Landscape fine tuning

Maximus1887 · Apr 28, 2015

Hi guys, I have been shooting on a T3i for a couple year, and still have a lot to learn. I don't have the money to invest in super great equipment, but I have been doing my best to get razor sharp images with my T3i and 18-55 kit lens. I have it on a tripod, 2-sec delay, and mirror lockup. Please take a look at this 100% crop and let me know what I could do to get this even sharper next time.

It was shot at 18mm, f/6.3, ISO 400, 1/1250.

I am familiar with post-processing techniques, I am trying to learn how to get the best image possible first. I know I should have lowered the ISO. I am also thinking that lens is sharper at 21mm or 24mm, ie I need to use the lenses sweet spot.

Or would you say that this is the limit of my 18-55mm kit lens? I recently got a 50mm f1.8, and have found it sharper, but not always as sharp as I'd like. I can add some crops of that one later too.

Thanks so much!

goooner · Apr 28, 2015

I have the same lens (the 1st version that came out). From that out take the picture looks a tad under exposed. I would have probably shot that between f8 and 11 and at 20mm. Did you have the IS switched off? Seeing that you are shooting on a tripod, with the 2s delay it is not needed. Do you have any kind of filter screwed onto the lens (for 'protection')?

tirediron · Apr 28, 2015

The sample is a bit small to do any real forensic analysis, but I think gooner's on the right track.

KenC · Apr 28, 2015

I assume this is a jpg file, in which case the camera applied certain menu settings to produce it. The default settings should be capable of producing a sharp image, but if you changed them at some point, it would be worth checking what they are now as they can affect sharpness.

Maximus1887 · Apr 28, 2015

Thanks for all your responses already!

goooner said:
I have the same lens (the 1st version that came out). From that out take the picture looks a tad under exposed. I would have probably shot that between f8 and 11 and at 20mm. Did you have the IS switched off? Seeing that you are shooting on a tripod, with the 2s delay it is not needed. Do you have any kind of filter screwed onto the lens (for 'protection')?

I did not have any filters on there. I did have IS on, so I know that might have caused some problems. I tried shooting at f/22, but it was worse at 100%. I should try f/8, but it is actually about the same sharpness across the image, which I thought was odd for f/6.3 . I also shot on handheld at the same softness.

I shot in RAW so I can change the settings to what ever I need in DDP or RAWtherapee. I did a sharper version using ddp and the landscape setting. Here is a bigger crop.

Thanks for your help everyone.

mattpayne11 · Apr 28, 2015

If you're shooting on a tripod, you should keep your ISO at 100 unless you have moving objects like trees or flowers that might need a faster shutter speed. Also, if you're shooting RAW, you might want to get Lightroom and Photoshop if you can afford it, there are some great sharpening tools there. Looks like some pretty nasty Chromatic abberation in that shot, probably from the lens you used; however, I'd go for f/8 or f/11 in the future, as that is going to give you much sharper results. Unfortunately, there is a good reason people pay good money on good glass, it really is better/sharper. Best of luck!

enzodm · Apr 29, 2015

mattpayne11 said:
I'd go for f/8 or f/11 in the future, as that is going to give you much sharper results.

actually, the sweet spot for the 18-55 at 18mm is between 5.6 and 8: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f 3.5-5.6 IS - Retest 15MP Review - Analysis

TCampbell · May 1, 2015

You've got "Chromatic Aberration" (aka "CA"). See my annotations.

Along the top of the wall, we see the top edge in front of the "white" snow, you'll see a thin red border (fringe). Now look below the archway... and you'll see the bottom of the arch has a thin blue border.

Here's what's going on... as light passes through an individual glass lens element, the edge of the lens behaves "like a prism" in that it wants to split light into a "rainbow" of color wavelengths. Blue bends more easily than red. To combat this problem (which all lenses have), they insert a second lens after the first lens, but it's shaped differently... the arrange of two lenses is called an "achromatic doublet" and the second lens shaped to be concave and fit against the first element so that it "unbends" the light. That trick doesn't completely fix the problem, but it reduces it. They can keep adding more elements to refine the image.

Top end glass use better materials (often low dispersion "glass" which isn't made of ordinary optical glass) and more elements -- with a goal of minimizing the effect.

It turns out, however, that since the camera records the "red", "green", and "blue" light separately, you can actually fix this problem with a computer. It can be fixed with programs like Photoshop or Lightroom once you know what tools to use to fix it. But I think Lightroom will also let you download lens "profiles" which know properties of the lens (how much vignetting they get (and that varies by aperture setting) and how much CA they get... and it can auto-correct for this.

mohammadgmo · May 1, 2015

ndumbwi2008 · May 2, 2015

Dave442 · May 3, 2015

1) I suggest not looking at the shot at 100%

2) Follow the other suggestions: f/8, ISO 100, Tripod and turn off IS, fix CA and sharpen in post.
3) From what part of the frame is the crop? I would expect more softness near the corners.

Maximus1887 · May 4, 2015

Thanks for your help everyone. I'll adjust my setting as suggested and I'll work on fixing CA and sharpness in post. Hope I can get some better glass as well in the future.