Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong here

Lazy Photographer

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Yesterday on my lunch hour I went out to take a few photos. Surprisingly to me, when I checked them out at home most were not in focus. You can see what I'm talling about in photo #1. Ignore the fact I've already worked on the photo a bit

1. Ap | 17mm | f8 | 1/500s | ISO 100
OfficeMarch--84-EDITED.jpg


So I figured where I screwed up was with the aperture being too wide. So I went back today and shot at f22, only to end up with pretty much the same thing. This photo is not doctored at all. I realize the shutter speed is a lot slower but even 1/60s should be way fast enough for this sort of subject, no? It was pretty windy, but I took like 6 shots and all share the same OOF look to the hydro towers.

2. Ap | 17mm | f22 | 1/60s | ISO 200
OfficeMarch2-6-EDITED.jpg


And here's another shot of the same place but in a different spot. This I did 3 exposures and merged them into one HDR shot. It's pretty sharp, especially compared to the first two.

3. Ap | 17mm | f22 | 1/100s | ISO 200
407eastHDR2-EDITED-2.jpg


Any thoughts on why the hydro towers in #1 & #2 are so blurry?

Thanks in advance.
 
Some lenses will suffer from diffraction when stopped down to F22. With such a wide lens, there's no reason to stop down that low--try shooting at f11 instead.
 
The images are pretty small, and size-reduced, so it is difficult to evaluate them critically. If one side of the frame is significantly blurrier than the other side, perhaps the lens has suffered an impact and one or more elements are now decentered; it only takes a little bit of a decentering to mess up optics which are spaced and aligned down to the few ten thousands of an inch. One of the body's lens mount retaining screws could also be a tiny bit loose, so that is also worth checking. Same thing with the lens's mount retaining screws--all of 'em need to be checked for tightness. And, of course, it is possible that the rear lens element is smudged; the rear element is pretty critical in terms of the image formed at the film plane. A small smudge on the rear element can affect an entire side of the image, so you want to check out the rear element's cleanliness.
 
I'm most likely not teaching you anything, but the shorter the focal length, the deeper the depth of field. You were shooting at 17mm, so like djacobox said, something like 11 should be more than enough especially when your subject is far like those power lines. Like your first shot by the way!
 
If it was windy then the towers wouldn't have been still, they would be moving. My guess is that you shot at to large of an aperture on number one to get all of it in focus and too slow of a shutter speed causing motion blur in the second.
 
If it was windy then the towers wouldn't have been still, they would be moving. My guess is that you shot at to large of an aperture on number one to get all of it in focus and too slow of a shutter speed causing motion blur in the second.

I wouldn't think that a little wind would move those structures that much.

To the OP, I agree with the others that there is no need to shoot at f22 here. F11 would produce a better image, as well as allow you to use a faster shutter speed.
 
If it was windy then the towers wouldn't have been still, they would be moving. My guess is that you shot at to large of an aperture on number one to get all of it in focus and too slow of a shutter speed causing motion blur in the second.

I wouldn't think that a little wind would move those structures that much.

To the OP, I agree with the others that there is no need to shoot at f22 here. F11 would produce a better image, as well as allow you to use a faster shutter speed.

Hmm I think it would just because of how heavy the power lines are, the structures them selves wouldn't be moving that much if they didn't have the lines attached to them.
 
If it was windy then the towers wouldn't have been still, they would be moving. My guess is that you shot at to large of an aperture on number one to get all of it in focus and too slow of a shutter speed causing motion blur in the second.

I wouldn't think that a little wind would move those structures that much.

To the OP, I agree with the others that there is no need to shoot at f22 here. F11 would produce a better image, as well as allow you to use a faster shutter speed.

Hmm I think it would just because of how heavy the power lines are, the structures them selves wouldn't be moving that much if they didn't have the lines attached to them.

True, I was referring more to the towers than anything. I know that power lines move in the wind haha
 
I wouldn't think that a little wind would move those structures that much.

To the OP, I agree with the others that there is no need to shoot at f22 here. F11 would produce a better image, as well as allow you to use a faster shutter speed.

Hmm I think it would just because of how heavy the power lines are, the structures them selves wouldn't be moving that much if they didn't have the lines attached to them.

True, I was referring more to the towers than anything. I know that power lines move in the wind haha


Haha of course.. Lol what I was saying was that they would probably move the towers with them :p
 
Hmm I think it would just because of how heavy the power lines are, the structures them selves wouldn't be moving that much if they didn't have the lines attached to them.

True, I was referring more to the towers than anything. I know that power lines move in the wind haha


Haha of course.. Lol what I was saying was that they would probably move the towers with them :p

hahaha I guess it's possible, but I'm going to stick with my theory of slow shutter speed and the f/22 aperture..
 
When you set up for the shot are you using AF or MF? If you are using AF check to see what your camera is picking to focus on. If it picks the sky (infinity) then the closer objects would be slightly blurred. See if you can take another with a larger AP and faster shutter with Manual focus. Then again in auto focus ensuring the point is on at least one of the towers. Such an object from that distance and lens the focus points may have a bit of trouble hitting the mark.

If the Manual focus shot is also blurred then it is most likely an issue with the lens to sensor. (assuming you got a good sharp manual focus). The power line towers (small crossed line can be hard on AF points to nail)
 
Thanks everyone.
I checked the rear element of the lens and it seems to be totally clear of any smudges or dust.
In the first shot the shutter was definitely fast enough not to be an issue, and there was little wind yesterday. Today was much windier and my shutter was much slower, but still, I can't see it having such an impact.
Might be one of many things Derrel said, I don't know. I'll check.
What's interesting is that the third photo is a combination of three, all of which were fine, even at f22. I wasn't aware that because of my wider lens I could get away with a lower f stop and still get everything in focus. I'll have to read up on it. Thanks for the link, Marc.
Anyway, I'll try some more shots over the next week and see what I get. I was out Saturday and took plenty of shots that were fine.

Thanks a million everyone.
 
Thanks. I shot with AF, using the single centre point. I focused on the ground just in front of the towers, where those bushes are. I'll be going back and trying various things, including manually focusing, until I figure it out. Maybe I should have focused on the towers midway up. I just figured at f22 everything wou8ld be in focus anyway, especially objects only yards behind the focus point.
 
Sorry! Looked closer at the shots. Looks like the towers are in focus but the lines are what’s out. Looks like maybe DOF along with motion blur, but the first shot should have been good at 1/500.

Try setting on shutter priority and get the fastest shutter you can and see what happens.
 
Here's a shot from Saturday. I was focused on the fire truck in the foreground yet the buildings in the far distance are in focus. Everything seemed to be fine then.

Ap | 17mm | f11 | 1/30s | ISO 100
IceSculptures-118-EDITED-2.jpg
 

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