Photos are not "tack sharp" - pics attached

[mamarazzi_squared]

We went to the Galveston Train Museum today to take photos of my son for his 4th birthday. I haven't been taking as many photos lately and I have either 1) gotten a little rusty and/or 2) am having camera issues.

I did not and almost never use a tripod. I shot at ISO 100 and alternated using flash and going natural. I shot in AV mode -- did I use too large of an aperture? These are a couple of my faves and are somewhat sharper than many of the other hundreds I took! What could I have differnetly to make these photos tack sharp?

I have not processed the attached photos at all so that you can see what they look like directly out of the camera.

Thanks for the suggestions - it's the only way I will improve!

[Christopher Mac]

What camera body and lens are you using? Details on a focal plane slightly behind your son seem to be in sharp focus. The rivets around the window, the texture in the lettering, the bricks just next to your son all seem to be sharp. This could be a combination of movement at ISO 100 and/or a slight back focusing issue with your camera and lens combination.

[JenJohnson79]

Anne, he's getting big! Too cute. . .

[Fotographie-Junge]

Are you letting your camera AF? I personally would have manually focused on these to ensure that the camera didnt pick a focus point that I didnt want..i.e. background instead of your son. The first one looks sharp enough where you could use the unsharp mask to tack it up a bit. Let me ask on more ?, if you are using AF, are you letting the camera pick your focus point? Because that could very well be your problem also...Cute kid BTW

[fnkypenguin]

here is a way to test and see if your camera/lens combo is back focusing: http://photo.net/learn/focustest/

but most likely the camera just picked the wrong place to focus, i would manually choose the focus point on his face and go from there

[mamarazzi_squared]

I shoot with a Canon 30D and I was using the 28-105 IS f/4.5-5.6 lens. I was shooting in AV mode, so the camera was going the focusing.

I *thought* that I was choosing the focus point and then reframing. I know how to select the focal point in the camera -- am I doing something wrong? I s there a way to manually do this that I am missing?

I will definitely try the focus test too.

Thanks for the compliments on my little guy! The first and second are my faves -- the first is probably sharp enough and I want to get the second sharp enough to print as an 11X14.

One of these days I will get it right in the camera! Doh!

[AndrewCCM]

Need a bit more info. Shutter speed being important.
AV mode has nothing to do with focusing (your statement above confused me).

With that particular lens, I'd say that using too large of an aperture is not a problem. F4.5 should be fine. However, not being familiar with that lens, if you did shoot wide open, many lenses are not their sharpest until you stomp down a little...I notice that most lenses are sharpest when they are about 1-2 stops smaller than widest aperture.

One other thing, most images will benefit from a little sharpening as the AA filters on most digital cameras do somewhat take the total "crispness" off of an image straight from camera. It's kinda hard to tell how soft these images are at websize. I would bet that most of them would sharpen up nicely for print.

The last image definitely looks like back-focusing which could either be calibration or (my guess) AF just locked on the background. Focus and recompose can work well.. but you do have to realize that method does come with trade-offs... You are changing the focal distance when you recompose. Depending on your distance from subject, the focus and recompose method can result in focus problems due to the change in distance.

Here is a good link explaining the focus and recompose trade-off.

http://visual-vacations.com/Photogra...pose_sucks.htm

[kenw]

using Av there is a real possibility that your shutter speed dropped too low to hand hold safely. It think that's the issue on #2 and may be contributing on the others. For that you'll need to bump it to iso 200 to keep the shutter fast enough.

[digidawg87]

Have you tried using auto ISO?

I did have a rpoblem iwth a Nikon D300. I had trouble with a 35-70mm macro. I called Nikon and they had me update the firmware. That seems to have solved the problem.

[mamarazzi_squared]

Andrew - thanks for the link. I think the issue that I had was that I was trying to compose the photos that way I wanted them in the camera (instead of cropping later) and I was having trouble getting the focus point (which I normally keep in the middle) to focus on Andrew's face and also get the composition that I wanted.

So, I would focus on his face and then recompose, but not change the zoom distance. Does that make sense? Did I screw the focus up by doing that? Any suggestions on how to quickly get the focus point where you want it and the composition that you want? Do you just move your focus dot as needed in camera? I tried this a bit, but got frustrated.

With the shots where he is in the window, I agree that I really could have used a smaller aperture and higher ISO to make sure hand holding was not an issue. It is tough for me to keep all this straight while trying to keep a 4 year old happy! Although, it is some what easier than keeping me 17 months happy! :)

What I meant by my AV mdoe comment was that I set the camera to AV, and it picked the shutter speed. I chose the focus spot, but just half-pressed the shutter button to get it to focus (as opposed to manually focusing).

Any sharpening tips for photos 1 and 2 besides the unsharped mask?

This is an issue I have time and time again, so I really need to figure out what I am doing wrong!

I don't believe that my camera has auto-ISO -- thanks for the suggestion though!

Thanks for all of the advice, keep it coming!

[The Philos]

There's not a shutter speed issue in any of these really - my guess is the AF locked on something other than his eye - Andrew hit it on the head.

EXIF for those claiming Shutter Speed issues (these speeds should minimize the effect of any movement:)
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 30D
Image Date: 2008:07:20 12:10:11
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 85.0mm
CCD Width: 22.48mm
Exposure Time: 0.0025 s (1/400)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 30D
Image Date: 2008:07:20 12:45:24
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 65.0mm
CCD Width: 14.99mm
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 30D
Image Date: 2008:07:20 12:06:25
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 65.0mm
CCD Width: 14.99mm
Exposure Time: 0.010 s (1/100)
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)

[mamarazzi_squared]

Andrew - just read the article, that was very helpful!

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by mamarazzi_squared

Andrew - just read the article, that was very helpful!

Good deal!

[kenw]

"There's not a shutter speed issue in any of these really ..."

with that data, I would have to agree.

[venchka]

Flat lightning doesn't always produce "tack sharp" images either.

If I had to guess & had access to the original file, I would say that in the last picture, the camera focused on the ladder rung attached to the train. It's sharp & the crinkled lettering is pretty sharp too. Remember, you get more depth of field BEHIND the plane of sharp focus than in front of the plane of sharp focus. That might explain why the dark ladder rung & paint are in better focus than your son.

AND...small sensors loose depth of field for a given focal length.