Sharpness is OVERRATED - Why you should not care TOO MUCH about it

[@alexdubois6585]

On lens sharpness, I would say that it is important to have sharpness in the centre when wide open, in the corner, it is only of value if your subject will be in the corner, so the last 1/5 is generally not important wide open as you'll have blur in the corners. If you need the corners to be sharp you need to shoot at F8 (F5.6 for APS-C) and assess the quality of your lens in the corner at F5.6.

[@nomadictimbo9185]

Great video again Thierry! Agree with everything you said. When it comes to autofocus, I'm more than happy with the AF on my X-T4 and I photograph/film lots of sport and wildlife. I think back button focus combined with either single point or zone AF works fantastic. Regarding sharpness, while it is important, I definitely believe the way the image looks on a global level and the overall composition is way more important than how it looks on a pixel level.

[@smallrtech]

I totally agree for artistic or personal photography you are completely right, but when I do technical work for companies or for VFX work I just need extremely sharp images, sometimes I stitch hundreds of images together to build a 32K texture and if a lens is sharp in the center and blurry over the edges it just make my day worse for that. I would say you shouldn't care about it until you need to care about it haha.

[@ThierryGibralta]

For your line of work, for sure. And you know what you need and what you want. For most people, they purchase 2-3k lenses and at the end only take pictures of their family. Nothing wrong with it but maybe not the best use of their money… Thanks for watching!

[@mariojsworld]

Nicely presented video.

[@talhacapknoglu8130]

hey man love your content, great video. I'm kind of new to the photography and I most likely do street photography and wanted to get your opinion about FUJINON XF16-80mmF4 R OIS WR lens. What are your thoughts and advices about this lens? ( camera is XT-5)

[@ThierryGibralta]

You are the one who contacted me on Insta right?

[@simon359]

The bottom line is most Fuji users just want the auto focus to work like other camera makers! Other than that the rest of it’s on the photographer and what he wants to present as his final product or vision!

[@alexdubois6585]

Hi Thierry, did you use manual focus for this video or Eye tracking?

[@timovehkaoja]

He stated that he is using a $90 manual focus lens.

[@alexdubois6585]

On the autofocus, I disagree with you (at least on my X-T3 for faces/eyes) I have a lot of shots that do not have a problem to not be tack sharp, they are way out of focus. The autofocus is acceptable, but the tracking is not there. To have good results, I focus on the floor on the path my target is going to take and I time my shot. Sure it is a problem of expectation, but some other systems provide much easier shooting experience.

[@timovehkaoja]

For a $1500 camera body, I would not accept that kind of behaviour from the AF. No matter how good the camera is otherwise, it renders it completely useless for client work.

[@ThierryGibralta]

I have used the XT3 for client work, I did not notice such bad results. Of course, the camera is not “the best” at AF but it’s not like it cannot AF at all. Also, it really depends on the lenses you use.

[@timovehkaoja]

@@ThierryGibralta How can the poor AF and tracking of a camera be explained with a lens? 🤔 Canon EOS R7 is a $1500 camera. The autofocus is _spot on_, no matter of the lens, as long as it is an AF lens.

[@ThierryGibralta]

@@timovehkaoja have you heard of AF motors?

[@timovehkaoja]

@@ThierryGibralta Yes I have. I have been in photography world for 20+ years. What is your point here?

[@timovehkaoja]

”Most of the clients don’t pixel peep, unless you work with high end product photography.” That is a rough generalization. Clients are different. Some couldnt care less about sharpness and some people want what they paid for, not something in the same ballpark. And if you deliver sharp photos (ESPECIALLY portraits and headshots) to the client, you can trust that the photos will stand out to the client. If you deliver shitty photos, you get shitty reviews and in the end run out of jobs. Autofocus is your friend, but it doesnt take the photos for you. And Fujifilm AF is exactly that, ”fine”. It is not excellent and not clearly at the same level with Canon & Sony. And yes, when I pay money for my tool, I expect the tool to be good. If the AF sucks, I don’t trust the camera to do the job I bought it for. If I buy a hammer, I expect it to get nail to the wall, not halfway, not 75% down, but down. It has nothing to do with clients pixel peeping, it is about DELIVERING QUALITY RESULTS. You never want to be in a situation when client says ”This is not sharp enough, these are blurry”. Try to explain then to the client that ”Yeeaah, that’s just the Fuji characteristics, it’s meant to be like that.” Do you think theyll be like ”Oh, okay, no worries, after all, it is taken with a FUUUJI.” Not gonna happen. With client work, DELIVER YOUR BEST RESULTS, or you’re gonna be out of work.

[@timovehkaoja]

”A good photo is easy to fuck up in post, but a fucked up photo can’t be unfucked in post.”

[@ThierryGibralta]

Agree with you that you should deliver “the best possible results” My point here is not to obsess with it. An eyelash in focus in stead of an eyeball is not “a picture to be thrown away” like a lot of people make it sound. A hammer get nail to a wall, a camera takes pictures. A hammer does not target the nail by itself, you do. Yes AF is great to have, but again not necessary to obsess about. Sharpness is not the end of all

[@timovehkaoja]

@@ThierryGibralta Yeah, but if you consistantly deliver out of focus images to customers, eventually you’re gonna burn. Especially with customer work, you should obsess over the quality. Your work is the measure of your talent. Would you take a tattoo from an artist who thinks the same way, don’t obsess?

[@ThierryGibralta]

@@timovehkaoja again that is not what I am saying. People who obsess over lens sharpness, AF millimeters issues while not being able to compose, light or properly create an image need to to stop obsessing about it and focus on the other aspects. I am not saying don’t produce quality results.

[@timovehkaoja]

@@ThierryGibralta​​⁠​⁠you literally say ”Most of the clients aren’t going to pixel peep.” You also said ”Only people who care if your photos are sharp are other photographers, and their opinion doesnt matter.” About the other things to learn and focus on you stated the composition and lighting, but still telling that it is okay if the work you deliver to the customer is not sharp, because they don’t pixel peep. Why? Why would anyone take such a risk with client work? I mean, it takes you four seconds to check if the photo is perfectly focused and that there are no shakes eliminating sharpness. Why wouldn’t you do that? 😳