C/C, help with Focusing Issues please

[D.MoralesPhoto]

So after my post yesterday and a little C&C, I went out today and hit up some more pictures. Looking through the ones today (and all the ones in my small collection), I see there's a distinct problem with real sharpness/proper focus. It looks focused in my viewfinder, but once I get it onto the computer, it seems less than spectacular. (I might add it looks worse at maximum magnification (of course), but still shouldn't it be good even at 1:1 ?)

So...the B&W one I kinda just want overall C&C, but the others I'd like C&C both generally and specifically on maybe what's causing the persistant OOF.

I'd like to note that on all of these shots, I took multiples, both with AF and MF, just to make sure it wasn't the AF (my normal mode) messing up. I've posted the best of the respective sets...

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

#5 is the closest I could get to replicating yesterday's shot. The flower from yesterday was a little...limp...

 

[KmH]

No focus problems here that I see. Not equipment wise anyway.

The 18-55 mm lens is a kit lens. It's good for starting out with but has to be used within a fairly narrow range of apertures to produce reasonably good focus.

Additionally, virtually all digital images require some amount of sharpening on post processing.

Your lens will peform best when the aperture is set to the mid-part of it's range, say between f/5.6 and f/11 when used at 18mm and because it's a variable aperture zoom about f/8-f/16 when used at 55mm.

Most lens elements are thinner at the edges than in the middle and focus sharpness drops off if you use the lens as wide open as it will go since you are using both the thick and the thin portions of the glass. Because of the variation in thinkness they don't focus in exactly the same place.

 

[D.MoralesPhoto]

No focus problems here that I see. Not equipment wise anyway.

The 18-55 mm lens is a kit lens. It's good for starting out with but has to be used within a fairly narrow range of apertures to produce reasonably good focus.

Additionally, virtually all digital images require some amount of sharpening on post processing.

Your lens will peform best when the aperture is set to the mid-part of it's range, say between f/5.6 and f/11 when used at 18mm and because it's a variable aperture zoom about f/8-f/16 when used at 55mm.

Most lens elements are thinner at the edges than in the middle and focus sharpness drops off if you use the lens as wide open as it will go since you are using both the thick and the thin portions of the glass. Because of the variation in thinkness they don't focus in exactly the same place.

Thanks KmH! That's some solid info, and it'll help me a ton; I really appreciate it.

For the focusing issue, I'm either being extremely overcritical of my shots, or I'm not practiced enough to know what's good vs bad. On the dragonfly(ish?) and the ladybug, for example, at 100% (on my non-resized shots) they don't seem very crisp. At the sizes I posted they seem fine overall to me, but I thought the flower yesterday was fine too...so...yea, just wanting to kinda refine my ability to determine what's OOF and what's not...

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Throw some L glass on that XSi, and you will be pleased.

I had the same two lenses you have, and was unhappy most of the time.
If you like Macro, get the 100mm 2.8, for $500, and you will be *amazed* at the quality difference. The 100mm became my walkaround lens.

 

[D.MoralesPhoto]

I have a macro lens, I just haven't done much with it to be honest...It's an EF 50mm 1:2.5

So um..."L Glass"....yea....I have no idea . Clarify for me?

It's good to hear from someone who has/had the same equipment as I do, thanks!

 

[D.MoralesPhoto]

Just a bump to see if anyone can provide some C&C on my pictures, and maybe help me with the "L glass" terminology I'm still too new to know :meh:

 

[LarryD]

Nothing wrong with the first photo except it's a bit dark so some detail is lost.. I'm not a fan of B&W, but if the colors are just blah, then it may work... lines and architecture make for an interesting look..

The rest are ho hum... perhaps they are large crops because of the equipment used and so lose their sharpness..

If you are focusing manually, maybe you need to look at your diopter because it is off...... use the center point for automatic focus and see if it improves..

"L" glass is simply Canon's top-of-the-line lens series.. look for a red ring around the front......... next would be a gold ring, then the basic black consumer series.........

 

[Aye-non Oh-non Imus]

It looks focused in my viewfinder, but once I get it onto the computer, it seems less than spectacular.

The LCD is good for data information (histogram and highlights) but is useless IMO for IQ (Image Quality). Even if you're shooting in RAW, the LCD renders a jpeg version of that image (speaking Nikon here, Canon may be different). Depending on your in-camera settings, this can cause a significant difference from the RAW image.

(I might add it looks worse at maximum magnification (of course), but still shouldn't it be good even at 1:1 ?)

Pixel peeping will drive you mad.

 

[D.MoralesPhoto]

I didn't like the colors so much in the B&W one, which is why I converted it. I could easily change the method of B&W conversion to remove a bit of the darkness, but I kinda liked it real dark...guess it was a mood thing

I did crop all the color ones a bit...I was worried about too much going on in the backgrounds that would be distracting or just plain unnecessary (extra OOF flowers on the last one, extra OOF greenery on the insect ones).

I actually did both manual and autofocus, and I've been using the center focus point for a while...can't remember what made me switch to that but I tend to center my subject, focus by half pressing the exposure, then framing the shot however I'm going for it. I wear glasses and have a fairly strong prescription, but I tried my diopter every which way and *think* it's as sharp as possible. Honestly if I had to pick between bad camera hardware vs bad biologic hardware, I'd rather it be bad camera hardware :meh:. At least that's cheaper to fix for me...

Thanks for the clarification on the L glass...I didn't know about the ring colors. I'll be stuck with my current camera equipment for a while given my budget and income, but maybe around the beginning of next year I could look into upgrading a lens or two.

Thanks for the C&C, anymore is greatly appreciated.

 

[sararamsey]

I really like the ladybug photo

The last one is strange with the leaves out of focus in the foreground. usually you expect that in the background