I just finished a workshop on the Oregon coast and realized an important addition to my last post about personal resolution. In that article I was encouraging photographers to increase their own personal resolution by improving their photographic technique. But on the workshop I realized that some photographers have too much resolution! How is this possible?
As we were photographing along the beautiful coast I noticed that several of my students were evaluating the focus of their images by cranking up the magnification on their camera LCDs to 10x or more. Whoa there Bucko, back off on the magnification, you’ve gone a bit too far! Nothing will ever look in focus at this degree ofenlargement. I don’t even go to 5x. I might pop the little magnification button one or twice to enlarge the picture but no more. Plus, all you are really evaluating is the resolution of your camera’s LCD screen.
Rather than pumping up your image on your LCD to check for focus just do the best job you can when you take the picture, check it on the LCD briefly but then carry on and take more pictures. Wait to carefully evaluate your images when they are up on your computer. If you are not sure of the focus take several shots and if you can bracket the focus by moving your focusing point within your composition. Then all you have to do is pick the best one when you look at them on your computer.
So don’t be a resolution over-achiever. Once something is in focus it can’t get more in focus.