Photography: Focus & Sharpness

Focus and sharpness are often intertwined when we learn photography. ‘Hitting’ focus delivers great sharpness; sharp photography is derived from good focus. But this isn’t quite true. In fact it is a misconception. One that is born from the way we all (tend to) learn photography, or more often, how to use our camera. 

Photography tends to be taught in a way that utilises shortcuts, a blurring of some of the nuances. This is done with the best of intentions to deliver us to a goal of basic competence in the quickest time frame possible. Further down the line though, this way of learning can lead to confusion, and often the fusion of two separate techniques into one thing.

Let’s take focus and sharpness for example. Focus can actually only ever be achieved on a single plane, the plane of focus. However, sharpness can be achieved throughout a much larger portion of your frame. And whilst your focal plane interplays with that sharpness, it actually only defines a start point for the depth of sharpness you can achieve. Sharpness itself relies on so much more than your focus point.

In the video below, we’ll discuss this in much further detail and, by the end, you should have a better idea of some of the technical and artistic processes that go into delivering great sharpness in your images.