Camera Shake

[Samanax]

So how do I go about changing it to spot focusing?

See page 61 of your XS owner's manual.

 

[TheLogan]

Thank you! I figured it out, thats actually an enormous help because I still have trouble manually focusing. Um, is there a...simpler website than the one linked for sharpening? It's kind of confusing

 

[icassell]

Um, is there a...simpler website than the one linked for sharpening? It's kind of confusing

What post-processing software are you using?

 

[icassell]

Natural Imagery | Better Nature and Macro Photography: Photoshop's Unsharp Mask Demystified

 

[FitzTML]

Go to the hardware store and get a screw and some string. Tie the string to the screw (if you can find a screw with a loop of some kind, even better) and put that in your tripod mount/socket. Let the string dangle. Step on (or kneel on if low to the ground) the string and pull up gently. This might give you the boost in stabilization you are looking for. I's seen people make larger loops and use both feet and even tie the string to a railing or post instead of stepping on it.

Look here: Instructables: String Tripod

 

[TheLogan]

So I did the unsharpened mask on one photo and heres the before and after

before

after

 

[TheLogan]

I don't think it really helped that much :/

 

[icassell]

Look at the glass in the foreground. I think it made a considerable improvement.

 

[KmH]

From Wikipedia "Raw image format", in part:


Benefits

Nearly all digital cameras can process the image from the sensor into a JPEG file using settings for white balance, color saturation, contrast, and sharpness that are either selected automatically or entered by the photographer before taking the picture. Cameras that support raw files save these settings in the file, but defer the processing. This results in an extra step for the photographer, so raw is normally only used when additional computer processing is intended. However, raw has numerous advantages over JPEG such as:

• Higher image quality. Because all the calculations (such as applying the gamma curve, demosaicing, white balance, brightness, contrast, etc...) used to generate pixel values (in RGB format for most images) are performed in one step on the base data, the resultant pixel values will be more accurate and exhibit less posterization.
• Bypassing of undesired steps in the camera's processing, including sharpening and noise reduction
• JPEG images are typically saved using a lossy compression format (though a lossless JPEG compression is now available). Raw formats are typically either uncompressed or use lossless compression, so the maximum amount of image detail is always kept within the raw file.
• Finer control. Raw conversion software allows users to manipulate more parameters (such as lightness, white balance, hue, saturation, etc...) and do so with greater variability. For example, the white point can be set to any value, not just discrete preset values like "daylight" or "incandescent".
• Camera raw files have 12 or 14 bits of intensity information, not the gamma-compressed 8 bits stored in JPEG files (and typically stored in processed TIFF files); since the data is not yet rendered and clipped to a color space gamut, more precision may be available in highlights, shadows, and saturated colors.
• The color space can be set to whatever is desired.
• Different demosaicing algorithms can be used, not just the one coded into the camera.
• The contents of raw files include more information, and potentially higher quality, than the converted results, in which the rendering parameters are fixed, the color gamut is clipped, and there may be quantization and compression artifacts.
• Large transformations of the data, such as increasing the exposure of a dramatically under-exposed photo, result in less visible artifacts when done from raw data than when done from already rendered image files. Raw data leave more scope for both corrections and artistic manipulations, without resulting in images with visible flaws such as posterization.

Drawbacks

• Camera raw files are typically 2–6 times larger than JPEG files.[11] While use of raw formats avoids the compression artifacts inherent in JPEG, fewer images can fit on a given memory card. However, software like Rawzor can do lossless compression of camera raw images, reducing the disk space needed to store them without losing any quality or meta-information.[12]
• It takes longer for the camera to write raw image files to the card, since they are larger, so fewer pictures can be taken in quick succession (affecting the ability to shoot, for example, a sports sequence).
• Most raw formats do not use compression or implement light lossless data compression to reduce the size of the files without affecting image quality. But some others use lossy data compression where quantization and filtering is performed on the image data[13][14]. Many recent cameras let photographers choose between no compression, lossless compression or lossy compression for their raw images.
• There is still no widely accepted standard raw format. Three potential candidates for a standard format have been put forward, but none has been adopted by many major camera companies. Numerous different raw formats are currently in use and new raw formats keep appearing, while others are abandoned.[15].
• Because of the lack of a standard raw format, more specialized software may be required to open raw files than for standardized formats like JPEG or TIFF. Software developers have to frequently update their products to support the raw formats of the latest cameras but open source implementations like dcraw make it easy.
• The time taken in the image workflow is an important factor when choosing between raw and ready-to-use image formats. With modern photo editing software the additional time needed to process raw images has been greatly reduced but it still requires an extra step in workflow.

 

[TheLogan]

This one is a bit more noticeable, thank you EVERYONE for you help and support it's much appreciated

before

after

 

[icassell]

Same -- I think the sharpening really helps (do you?). As with all things, sharpening correctly takes some practice and skill, but you will get that as you experiment.

On the strawberry image, however, your flower is definitely out of focus ... that is a DOF issue as your foreground strawberry is fine. This is certainly NOT camera shake. It is my guess that you have your lens wide open (wide aperture) giving you extremely shallow DOF.

Keep shooting! I should mention that I went through the same learning curve. I had no idea that shooting in RAW had an effect on image sharpness and I kept getting comments that my images were 'soft'. It drove me crazy and no one helped. I happened upon the solution one day by accident when I was reading something on the web.

 

[TheLogan]

Thanks ICassell I appreciate it I know the flower was out of focus already, but knew the strawberries that were we're very soft, so I think It helped. I'll keep practicing all the techniques that you've taught me over the past few days, thank you so much!

 

[Samanax]

Those shots have shallow DOF so only a very small area of the picture is going to be in focus and the rest of the picture will be out of focus.

From what I see of the candle and strawberry after pictures, applying USM helped quite a bit.

 

[TheLogan]

What is USM?

 

[Samanax]

What is USM?

USM = Unsharp Mask