Baby Face Photo Tip: Finding the Sweet Spot

There are many factors that go into taking sharp photos (using a fast enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur or camera shake is definitely the most important), but one overlooked way to get razor sharp photos is to find your lens' 'sweet spot' and shoot within it. Simply put, the sweet spot is a range of apertures at which your lens produces the sharpest images, usually starting a couple of stops above wide open. The picture above was taken with my 50mm 1.7 lens, whose sweet spot is around 2.8-3.5. The actual photo was taken at 2.2, only because I was worried about freezing the action, but if the light permits I try to shoot portraits with this lens at 2.8. This gives me tack sharp images while still allowing for a shallow depth of field. Experiment with your lens to find its sharpest point. Utilizing the sweet spot, along with getting a proper exposure and keeping the shutter speed high enough to combat blur, is a sure-fire recipe for getting the sharpest photos possible.