You DON’T NEED a $15,496 Lens To Create Amazing Photos

Have you ever looked at other people's wildlife photos, realized yours are not as sharp, and felt the need to spend more money on better equipment?

In today's video, I’ll share 3 images that show how to achieve the same sharpness as a lens that costs ten times more.

I created these images with an inexpensive zoom lens that cost $1500.

I used an eight-year-old camera for one of these images. Can you guess which one? If so, let us know in the comments.

If you stay until the end, I’ll show you something that no other editing software in the world can do.

Burrowing Owl Edit in Topaz Photo AI

Here’s an image of a burrowing owl where I applied sharpening and denoise in Lightroom.
It’s not that sharp. Is it?

Well, here’s how it looks with AI sharpening and denoise. Before and After. Much better. Am I right?

And we haven’t even covered the best part yet, which I’ll show you with the Blue Heron in a second.

Bald Eagle Edit in Topaz Photo AI

First, let’s check out the Bald Eagle. We have the Lightroom edit here and then the AI-powered sharpening and denoise. Before and After.

So, again, Lightroom is no match for the AI sharpening and denoise, and the final edit has much more definition in the feathers, beak, and eyes.

The softness in these images is a common problem with zoom lenses and lower-quality lenses in general, and the editing tools in most editing software, including Lightroom can’t make your images as sharp as the tools that I’m using right now.

Now, you could go out and buy, let’s say, a 600mm prime lens that costs $15,000 to create sharper images, and then you probably wouldn’t need to buy this plugin for Lightroom, Affinity Photo, Photoshop, On One, and many others.

However, if you’re like me and wish to save money while still creating tack-sharp images, then you need this software, which is ten times cheaper than that fifteen-thousand-dollar lens.

Blue Heron Edit in Topaz Photo AI

Alright, now for the best part of using this software.

Here’s the Great Blue Heron with the sharpening and denoise done in Lightroom, the best editing app for sharpening and denoise, so before and after.

So, once again, it’s sharper and has less digital noise.

But let’s say you want to apply sharpening just on the subject and adjust the amount of sharpening on the beak.

So, in other words, two sets of sharpening adjustments are exactly where you want them.

Here’s how.

I’m going to go inside the Sharpen module here, click on the Selection tab, and select just the subject.

Now, I want to remove this red overlay representing where the sharpening is applied.

I want to remove it so that it’s not being applied to the beak, the back of the neck, and over here because I find it too intense for those areas.

I will come here and click right here to erase from The Mask.

On the beak on the back and over here a little bit.

When I click on controls, it will apply that sharpening just where that red overlay was.

Now, if I want to apply sharpening to the beak with different settings, I just have to click on ADD enhancements, sharpen, and go into the selection.

I’m going to select none, and then I’m going to click here to paint the red overlay exactly where I want it.

Now, I’m just going to paint on the beak here, then go back to the controls and adjust the strength slightly less, as I prefer. Right around there is pretty good, and now we have two separate sharpening models applied.

How cool is that? I love it! You can try this out for free via this link.