Firstly, please note the presence of the word "always" in my question. I know sharpness is important. Most of the time.....

However, many of the great street photographers / photojournalists can teach us a lot about capturing the moment. There are more Cartier-Bressons out there than we can imagine! Even some of the more formal portrait workers appear more interested in the light, texture and feel of the shot than whether they captured every skin pore with biting sharpness - and even use high ISO film to create grain / texture and a softer edge. Some lens manufacturers even produce(d) "soft focus" lenses. (Yes, I know this is not the same as they are technically in sharp focus but I use this to illustrate the point.)

It is easy to become hung up about having the best glass we can afford, using a tripod to reduce shake and other techniques to improve our portraits and landscapes, etc. However, where (if ever) is the point at which the strength of composition, image, lighting, colour or whatever renders absolute critical sharpness a secondary, "nice to have" feature? Would you ever print or post an image that conveyed a message but was technically "imperfect"?

I believe sharpness is about as important as the gear used when shooting. That said it all boils down to the eye, whether its on or off (so to speak).

Or as Elliott Erwitt once said:
Its just seeing - at least the photography I care about.
You either see or you don't see.
The rest is academic.

However, when content, story, impact and/or message is out of the picture, composition and sharpness is vital. Otherwise there is nothing left.

That's the way I see it.
U

No.

+1

Sorry, I forgot to answer the question. Yes, I have printed a lot of pictures that was technically imperfect. Not the least family pictures and quite a lot of street shots of course.
U

I believe sharpness has nothing to do with technical perfection. It has more to do with optical in the first place and then post-processing option. Finally it is merely an aesthetic choice. When you are taught to play music you learn that playing slowly is as much difficult as playing fast.

I would agree that sharpness is not always of paramount importance. In fact, sometimes it is preferable not to be too sharp. It really depends on the image and the style. Perfect sharpness in a street shot or documentary or many conceptual and mood pictures is certainly not the primary concern. In a macro shot, though, it is usually critical and in many types of portraits it is important. As Jacques put it--the artist must make the aesthetic choice (within the parameters of available light, lens choice, etc.) and hopefully make the image work.

Yes. I have, and will continue to.

Just the other day I sent out a selection of images to a juried event where many had less than perfect sharpness. Having had another photographer once laugh in my face and say "How can you expect to achieve optimal sharpness at 1/30th hand held at f/2" after I took an image--I really hope they get accepted so I can rub it back at him. :D

Yes. This must be implemented in all photolearning basics and schools....its really about time to end the extreeme search for the ultimate sharpness. Its really quite simple, some shots requires it and some dont, but when many amateur photog (and professionals) dissmiss somebodys work because of a lack of sharpness, its not right..in all cases... :) its really quite a shame when we think about it as its is really killing peoples creativity and that is far worse than achieve sharpness in all shots. i have seen a ton of work and comments that are beeing put down because of this here and some of the more creative stuff are never to be seen again....too bad..no, open your eyes and see what you aim your camera towards and do not worry too much about the tecnical bit :)

I don't worry about sharpness quality from my lenses and I don't even apply any sharpening in post processing being satisfied with the sharpness setting I apply to my RAW files in camera, the sharpness is set in my TIFFs when I convert from RAW and not adjusted again. I did fret over how to apply sharpening when I first set out and got so confused with the whole issue and conflicting theories that I decided on my present method, its something I just don't think about any more.
However, I mostly try and achieve front to back image sharpness via a large depth of field, I like the immediate foreground really sharp and for this to extend into the image, I use a tripod and a remote release in 95% of my images as I often select a slow shutter speed for creative effects or the use of a large DOF dictates a slow speed. I personally feel that my type of images require high image sharpness for aesthetic reasons and also that I am really documenting and recording a scene so sharpness is important.

I don't thing I would print or post any of my images if they weren't sharp as mentioned above.

JP

Maybe a silly question but how is that done? Is it a D300 thing? The D90 has no such feature that I can find . . .
jon

Jon, don't know about the D90 but in the D300 Picture Control settings I can set up a custom preset from the Standard setting, I have sharpness set to +9, Contrast +1 and saturation +1, other settings such as Hue at default.

When I view the RAW file in Capture NX2 I can adjust these again in the Picture Control menu but I always leave them. When I save as a TIFF these settings are applied to it but are always visible in the JPEG representation of the RAW as well so I can see the differences if I make adjustments.

On default settings the D300 RAW files were too soft and a little lacklustre for me but with these settings the converted RAW to TIFF file hardly needs any poncing around with in PP.

JP

Jon,

Like JP, I'm not 100% sure either. However, check your user manual for "sharpening". I'm pretty sure that you should be able to turn this off in-camera and leave the tweaking to after the shoot.

Regards, Paul.

It's just that i was under the impression that RAW was immune to in camera tweaking. . . I shall check the picture control menu again, but I 'm sure i looked there and saw no sharpening option, not for raw anyway. . . hmmm. . .
Jon

The RAW data is not treated in any way in camera. It is just Capture NX that can read the settings of your camera and the software will apply the settings to the image -> sharpening, active D lighting etc... like it reads the White Balance settings or measuring. LR (and I suppose other programs) can't (or won't) read this.

Sharpening is the first setting in the Picture Controls in the Shooting Menu...