Soft images? Am I doing something wrong, or is my camera hurt?

Recently, I have been thinking about the quality of photographs I'm taking (detail and sharpness, mostly), and I

feel like many of the shots I take seem kind of blurry when they shouldn't be - good, sharp lenses (70-200 f.4 L,

50mm 1.8 mkII), apertures that should result in sharp images, shutter speeds fast enough to ensure that

hand-holding shouldn't cause any image blur, etc. Attached an example of an image that looks a bit soft to me,

taken with my Canon Rebel XT and a 70-200mm f/4.0 L-series lens. It happens more often with wider-angle scenery

shots, but I felt a picture with a clearer focus point would be better to demonstrate this.

 

Also, I posted some photos from my first shoot with a model a few weeks ago, and one person commented that my

photos looked "soft without reason." (That thread is at

http://www.photo.net/portraits-and-fashion-photography-forum/00QQp8)

 

I'm trying to get to the bottom of whether I'm making a lot of mistakes myself, or if there is something wrong

with my equipment.

 

It's worth noting that I dropped my camera from about waist-height a few months ago, documented in this post:

http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00PojX

At the time, I examined it very carefully, took test shots, and finally it looked like I miraculously escaped any

damage. However, given the recent comments about the softness of my shots, and the fact that I also think some of

my shots seem to be lacking detail, I'm wondering if there could be something slightly misaligned, or any other

damage to my camera that could be resulting in less-than-ideal image quality.

 

Any thoughts? If there does seem to be something wrong with my camera, how much might repairing or getting it

checked out run? Otherwise, what can I do technique-wise to improve? I just came back from 2 weeks in China and I

feel like a lot of spectacular shots were ruined by this seemingly over-arching softness. It doesn't help that

the images look so sharp on that little tiny viewfinder, when you get them on a monitor they are usually

underwhelming in comparison :)

 

Thanks,

 

Chris<div></div>

1) The Canon Rebel XT is not the sharpest camera body in my experience.

2) What is your shutter speed? Generally 1/focal length is not quite enough to get rid of all motion blur.

3) With digital camera it is not necessary to get sharper images when you close the aperture. You have to match the

aperture to your lens.

4) In your sample picture, the shirt and the logo on the man seems to be pretty sharp. So I suspect a autofocus problem

from dropping your camera. Go to Bob Atkins webpage and down load a test focus chart. Take some picture according to

his testing procedure and see if you experience front or back focusing with your setup.

5) Do you do any post processing sharpening to enhance the sharpness on your computer? It helps.

Hey Hansen,

 

Thanks. I intended to include the exposure information but neglected to do so.

 

For the shot above: 1/160 sec, f/4.0, ISO 800, lens at 75mm.

 

I did think about an autofocus issue, since the camera has trouble sometimes, but I mostly notice this with my 50mm 1.8, which I've read is pretty bad with AF in general, so I didn't think too much about this. I'll go through the procedure with one of the charts and report back.

 

I generally do sharpen the pictures a bit in Photoshop but this image is untouched (just resized to post). I know that sharpening it will bring out a lot of detail but some of the images I take just seem like they shouldn't be that soft to begin with..

 

Chris

You must realise that lower contrast will make a softer image. Look at the man`s hat. It is sharper than his eyes which are lower contrast. all photo lens work this way including Leica and Zeiss.

 

The lady at sunset exhibits the same effect. The beaded dress is sharper than her face.

 

Being a slave to autofocus is dangerous so take care things are working properly.

hi chris

 

can you post a 100% crop of an area you think is in focus (but appears too soft)? from the resized image of the keeper, sharpness seems ok, at least what i would expect from a sharp, resized image.

 

one trick might be to run a sharpen tool like sharpen edges after resizing. i think this is a good practice for printing and webcontent anyway. to my eye, the sharpness in your pictures of emily seem fine, except that they were not re-edited after resizing.

 

i can send you an example.

 

rj

Try taking sevsral pictures at 1/250 or faster. That may show a difference.

Your facebook pictures are going to look like trash simply because they are on facebook.... For some reason, facebook reduces the quality of the image about 50% or more and you end up with soft-looking images.

 

(for another conversation.... the reason 20mp is pointless on a p&s... they all end up on facebook anyways!)

 

But looking at the image you posted... looks fine... for a resized image. Typically, to find out if you actually have an issue, you'll have to post 100% crops of detail areas. If you really think there is an issue, print out both a focus test sheet and a lens test sheet and use your tripod to do a whole bunch of test shots.

 

Basically... always shoot at a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate motion blur, and always be extremely careful with focus at wide apertures.

And of course the killer: use lower ISO.

 

(Hard to combine: faster shutter speeds with lower ISO...)

 

Anyway, there are a lot of discussions and posts about testing that should help you.

 

Or you could do this simple test:

 

Shoot a magazine/newspaper, (flat-lying or hanging)

 

at a 45% angle,

 

in very bright conditions but with indirect light,

 

at ISO 100 (or ISO 200 maximum),

 

with your lens one stop closed from wide open, (F5.6 on your 70-200/4L)

 

with a high shutterspeed (at least 2x focal length on a crop body) for handheld or on a tripod,

 

focus in the middle of the print at a well marked spot (X) preferably at 1,5 times the minimal focus distance.

 

If the X is sharp, an amount of text before the X is sharp that's equal to about half the amount of text that's sharp after the X then everything is working as it should and you should focus on shooting technique.

 

If not: more testing and maybe a repair is in order.

 

Kind regards, Matthijs.

<I>f</I>/4 will not yield that much depth of field, and you're using a longer than 'normal' lens, which will

contribute to the shallow depth. Try to focus on the eyes of the subject - that's where most people look, and let

the other areas fall where they may, or use a different aperture to expand your depth of field. Also note what

Ronald stated - low contrast lighting results in a low apparent sharpness due to a lack of large differences in

adjacent tonal values.

<BR><BR>

- Randy

I have the same camera and lens and the image looks about right to me, particularly if you haven't sharpened it for upload. The sharpest area with the most contrast is around the collar point and neck closure and everything else is slightly soft, probably because of the wide aperture and narrow DOF.

Stop shooting wide open. Try shooting at f8 or f11 to achieve maximum sharpness. Don't shoot you 70-200 at 200mm. Shoot it at about 150mm for maximum sharpness.