could also raise your camera’s ISO levels but beware of the noise that comes with it. Better yet, practice more so could improve your technique at taking photos with a slower shutter speed. Once you’ve mastered this ninja skill, shooting with the sweet spot will be sweeter for you indeed.