Penny Z. asked me a great question this week:

Q. How do you make your pictures look so crisp, clear and sharp?

A. That’s funny because I regularly look at other photographers and think their images are so much sharper than my own. There are two factors for image sharpness: How you take them and how you edit them.

Taking sharp photos: The greatest piece of advice I’ve ever implemented has been to use prime lenses instead of zoom. Prime lenses, also known as zoom lenses are fixed at one focal length and do not zoom in or out. When it was suggested that I use them, I looked blankly at the man: “but how will I zoom in and out?” He answered, “You have legs, don’t you?”

Prime lenses are my favourite because they aren’t trying to be 10 lenses in one. My 50mm doesn’t have to try to be anything other than a 50mm and , therefore, she’s the best 50mm she can be (yes, my lenses are girls!)

I once called a camera store and said “I think I need a better camera. My pictures aren’t coming out like other people’s pictures I think I need something more expensive. He actually wouldn’t sell me one. He just said, “it’s not the camera that matters, it’s what you do with the camera that makes pictures great.” And he was so right. I had to get to know my camera until I could adjust it without thinking, like it was a third eye.

Check out {THIS ARTICLE} by Darren Rowse from DPS about taking sharp pictures.

As far as editing for sharpness, check out {THIS ARTICLE} I wrote for DPS about formatting your images for the internet and read down in the comments for more ways readers format their images. Whatever software you use, be it Lightroom, Photoshop or even Google’s Picasa (free!), they all have sharpness adjustment tools.

Thanks for your question, Penny! And don’t y’all forget to keep sending me your questions. Leave them in the comments below, email them, tweet them or leave them on my wall.