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Is this picture out of focus ?


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I am in process of mastering MF with my 17-40L lens. I have taken numerous pictures but still not satisfied how it

come out. I start suspecting equipment. Is this possible? The pic was sharpen for web but if it is out-of-focus it can

be seen anyway. Thanks for your help.

 

http://www.lempert.smugmug.com/gallery/625262_N4FzK#364274104_VxB6e-XL-LB

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Jeremy, I just can't explain this. But I do know what 'picture perfect' looks like. If not focus my be it is noise in the photo that's bothering me. It can be due to both CP and GND on lens when I took this pic. Too much lower quality optics on the good lens can be the reason why it looks 'soft'.
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Did you WANT to shoot an exposure this long? 1/4 second in this kind of light is a l-o-n-g exposure. I know the ND and CP allowed you to get to this point, and I can understand the use of the CP, but extending the exposure would also introduce more noise into the image. While I like the image, which is in focus looking at it at 100%, there is a significant amount of noise in the upper left sky portion of the image.
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I may be way off base with this so I'm happy to be corrected here. I have often noticed that when using a polarizer,

the details in the image appear flattened, giving a slightly unsharp appearance. I frequently shoot the same scene

with various degrees of polarization and without polarizer and find the shot without the polarizer seems sharper. I

wonder if the loss of highlight details through polarization reduce contrast and thereby reduce apparent sharpness.

Some of the detail in the shingles on the right side of the roof, where there is little tonal variation or shadow, look a

little flat to me.

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definitely oversharpened. Lots of artifacts in the sky and grass at larger sizes.

 

I would suggest (if you are using photoshop) to learn to sharpen properly with the 'unsharp mask' tool. Just regular sharpening can lead to nasty artifacts, as it has in this image.

 

Also, for this type of image, skip the Neutral density... all it does is increase your exposure time, which isn't always a good thing... especially for this kind of image. In some ways, you might actually benefit from stopping up to F9 as it will eliminate any possibility of diffraction showing up in the image and further softening the image. Always use ISO 100, a tripod, and a good quality CP filter.

 

Otherwise, the image really is fine, apart from the sharpening artifacts. Focus isn't an issue here... especially at F11

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