Lens sharpness…

Ahh...one of the secret ingredients for photographic excellence. Without the sharpest lens possible, your photos will simply not be as good as they should be.

That is the conclusion that you would most likely reach from reading or watching lens reviews on the newest “must have” lenses.

Sure enough...once you've read or watched enough of those reviews...you will want to purchase the sharpest lens you can afford, maybe even go into debt to get it. Because, you are told, it is "super sharp!" "The sharpest lens we have ever reviewed!"

Which is, of course, the purpose of most of those reviews...to convince you that you need to spend your money to acquire that sharp lens. If you do buy it, they imply, your photos will be so much better, so much more “professional-level.”

It is all misleading.

Throughout photographic history, a great many beautiful and important fashion, landscape, portrait, street, and fine art photographs...published in major magazines and displayed in galleries and museums all around the world...have been created with "un-sharp" lenses. Many of those images hailed as masterpieces.

There have been a great number of famous photojournalism and documentary images, created by legendary photographers, past and present, which have helped to raise awareness of important issues and possibly helped to end or shorten suffering…images that have been less than sharp. This did not diminish their impact.

You, most likely, have seen many of these images yourself…and they have touched and moved you.

Having your images be as sharp as possible is not a requirement for them to be great, compelling and powerful.

Just look at paintings. I doubt Rembrandt worried about how sharp his brush was ;-)

All you really need is a lens that is “sharp enough,” not the sharpest lens in the world (and the average person looking at your photos would not know the difference, anyway; and, even if they had the ability to tell the difference, or even cared, they would need to put their eyeball up against the photo…no one does this).

The lens, or lenses, you have right now are “sharp enough.” Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest of all landscape photographers, wrote that any modern lens is sharp enough. He wrote that in the 1930’s.

I had someone ask me…”I need a new lens, and can afford one that costs $300, but there is a really sharp lens for $800 that I keep hearing about...should I use my credit card for the $800 lens?” No. Buy the $300 lens…you will be able to create just as many great photos with that lens, as with the $800 lens.

So, please do yourself an emotional and economic favor...forget the reviews (“Look what happens when we take a photo of a brick wall and zoom in 1000%….now you can see how sharp!”)…and ignore the hype about the newest sharp lenses.

What really matters for great photos, is this (not in any particular order...and not all are necessary in every photo):

• Is the photo beautiful or interesting?

• Does the photo tell a story?

• Does the photo have emotional impact?