I am so very honored to have won *lightandshadow's Triptych Competition!

There were so many great entry's, I'm sure it would have been a very tough decision for the judges! Congrats to everyone that entered. Getting in and having a go is what it's all about!

I'd also like to thank *lightandshadow for featuring my work! [link] This is more than kind of you mate and I appreciate it greatly!

Check out his gallery to see his ever evolving work!



Shooting a sharp image with an SLR tends to be primarily related to focus, shutter speed, ISO, lens quality, camera stability and sensor/film size but many people forget about aperture when it comes to image sharpness. I'll start by saying I'm no expert, I'm always learning and would value anything you have to add to this...

A lot of photographers that talk lens' will speak about a "50mm f1.2" like it's the holy grail of photography! Sure it's a valuable piece of equipment but even more so when you understand how to use it effectively. When I first got my (genuine) 50mm prime, it wasn't the DOF that I first noticed, it was the difference in how sharp the image was compared to the sigma lens I had used over the previous couple of years. The prime lens had a lot to do with this but it's the quality of the glass that made the most difference... While enjoying the fast shutter speeds, I never gave much thought to aperture; I just set it to the widest ap and shot away. Then one day something dawned on me, I remembered someone once talking about lens diffraction having an adverse effect on image quality. I did some research and test shots and found that image sharpness was indeed compromised at the widest (& smallest) ap. People that have done their own darkroom printing will be aware of this, closing down the enlargers aperture a stop or two from wide open will increase image sharpness.

In many cases the sharpest setting for your lens aperture is one or two stops down from the maximum aperture (increasing from the lowest f-stop number) and conversely at least two to three stops up from the minimum aperture. With many modern SLR's, lens diffraction will possibly become apparent with apertures smaller than f11. (If you need to use a longer shutter speed on a sunny day, a way around it would be to use a neutral density filter)

The above is only a guide to finding the sharpest aperture setting for your lens, testing your own equipment is the best way to find out. I'll also add, that this ideal doesn’t apply to every situation, I just wanted to raise some awareness for the people that don’t know about it. You may require a very large aperture for low light conditions or extreme shallow DOF or a small aperture for greater DOF, say in some landscapes. But keep in mind that when you go to the extremes of your available aperture, you are very likely sacrificing image sharpness. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!

^{note: When you change of focal length of a tele lens be aware that the minimum aperture value will also change. I also have to add that an Optical Image Stabilization (IS, VR, SR, etc) Lens will tend to give you around 3 - 4 stops advantage for hand held shooting.}


Sorry for my lack of comments, etc lately. Slowly getting to all my wonderful watchers... I appreciate every comment & fav!



The f-number of the human eye varies from about f/8.3 in a very brightly lit place to about f/2.1 in the dark.






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