Today Microstock-Secrets tells you how you can compensate little sharpness issues with a few simple tricks. Also I'll explain briefly what sharpness is and when it is wanted.
To talk about sharpness, we first have to find out what sharpness is concerning digital imaging. Also we need to face some everyday problems considering what we call "sharp images".
1. What is sharpness?
Technically we see an image 'sharp' if there is a very high contrast between parts of the picture. The higher this separation looks, the sharper an image gets to our eyes. For more technical information read this Wikipedia article.
2. The problem with kit lenses on DSLRs
When talking about DSLR lenses, kit lenses are the first contact to the world of lens-glory for most users. Kit lenses are very compromising: on the one side they need to be cheap, on the other side they should deliver a good image quality throughout a small zoom range.
Technically zoom lenses will always be 'worse' than prime lenses, which have a fixed focal length (for example a 50mm standard lens). Since prime lenses are calculated for only one field of view where zoom lenses need to deliver good pictures from the nearest to the furthest zoom point, they'll technically stay on the pole position, even if you'll surely won't recognize the difference between a modern high quality zoom lens and a high quality prime lens until viewing images very close.
A good method of getting a decent sharpness in your pictures using kit lenses is to chose a higher aperture (F-number). Most kit lenses deliver fairly good quality around F8-F11. But don't forget: You sacrifice a nice, blurry background for this extra amount of sharpness! So what to do to get sharp images while simultaneously having a nice, blurry background? You have to chose a longer time for the shutter to be open. But this can quickly lead to blurry images because you're shaking (to be exact: everybody does!).
3. The solution
Get you pictures sharpened by downscaling them!
Since most modern cameras deliver pictures around 18 Mega pixels and up, the easiest way to increase the sharpness of your images is to downscale them in an image editing program like Photoshop or Gimp. You won't have a 18 mega pixel image in the end, but concerning that you can make real nice big prints with around 4 or 6 mega pixels, it's worth downscaling. Side effect: While the original 18 mega pixel image won't be accepted by most Microstock sites, a downscaled image raises the chance of being accepted!
Just select EDIT -> IMAGE SIZE (or similar) and reduce the size of your picture. For example if your image is 3600*xxxx pixels, chose the longest side to be 3000 pixels. Be sure to check a box named "keep proportions" or similar! After you click the button, your image will appear sharper, besides noise will slightly disappear. If your image still appears a bit blurry, try sharpening it a little using 'unsharp mask' in Photoshop or a similar function in other editing programs.
4. Does my image need to be razor sharp to be good?
Definitely not. While some images look stunning if everything is sharp, some gain quality by having a slight amount of blur. Take portraits for example: Imagine a nice wedding pic of the bride. Of course it could be great if it would be sharp from edge to edge, but a nice blur, combined with a slight overexposure and a focus aimed at the eyes can deliver this "wedding feeling", which is often wished for portraits in general. You can also try playing with some filters on your computer, for example the Gaussian blur. But remember: Less is more, this also is true for filtering images!
Bottom line
This technique is not only suited for your private pics, but also increases the chance of getting your image approved at several Microstock sites while giving your potential customers the best possible image quality! Try experimenting with filters to give your picture a nice "touch", but don't exaggerate the effect!
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