Hi everyone,

I've read several techniques about getting the most tact sharpness in your photo...landscapes in particular. Several highly advocate a remote to trigger the on-tripod camera because manually pressing the trigger will decrease sharpness. I don't have a remote, I don't know how astounding or minute the difference is. Is it worth the image to purchase the remote? Thanks!

you could use a tripod and the camera's built in self timer instead which does the same job more or less. remember to disable in camera or lens image stabilistion if you are on a tripod too as this may actually - and oddly - introduce some shake to the image.

of course of course, somehow my subconscious knew this was a rookie question and properly titled it :) thanks...although I did not know about the image stabilization technique, thanks!

while phil's advice is most often correct, not all stabilized lenses need their stabilizers turned off. Check the manual to see if yours is one of them. (this is more a general comment since jason never mentioned if that is the kind of lens he is using anyways).

For the best result use a tripod, cable release and if your camera has it use mirror lock up. Phil is correct, the self timer will replace the cable release quite nicely. Two seconds on the timer is enough.

Let me summarize for sharpness:

1) Shoot in RAW
2) Buy fast glass (f1.4/1.8/2.8/etc)
3) Stop down the aperature to around f/8.
4) Don't go past f10 as there will be diffraction = less sharp
5) Focus properly
6) Good, sturdy tripod.
7) Good camera.
8) Good filters, or better yet, no (UV/Skylight) filter.
9) Use timer/cable release/mirror lock up/remote
10) Clean the lens's front element
11) Usually best to turn of VR/IS
12) Usually use a low ISO
13) Buy quality glass/lens in general.

In post processing:

1) Use smart sharpen or unsharp mask
2) If you resize your image, resize, and then sharpen.
3) Adding fake grain in some cases may increase the appearance of sharpness
4) Don't over sharpen (to the point of lots of pixilation and/or halos)
5) Save as PNG (i'm not 100% sure on this one)

Yep - young Milo caught me out on the IS thing - some types would not be affected. In either respect you should still disable it on a tripod if for no other reason it will also decrease battery drain.