Sharp Series
1. Focus
2. Exposure
3. The Lens
4. Post ProductionI know it is hard to justify spending the big dollars, pounds and euro when you have just laid out for the new body but scrimp here and your shots will always just well not look that pin sharp.

Keep it clean

I love my landscape photography and many a time especially when on windy beaches I have developed only to go OMG IDIOT! It is amazing just how quickly dirt can build up on what was a perfectly clean lens. Beaches are a nightmare and you must be extra cautious when cleaning that blend of sand and salt from your prize optics.

Invest in a good cleaning kit, use lens-cleaning fluid, lint free tissues and keep a few micro-fibre clothes for final polishing. I know it is often hard to avoid the temptation to give it a quick once over with your T-shirt but one scratch and that’s it annoyance forever. 
Believe it or not it is just not a great idea to clean your front lens optics that often no matter how careful you are it has an eventual affect on your glass and what once was a favourite lens will eventually lose its lustre.

Cover it up

Use quality UV filters to keep the big end safe, do not be tight with UV filter quality go for quality filters or you are just placing a piece of cheap glass in front of beautiful optics.
When out in the field the ability to remove the dirty filter and screw on a new one is a far easier and better choice than trying to clean it while on the go.

Fast lens go manual

If you are lucky enough to have a 100mm or even more fantastic a 50mm f/1.8 lens you are really needing to be using manual focus, with such a fast lens with a extremely shallow depth of field (depth of focus) even the smallest movement in your subject can throw off the point of focus. You are really in tripod and remote release territory here.

Sweet bro

The sweet spot in a lens is no wives tale; every lens has its own sweet spot where sharpness and detail are at its best. Often the sweet spot is within the middle apertures somewhere and it is a good idea to find it.

Setup your camera on a tripod, and choose an object with a little detail. Autofocus on the object then change over to manual focus to keep a constant focus on the subject (do not focus again) Select aperture priority and begin your test at the lenses widest aperture continue this taking a shot at each of the lenses apertures all the way through to the smallest aperture.

Once you have taken all the shots it’s time to move to the computer, load up all your images in your favourite editing software and view at 100%. Now at first glance they are all going to look pretty similar but on closer inspection you will find some have more detail than others. Once you have the shot with the most detail and sharpness you have found your lenses sweet spot.

You will need to perform this test will your entire kit of lenses, and don’t think once you have found each lenses sweet spot that is the only aperture to shoot in. This tells you which aperture happens to be the best for that particular lens and each stop away from that will show a slight loss of sharpness.

Well that about covers it for the lens and pin sharp, we have one article left in this series of pin sharp photos so stay tuned.

Until next time happy snapping.