How to find the sharpest aperture on ANY lens...

f/8 is usually NOT the sharpest aperture. For some reason, the photography community seems to think that f/8 (or sometimes f/11) is the best aperture to use for sharp photos.

Every single unique lens has its own sharp spot. If you're a pixel peeper, you'll want to know what the absolute sharpest aperture is to use in situations when the other camera settings don't matter and you want to get the absolute sharpest image.

I was pretty shocked to find the sharpest aperture on this lens was f/13! On most of my other lenses, it's around f/5.6. You truly have to test for yourself to find out.

#landscapephotography #photographytip #improvephotography #learnphotography #naturephotography #photography #lightroom #photoediting #lightroomtutorials

[EdBareff]

let me save you a ton of time:
use aperture priority, no need to change ss always.
any lens aperture sweet spot will be 2-3 f stops from lowest F. Then, an extra 2-3 stops for corners.

[PhouFoo]

This doesn't work with every lens because some show focus shift. You will need to readjust focus every time you change the aperture.
Also this method is oversimplified because you need to use self timer and turn ibis off to be sure there is no interference. Also sometimes you may want to accept some diffraction in the center to get better edge/corner sharpnes or larger dof so it's really not that simple

[bdragule]

So to summarize: How to find your sharpest aperture? Look at all of them.

[bangforyourbuck]

This technique is effective in missing your shot.

[TheCrazyStudent]

Instead of taking a bunch of photos with different aperture settings and then compare the photos in Lightroom afterwards, wouldn’t it be easier to turn on the manual focus magnification aid and then see at which aperture you can achieve the sharpest focus while looking at either the LCD or viewfinder? Or, if the LCD is too small for this even with magnification turned on, then it could be tested at home instead while having the camera connected to a big screen TV through HDMI. The advantage with this is also that you get an immediate feedback as you’re changing aperture and you can see how that affects the sharpness in real time during the testing. If the purpose is to capture images in order to present the material in a YouTube video, then obviously we need to capture it onto the SD card anyway. But for the average Joe (like me) who is not a YouTuber or camera lens reviewer, hooking the camera up to an external big screen monitor is probably quicker and easier. I also think that doing this at home in a big living area might be beneficial since we can then put up a test chart on a wall and point the camera towards it, which will make it possible to evaluate the sharpness, vignetting etc over the whole image area which we can’t easily do outside in a regular shooting environment. But the approach shown in the video obviously works fine too. I guess it comes down to personal preference which method to use.

[SMGJohn]

F7.1 or F8 usually is, unless you buy stuff from China, most lenses would be tested in the factory to ensure quality difference is not over 5%

[athanassiosdesigner]

And why not simply use the MTF program mode on your camera? In Pentax eg all pentax lenses of the last 30+ can be shot on their sharpest aperture immediately !!!

[adrianvorkaaa]

my method of learning the sharpest aperture is by watching Christopher Frost videos

[boxoffisa]

Me with 400+ photos to edit looking at this like, “well, I hope some guy does it for me.”

[IamWhoIam]

I found that the F8 is the sharpest on my Lumix 12 -35 mm lens

[mark.admiral]

Another option is to look at credible technical reviews of the lens (e.g. Dxomark), where they tell you that information.

[dct]

Bro we live in the future 😅 pull it up on the MTF chart. I guess it's worth doing for a manual lens or a lens that needs calibrating. F/5.6 and F/8 are usually the sharpest apertures for 90% of lenses, anything beyond introduces diffraction, and wide open introduces softness, distortion, and vignetting in the corners. Unless you got the money to grab a 58mm f/0.95 S Noct Z lens that's sharpest at .95 😅

[kinopilot]

Increase aperture... Dont forget it's fractions 1/2.8 is bigger then 1/4... 😊

[trym]

You want the easiest? Fullframe is f11 apsc is f8. If it's not the sharpest your lens is broken.

If you want brighter f4 or f5.6 is plenty safe unless your lens are vintage funky one. Modern lens are usually designed to reach sharpness edge to edge at f4 or f5.6

[youraveragejoephoto]

Or how about this? Use the lens at whatever aperture works best for the shot in question and don’t put too much stock in how sharp it is, all lenses have different a different character and charm, it’s part of the story and part of the image, razor sharpness doesn’t make a good image, capturing a beautiful moment with the correct exposure and composition makes a good image. Don’t worry about how sharp it is, nobody but you is going to pixel peep.

[AfloatHickory]

Why do you have to decrease the shutter speed by one click as well?

[thomasanderson]

No need, I shoot Olympus, there are no garbage tier lenses with M43. Have fun full frame jockriders!

[dct]

You also didn't account for atmospherics 😅

[lordxerlus]

How to find sharpest F/ step 1: go on YouTube and find someone who did it already

[LunarLightLtd]

Easier way. Watch a Christopher Frost review on that lens. You're welcome.