Getting sharp photos

Sardine

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Hi all

Just wondering how one can get sharp photos without having to edit them? I have a Fujifilm s8000, and the only time my photos are really sharp is if I use super-macro, but even then they aren't sharp. Help, please! What do I do? How can I improve sharpness?!

Sardine
 
i dont thin yours can do this but to get super sharp pics you have to

use a tripod
use mirror lock up
wireless remote/timer
if using a tripod, turn of VR or IS
have as low as an iso as possible
and usually the sharpest aperture is 2 full stops above your minimum (number).

thats it. even though its mostly geard towsards dslrs.
 
Post some pics so we can see what you're talking about.
 
use a tripod
use mirror lock up
wireless remote/timer
if using a tripod, turn of VR or IS
have as low as an iso as possible
and usually the sharpest aperture is 2 full stops above your minimum (number).
I've got a tripod, but not the other stuff :( But even if my camera is on a flat surface and not moving, the pics are blurry/soft.

Un-edited.
2ee9d29.jpg


Sharpened.
33b0kzl.jpg
 
You can't get sharp images without editing them, its something to do with coatings on sensors and lenses that had to be introduced for digital capture, thats why most camera's have a sharpen in camera option
 
Since you're using a P&S camera you should be able to turn up the sharpening through one of the menus. Is it at the default setting now or did you already turn it up? You might also want to increase the contrast to see if it helps.

I'm not familiar with FujiFilm P&S cameras and don't know what the straight-out-of-camera images look like, but that first image is kinda soft for a 8mp P&S camera.

Play around with the camera settings and if the image doesn't improve you may just have to do some PP work to your pictures to get them sharp.
 
I'm not sure how much this is at play here but when you make a smaller version of an image you need to sharpen after the resize no matter how sharp it was to begin with.
 
I wouldn't exactly call it a P&S camera, but anyway.
There aren't settings for sharpness, at least I don't think so. Most of the time I shoot in Auto mode, and Sport mode(I take a lot of aviation-related photos). I've fiddled with complete manual settings, as well as just setting shutter speed (the rest is then set automatically). No luck so far.
With my Minolta (which is a true P&S), I got better photos. And it's something like a 3mp camera, with 3x zoom.

I also use the highest quality setting for my photos. Maybe I should look into getting another camera. I'm not happy with mine at all.

Even if I leave the images as is, without resizing them, they're soft.

What cameras would you reccommend for someone who does a lot of aviation photography, as well as landscape stuff. I'm on a tight budget, and can't really afford to buy different lenses for different styles of photography :( I can spend about R4000. Not sure what that is in Dollars.
 
You can't get sharp images without editing them, its something to do with coatings on sensors and lenses that had to be introduced for digital capture, thats why most camera's have a sharpen in camera option

No. Sharpness is simply a matter of edge transition between colors. All photoshop and others do to accentuate "sharpness" is accentuate the transition between different colors. Some people do NO RAW post other than converting to JPEGs and these photos are pretty sharp.

The second plane shot looks pretty well sharpened. The first one isn't bad, but of course once you start sharpening you start thinking "Ugh, the original doesn't look good. . ." when a few minutes earlier it was looking just fine.
 
My first in-camera sharp picture came the day I picked up a 50mm 1.8 lens (on dslr),... but this lead to dropping 7 grand on some additional sharp lenses, so be careful what you wish for.

-Shea
 
I wouldn't exactly call it a P&S camera, but anyway.
True, it's a advanced superzoom bridge digital camera.
There aren't settings for sharpness, at least I don't think so.
Are you sure? I would check the owners manual. My Olympus C-750 superzoom P&S has sharpness adjustment as an option but I just leave it at the default setting since it takes pretty sharp pictures...they're sharper right out of camera than the pictures that come straight out of my Canon XTi DSLR...those I have to sharpen.
With my Minolta (which is a true P&S), I got better photos. And it's something like a 3mp camera, with 3x zoom.
One possibility as to why your pictures are soft is maybe your Fuji is using a anti-aliasing screen/low-pass filter in front of the actual image sensor and that will actually soften the images on purpose to reduce moire patterning. If this is the case then you will have sharpen the image in a photo editor to make it look better.
 
Just hit the center button on the back of the camera to get to the options. I would guess that Sharpness is on the bottom of the settings on that first screen. It is with my Fuji. Should have Soft, Normal, and Hard for the options.

There aren't settings for sharpness, at least I don't think so. Most of the time I shoot in Auto mode, and Sport mode(I take a lot of aviation-related photos).
Just looked it up on the manual. Sharpness setting is available only in P,A,S, and M modes.

You will get much better results staying out of auto modes. Anything above ISO400 is going to be greatly detrimental to image quality with a camera such as this. If you want to use auto, at least use P mode and manually set the ISO to AutoISO(400) which will limit it. ISO800 is going to be terribly noisy.
 
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The second plane shot looks pretty well sharpened. The first one isn't bad, but of course once you start sharpening you start thinking "Ugh, the original doesn't look good. . ." when a few minutes earlier it was looking just fine.
Yep, that's the problem.

True, it's a advanced superzoom bridge digital camera
;) That it is. 18x zoom is awesome.

Just looked it up on the manual. Sharpness setting is available only in P,A,S, and M modes.

You will get much better results staying out of auto modes. Anything above ISO400 is going to be greatly detrimental to image quality with a camera such as this. If you want to use auto, at least use P mode and manually set the ISO to AutoISO(400) which will limit it. ISO800 is going to be terribly noisy.
Thank you!!!
Just took 3 photos with the different sharpness settings... I don't see a difference, but hey, I'll fiddle some more.

Thanks for all the help!!!
 

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