Short and sweet

1. Virtually without exception, all shots of architecture should show complete depth of field. The images should be sharp from the immediate foreground to the distant background. Either raise the ISO or use a tripod so you can close the lens aperture down to f/22 or f/32, insuring everything is sharp. 2. This lighthouse is on the southern coast of Portugal. I used a telephoto lens, and it was impossible to render the foreground rocks as sharp as the lighthouse. Even a small f/stop wouldn’t be enough. So, I took two shots, one of the lighthouse and the other of the rocks, and then put them together in Phtoshop.

3. When you shoot a pattern, it should be sharp from edge to edge. Not even a corner should be soft. To help you in this endeavor, make the back of the camera, i.e. the plane of the digital sensor, as parallel as possible with the plane of the pattern. In addition, of course, use a small lens aperture at least f/11. 4. Popular outdoor destinations like The Bean in Chicago always has scores of people there that interfere with good picture taking. The solution is to go there very early in the morning when everyone else is in bed. I took this shot at dawn, and it was about 5:30am. I didn’t have to clone out one person. §