Need help with this photo

[Breezy]

any and all suggestions welcome :D
I am having issues with the A700 focus settings. Everything looked great in camera except color and then when I got home they looked like this :(.
Help :D

This is sooc
I did shoot in Raw too.

[carrbowl]

Hey !!! they are all smiling AND they all have their eyes open...isn't that half the battle???

[Breezy]

hahah right Renae,
I am just not getting something with the auto focusing system with this sony lol. and that is what is frustrating :(

[boxofrocks]

It's hard to tell with a web resolution image when talking about focus.

[Paulo]

Breezy, are you asking about focus or color? What don't you like about the image? Color looks ok but I like high contrast images. Focus looks just a little soft. Not sure what ISO you were shooting or the outdoor conditions were. Midday shooting in excessively bright conditions can sometimes add to the softness of an images. I just noticed how washed out the images appear where the street and the area behind the trees.
Just curious but why F10 aperture?

[Breezy]

OK I can post a larger image if you guys want.
Paulo, I don't like the colors but I have since fixed that. What I am complaining about is the focus. I am getting spot on with one person (especially my newborns) but these are all soft to me. I will post a "processed" one in a bit, I just couldn't get what I wanted with the Sony software. As fo the F10, I wanted to make sure that everyone was in focus, I didn't want any blurry faces from the shallow depth of field.
What would you have done differently?
I haven't gotten to this particular one but I will post one I have done and see what yall think.

[Angelo]

I read somewhere that RAW images have all enhancement settings OFF. You must later come in and do some edge sharpening, etc.
I shoot only in RAW and find that I must batch edit, especially on sharpening the edges.
I hope this helps somewhat...
BTW, nice family photo.

[lhdvies]

I hope you don't mind, but I played with this beautiful family portrait a little.
I may have overdone it a bit, but played with levels just a little-lightened the saturation a little and did a 62-1-0 USM. (It really is a georgous family)






Of the two I like the 1st one a little better(just me) and again I hope I didn't offend by putting my spin on the photo. If, so I apolgize.

[Breezy]

Thanks Angelo can you be a little more specific?

Leon, no I don't mind that is why I posted it :D I really want help with this as all of them have a softness to them :(. And I really want to get these up for the family.
Thanks for the compliments, I really enjoyed photographing this family, they were fun to be around :D and all around nice people

[Breezy]

Oh and thanks for the tip Leon I will try it on the pic I am working on now :D

[Breezy]

BTW would I apply the USM first or last?

[CaptainTom]

always apply sharpening as the last step if possible.

[lhdvies]

Hi Breezy-I didn't mean to ignore your reply. I just got a call from my marine son (very proud daddy here), anyway, I agree with Tom, it is always the last thing I do. In fact when I reduce images to post to web I will do another light USM to them as the web sizes lose some sharpness for some reason.(can you tell I'm not a techie, but wish I was)
Anyway Good luck with your photo. I think Renae was right also "you caught everyone with those great smiles"!

[Paulo]

Originally Posted by Breezy

OK I can post a larger image if you guys want.
Paulo, I don't like the colors but I have since fixed that. What I am complaining about is the focus. I am getting spot on with one person (especially my newborns) but these are all soft to me. I will post a "processed" one in a bit, I just couldn't get what I wanted with the Sony software. As fo the F10, I wanted to make sure that everyone was in focus, I didn't want any blurry faces from the shallow depth of field.
What would you have done differently?
I haven't gotten to this particular one but I will post one I have done and see what yall think.

It's a really nice family photo. I hope I did not make you feel like I was implying you did something wrong with the F10 setting. That was not my intent. I'm just always curious what thought process one has behind the settings chosen. Only becaue you asked, because of the size of the family and the way you had them arranged, I would have probably bracketed the shot: 1 at F5.6 and 1 at F8. Then I pick the one where the entire family is in focus but the majority of the background is as distorted as possible. But this is your shot and your vision and better than any of the group photos I've taken. From Leon's edit, it does appear that your issue may also be attributed to the limitations of the sharpening capabilities of your Sony software. But I'm not familiar with that software.

The comments I've received when sharing any of my photos for CC before often included watching background. Which is the reason I mentioned a wide enough DOF to capture the entire family but shallow enough to distort/soften all those tree limbs 'intersecting' the girls' heads in the back row. A small 2-3 step ladder may have helped.

[Breezy]

Thanks everyone. Guess I need to go back and redo the few that I just did lol, cause i did it first :(
No reason to be sorry Leon. I wasn't here any way lol.
I appreciate all of the help. Here is what I did, but will redo with out the USM first lol.