Would like to take sharper pictures...

Hello...I have been really impressed with alot of pictures on here in terms of sharpness, clarity, and detail. I would like to be able to do that but I am on a budget and cant afford the L type lenses. Can anyone recommend some 'entry level' lenses that have some really good sharpness? Currently I have the stock 18-55 and the 55-250. Is there a certain range where these lenses are their sharpest?

-faster shutter speed
-tripod and remote shutter release

You could try prime lenses which are usually sharper than zooms and much sharper than kit lenses.

My personal recommendations are the 50mm, 28mm, and 85mm canon brand primes. These lenses are fairly sharp and as sharp as any of their Canon L counterparts.

See for yourself
http://www.the-digital-picture.com …omp=0&FLIComp=0​&APIComp=0

Most lenses are sharpest at their middle apertures, f4, f5.6, f8. One of the reasons that some lenses are more expensive is they are optimized to be sharp at bigger apertures too (f2, f2.8).

But also try not to use really small apertures (f11, f16, f22) on your crop sensor camera, either. The smaller the aperture, the more strongly diffraction will set in, which will cause loss of fine detail and can make the image look less sharp.

Experiment with your lenses and see which apertures and even what distances give the best results. Both your lenses are likely quite capable, you just need to learn to optimize them. We all have to do this with any lenses we use.

If you have any filters on your lenses, remove them and leave them off. High quality, multi-coated filters do little "harm" to images, but cheaper, uncoated ones can make a mess of things.

Get and use the proper lens hoods on your lenses. This can help with focus accuracy, as well as boost contrast and color saturation in your images, which might make them look a little shaper, too.

Most digital images need some sharpening in post processing. It's usually done after sizing the image for it's final use... A low resolution image to post online will need/tolerate a lot less sharpening than a higher resolution file being used to make an 11x14 print, for example.

Watch your shutter speeds. Too slow can induce camera shake, which will show up as an overall blurring of the image and might be mistaken for lack of sharpness/lens problems.

Are both your lenses "IS"? This helps you handhold at lower shutter speeds, but it's still important to use good techniques and work at holding the camera steady. Also, with IS you need to give it a moment to work.... You can see the image "settle down" in the viewfinder, when IS has done it's thing.

Be aware of the limitations of IS... It might help you and the camera be steady enough to use a lower shutter speed, but if your subject is moving it can still be blurred because IS can't help with that. You still need to keep your shutter speeds up to a reasonable level with moving subjects. How fast the shutter needs to be varies, depending upon subject speed and whether they are moving toward/away from you or perpendicular... Also there are techniques called "dragging the shutter" used when panning, so the background blurs. This is a deliberately slower shutter speed, but you will have some spoiled shots doing this, only a percentage will come out well. Probably your percentage will improve with practice.

If on a tripod, you should turn off IS on those lenses, I think. On some lenses with IS, it will sense "lack of movement" and turn itself off. But other lenses (including, I think, your lenses), you have to manually turn IS off locking the camera and lens down on a tripod. Otherwise AF will get into sort of a feedback loop, where it continuously causes movement and tries to correct it.

^^ very well said.

I usually trust prime lenses to be the shapes in my lineup.

Besides what has already been said, I'll add good lighting to the mix. Some of the sharpest shots I've ever seen were done with speedlites, strobes, etc.

+1 on primes, pick up a cheap 50 f/1.8 and go to town..

I would just like to make one comment. My wife has the 18-55 IS and 55-250 IS lenses for her camera and I am extremely impressed with the level of image quality that they can help produce. These lenses are sharp. Whether they relay great color rendition and whatnot is another subject, but as far as just how sharp an image is, this is not one of the weak points of these lenses.

If your shots are coming out blurry, please make sure that you have the proper technique down to get proper shutter speed for your shots.

I would also suggest shooting RAW and processing with the DPP program that came with your camera. RAW pictures are sharper to begin with and allow fine tuning of sharpness, among other things.

It also helps to understand how to apply sharpening in your post-processing work-flow.
IMHO "Real World Image Sharpening..." is the best book on the topic.
Here are some-online excerpts:

• http://www.peachpit.co​m …le.aspx?p=60863​7&seqNum=5
  
• http://www.peachpit.co​m …le.aspx?p=60863​7&seqNum=4

GoneTomorrow wrote in post #12464418
Besides what has already been said, I'll add good lighting to the mix. Some of the sharpest shots I've ever seen were done with speedlites, strobes, etc.

I think this is a very overlooked part of the IQ equation. You can shoot with the best lens in the world but without proper lighting your not going to get a 'sharp' looking shot. You don't necessarly need strobes to achive this but just good quality light will make a huge differnece in the sharpness of your shots.

OP: can you post some shots that you think are not sharp enough with exif?

silvrr wrote in post #12464517
I think this is a very overlooked part of the IQ equation. You can shoot with the best lens in the world but without proper lighting your not going to get a 'sharp' looking shot. You don't necessarly need strobes to achive this but just good quality light will make a huge differnece in the sharpness of your shots.

OP: can you post some shots that you think are not sharp enough?

True enough. Bounce flash with a single speedlite does the trick nicely.

some good advice in here so far.

back in my 450D days i found the 18-55IS fairly sharp. again though, depends what you're shooting, how close, lighting conditions etc but it can be a solid performer for what it is.

If you look at the samples page for the kit lens, you can see from the better pictures that sharpness is more about the shooting/lighting technique and post-processing:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=445986

Comparing lens resolution alone, the kit lens is about as good as many more expensive lenses.