d300 and soft focus with different lens

[fhmillard]

<p>The issue is with exposure. I would use ACR or Capture NX to get a better pixel distribution. The light skin and hair also need some contrast. I made some simple adjustments to tonal contrast and used High Pass filter on layer copy @ 2.9 pixels, hard light, opacity 50%,</p>

[fhmillard]

<p>Here is the adjusted version</p><div></div>

[hal_b]

<p>Jessica: I started with a digital P&S camera that only looked good at ISO 50, sometimes at ISO 100. I never ever shot at ISO 200 or higher because the noise was terrible. When I started with dSLR, the noise was less but I never went above 400. After a while I got sick of the limitation, and have attempted to shoot at 800 and sometimes 1600. While at first I wasn't sure about the results, I have since learned that the dSLR actually does handle noise competently at these higher ISOs. Really, it's the one greatest thing about the dSLR, and it would be a shame not to tap into that. I think that from time to time, you may find that you will get better results selecting the aperture you want and increasing the ISO, rather than restricting the ISO and using a narrow depth of field.</p>

<p>The proof is in the pudding. Start with ISO 800 next time the light is a little low, and see if you don't like the results better.</p>

<p>For smart sharpen, I use two methods. On the full picture, I would use radius of about 2-3 pixels, amount in the 75-100% range. If the picture were already shrunk for web viewing (less than 1000 pixels wide) I use radius of 0.5-1 pixel, amount 100-150%. You can't use a hard-and-fast rule, because you need to use larger or smaller radius depending on the size of the details in the picture relative to a pixel. Adjust the amount to taste. And always always remember "less is more" when you sharpen.</p>

<p>Frank: I can see how increasing contrast in the hair brings out some of that detail better, but this should probably only be done locally in that area, as the rest of the picture suffers from the safe treatment. Notice the clothes and shoes are already high contrast without any help.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Thanks Hal and Frank. Can you explain to me how to edit this in PS JUST on his face? I have CS3 and ACR. would this b something i do in ACR or in PS? Step by Steps if u dont mind. I know my way around PS but not GREAT. <br>

Hal - thanks for the sharpening info. I will try uping the ISO next time. I used 800 one time on a Black backdrop and got HORRID noise...but maybe that's b/c it was a backdrop. maybe outside will work better? </p>

[hal_b]

<p>High ISO noise will always be more obvious on black surfaces and shadows. Whites, colors, and people will look much more pleasing.</p>

<p>Regarding how to edit just one area of the photo: There is a wealth of free information out there for the reading. I would google "adjustment layer" or "layer mask" to find free tutorials on how to pull off this kind of editing.</p>

<p>Here I will *attempt* a brief instruction on how to do this in Photoshop:</p>

<p>1. Layer --> New Adjustment Layer --> Brightness/Contrast. You could use Curves or Levels or any of the other options. The key right now is to learn to use the adjustment layers.</p>

<p>2. Adjust the sliders until you have achieved the effect you want ONLY IN THE AREA OF INTEREST. In this case, the hair. For example, you might use Brightness -27 and Contrast +6 in this case, looking only at the hair.</p>

<p>3. Ctrl + I. This will Invert the color of the layer from all 100% white to all 100% black across the entire picture. You won't be able to see this. You will only see in the little thumbnail in your Layers window that the white box has turned black. What this will do to your picture is remove the effect you had just performed.</p>

<p>NOTE: You are now using a Layer Mask to adjust opacity on your Adjustment Layer. A Layer Mask is a black & white image whose only purpose is to define where something begins and where it ends. In this case, white means full effect and black means no effect. Shades of gray mean a partial effect. You will adjust how strongly the Brightness/Contrast takes effect by how much of which shade is in place in different parts of the picture.</p>

<p>4. Select the paintbrush and set color to white, brush flow to 50%.</p>

<p>5. Paint <em>on the Adjustment Layer</em> over the hair, face, and hands to taste. Use "[" and "]" to adjust the size of the brush on the fly. Use Shift+[ and Shift+] to adjust the hardness of the edge of the brush. Since your flow is 50%, one pass will add half of the effect, a second pass will add all of the effect.</p>

<p>NOTE: When you are done, you may find that the image needs fine-tuning. You can switch back and forth between black and white paint to remove or add effect to any part of the image that requires it. When you are satisfied, you can still go back and adjust the Brightness/Contrast sliders by double-clicking on the icon in the Layers window. Finally, you can adjust the opacity of the entire adjustment layer to scale the potency of the entire effect until you are content that it is enough, but not too much.</p>

<p>You can use this method for any of your adjustments (Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, etc). It will allow you to select or remove any adjustment at any time, and will allow you to go back to your original image at any time, as you are never making any changes whatsoever to the original image on the background layer.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Thanks Hal that's a great tut. I will try this out asap tomorrow. my eyes are getting tired tonight. U've been very helpful.</p>

[fhmillard]

<p>A general way to correct in ACR. Open NEF in ACR. Look at histogram. Adjust Recovery and Black sliders until pixel distribution extends only to the edges of the histogram. Move the Clarity slider right to where you get some good mid-contrast; about 40. Find the detail tab; adjust luminance noise to about 30; Find lens correction tab; use zoom tool to find chromatic aberrations, if any, use the two sliders to remove CA's.</p>

<p>Now open in PS, note everything so far is non-destructive; its only metadata (XMP).<br>

Image->Mode->LAB Why? Contrast and color are is separate channels and are independent.<br>

click Channels-> click Lightness<br>

You now see a BW image.<br>

Image->Adjustments->Shadows/Highlights: Set Shadows sliders: Amount=25; Tonal Width=30;Radius=275-300<br>

Click OK<br>

Refresh histogram.<br>

On the channels list click LAB -- all channels should be visible and image has color.<br>

Click layers<br>

Create a curves adjustment layer. Determine how lights and darks are arranged from left to right on the curves histogram: Light puts lights on the right; pigment ink puts shadows on the right. IN the curves display option Set to pigment ink to standardize this procedure; click the square that has lots of small squares in it to get finer tone resolution.<br>

In the lightness channel create a slight "S" curve; note the steeper the sides of the curve the greater the contrast;<br>

Look at histogram: spikes on the ends are blown out shadows and highlights; adjust your curve to accordingly; and look at image qulaity.<br>

Now we want to add color:<br>

while in curves: select the "a" channel; this channel control reds and greens; move the top right corner to the left 2 grid divisions; do the same for the lower left; you should see a diagonal straight line; select the "b" channel and do the same thing.<br>

Click OK.<br>

The curves: Blending normal; Opacity to taste; if contrast needs adjustment use Lightness channel on this layer.<br>

Now for sharpening. Make a background layer copy. Make background copy layer active. Channels->Lightness Why? We only want to sharpen detail to avoid affecting color contrast. This makes a sharpening layer so you can adjust opacity to taste.<br>

Filter->sharpen-> Smart Sharpen: Lens Blur; check more accurate; radius .9; amount 120 (use the zoom buttons while making amount and radius adjustments to avoid halos). when done click ok<br>

If this were done in RGB, the blending mode would be Luminosity, since this was done in LAB lightness Opacity is normal.<br>

Now while still in LAB you can select the face and hair and create a curves adjustment layer just for he selection. Use only the lightness channel for fine tonal adjustments.</p>

<p> </p>

[fhmillard]

<p>LAB mode version using above recipe</p><div></div>

[eloy_cortinez]

<p>no sense to do sharpness test at f1.8. for instance with the shoes and face issue, when you are at f 1.8, you focus and if you move a little bit everything gets mess up, at f 1.x you should be very patient and be prepared to throw away many pics due to focus issues. However, if you still have <strong>consistent</strong> focus issues, you can do fine tuning on diferent lenses on the d300, the computer on camera will recognize the lens and will apply the chossen correction automatically... in this case you have to determine if the lenses are back or front focusing.... thats a step ahead of saying "my images are not sharp enough". Are you shooting raw? raw images tend to be on the softer side, and you can increase the sharpening in a without adding lots of noise</p>

[CvhKaar]

<p>Jesica , short remark regarding your "noise" concerns at ISO 800 or even higher.<br>

If you are aware of this then please disregard this..., but if not it may help sometimes ... :<br>

The D300 does an excelent job at ISO 800, but, like any camera, will tend to "over expose" with large black area's, ( as it will under expose when there is a lot of white in the frame), unless you compensate for that. Because of the over-exposure , a black backdrop may result in a lot of "noise" when using any form of ïntegral metering"..<br>

Although modern camara's do a much better job with black ( and white) area's , none of them is perfect regarding this.<br>

Mostly, if i want anything "automatic" with large dark or light areas within the frame, I use spot-metering on the subject, or compensate with over- or Under-exposure settings .</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Thanks everyone. Very useful information regarding ISO and LAB adjustment. <br>

Frank - i've heard great things about LAB and your edit looks really nice. DO you use those settings on every picture or is that something that has to be tweaked with each picture?? I am going to try that out today and c what i come up with....<br>

Eloy, the pictures of the boy wasn't taken at 1.8. they were more around 3.2 which was why i didn't understand teh lack of focus/sharpness on his head. I do shoot in RAW but has applied sharpening to the pictures posted. <br>

Thanks again!</p>

[fhmillard]

<p>Not bad for JPG. The advantage to LAB is that color and contrast are separated AND the color spectrum is wide -- consider crayon boxes: RGB = 3 crayons; CYMK = 4 Crayons; LAB = lots and lots of crayons. I never use Hue/Saturation; Brightness and Contrast; and ALWAYS sharpen lightness channel in LAB mode or in RBG use luminosity blending to avoid color contrast changes and in a separate layer.<br>

Note, last image has only three layers: background, background copy as sharpening layer, and curves adjustment layer. No brushing. In curves dialog box, using eye-dropper tool from main tool bar, separate areas of image can be selected and shown on curve as "dots on curve line". These curve selections are useful to "pivot" curve and allow control over specific tones.<br>

I may start out with the basic ACR recipe. The main issue in ACR or Capture NX is to get a good pixel distribution as seen on histogram -- although, a great image may have a bad looking histogram, highlights and shadows need control. Chromatic aberration, when it occurs, needs correction to assure better sharpening, since edges are affected. <br>

I started experimenting with LAB this summer -- its is best for images that look flat or need some color boost. The technique above on the a and b channels is the "instant" color boost, but adjustments of curves on these channels enhance color depth and accuracy -- in the last image, I was able to subdue background with simple a and b channel curve adjustments.<br>

Sharpening, I like moderate amounts (~100) on small pixels (<=1), but depends on image.</p>

[silcoxrfphoto]

<p>I can concur with the advice offered in this forum and must say it's to the point and well stated.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>thanks frank. ur explaniations are great but it's something i'm going to have to work on to perfect i think. I appreciate all the wonderful help</p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>The duck picture looks more like it should look, so I think we can rule out defective equipment. As you say, children move. There are three things to keep in mind;<br>

1. Choose a high enough shutter speed. How high? It depends on the relative rate of movement (basically the close you shoot, the smaller the movement needed to blur) but a range from 1/60 to 1/500 is typical. In situations like these, try to get a shot when the child is still, taking several shots to get one good one. You will epxerience situations where the subject moves or changes expression just when you take the picture, the only way around it is taking several pics to get one good.<br>

2. Focus system -- familiarize with the focus modes; the subject may move out of focus while you are still taking the picture. Put on the menu option to track focus as often as possible and try C mode.<br>

3. Aperture -- larger apertures introduce some unsharpness, but more to the point make the sharp area much smaller. Try to use something like f4 to f8 if possible, but don't be afraid to use a large aperture or higher ISO to get a high shutter speed when needed.<br>

Hal: with live view it is possible to focus exactly the way the lens sees, whether using MF or contrast detect AF. The normal AF system is susceptible to focusing errors, particularly if there is some problem with the equipment, which we are trying to rule out here.<br>

Don't overdo sharpening, I don't actually like most sharpening examples here. The actual settings to use depend on the image itself. And a slightly unsharp picture will not become sharp with USM, you can't fake actual resolution. BTW, like your pics, I'm sure that by working out the little issues you can get one extra level of sharpness and detail.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Thanks Oskar. Do you recommend shooting on "c" mode with children?? does it automatically track focus or do i need to change a menu setting??<br>

As far as sharpening goes, I agree about oversharpening. To me, i just want something to get the "fog" off the RAW file. They always looks cloudy to me. I know from experience that sharpening will NOT make a OOF shot look IN focus. It only draws more attention to the OOF in my opinion......<br>

Aperture - it is very hard in most situations to shoot a portrait type pic with a f8 ap b/c too much of the background is in focus for me. That's why i find myself at f/4 and below alot of the time. Also, i use that big ap to get a faster SS cause i only use natural light. Not by choice but b/c i don't have a OCF .... Maybe i need to at least get a reflector?<br>

Thanks again guys so much.</p>

[hal_b]

<p>Did you have luck figuring out selective editing in PS?</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Yes Hal! i followed your tutorial and it makes perfect sense. Works well for his hair etc. Will be great in the furture for problem areas that need fixed but usually mess the whole image up in doing so.... Now off to figure out the LAB that frank spoke about. HA!</p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>C mode will automatically track focus. Whether to use it with children..well, depends on personal preference I think :-) Nowadays my favority mode is C and the focus point selector to the middle setting (can't remember what it's called). Basically if you take a lot of shots and then carefully analyze them, you should be able to build up experience about what works for you. Especially in low light I've usually focused on taking photos of children when they are not moving too much, which is actually not that bad since at that point the child might be wondering about something and thus having a cute expression.<br>

For web size pictures I typically use something of 65% with a radius 0.7 (I have some pictures in the Wednesday threads with these settings, sorry no portraits though) -- not very much in my mind. With a good lens at f4 to f8 and good technique, heavy sharpening is not needed, just a bit to bring some sparkle. I agree that f8 might be very hard, sometimes one wants f11, sometimes f2, it depends on the type of portrait. When photographing a person in an environment, I usually don't want the environment to be too blurred, just a bit. I think the pictures you presented have a good sharpness distribution.<br>

I would advise to wait a bit with the reflector and flash. The reflector is fairly easy to use and can be quite useful outdoors, but you need someone to hold it and that's the catch. Flash introduces even more variables and tends to lead to more posed shots. I use both, but most of the time work with natural light; I recommend ironing out the unsharpness problem first and considering flash and reflectors more for the quality of the light rather than the quantity of the light.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Thanks Oskar. U are right about flash. I have been trying to master just the CAMERA before i add other variables. Beenworking on that for a year now LOL but i do have a full time job and a family so i don't get to practice as much as some. </p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Thanks Oskar. U are right about flash. I have been trying to master just the CAMERA before i add other variables. Beenworking on that for a year now LOL but i do have a full time job and a family so i don't get to practice as much as some. </p>

[kevin_swan1]

<p>It's front-focusing. I had the same problem with my 50 f/1.4. Just dial in a little compensation in the AF Tuning facility and it should correct it.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>Kevin - can u point out which images you think it's front focusing on?? </p>

[shoppix]

<p>An idea to check focusing. Camera on tripod, set up a ruler or yard stick on table at ?? 45deg angle. focus on a point - say the 6" line - and shoot.<br>

Vary your capture tests using your different lenses, and also to check possible difference between AF and manual focusing by the camera. this is 'homemade' version of a focus tool you can buy, but should indicate pretty clearly if your camera is showing front or back focusing.<br>

Also, push the two buttons to reset all settings in your camera to defaults. Then do the testing. Then check the 'sharpness setting in picture mode you are shooting with. Increase as necessary to improve sharpness.<br>

My first D300 had similar problem and finally returned it and got a new body which work just fine. I had that sharpness setting maxed on the '+' side and still nothing sharp.<br>

Now also have D300S and seems fine as well.</p>

[jessica_deal]

<p>i have tried that test out before. i really struggled finding the 45 degree angle which is important to the test....<br>

on adjusting the sharpness in camera, does that xfer over when you shoot in RAW??</p>