Just not sharp...

ralejandronieto

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Hello everyone, I am an amateur, but seeking for improving my pics, I took this one with my Canon T1i and a EFS 24mm lens I just got. The other day I compared a photo with a friend´s Sony full frame mirrorless and the reality is that his camera took a very sharp image zooming in and I was disappointed that my Canon did not do that well on the image sharpness. I think this camera takes good pictures in general and the colors are good but I am now confused if the problem is actually that I own an entry level camera or maybe I'm just doing something wrong.
Is not about the resolution I am using, even the highest resolution makes the image Just not sharp when zooming in. Is just grainy. Any thoughts?
Thank you
IMG_1641.JPG
 
Very often images need to be sharpened a little in post processing. But you pays your money and takes your choice and a full frame camera with, presumably, a good lens is always going to be capable of producing a sharper image than your present set up. Having said that, the image looks okay to me but then I'm pretty old school on this and don't get too hung up on sharpness.
 
It looks OK to me as well - judge sharpness (and everything else) by looking at the finished picture, not by zooming in. Don't get hung upon the sharpness thing as most other aspects of picture making are more important. Digital photographers bang on about sharpness way beyond any need.
 
Welcome to the forum.

It's not a bad picture but could be better as you are questioning. Part of the problem is too large of an aperture (large opening, small number). And part is noise from the sensor. And more light needed. I have not checked exif but I am guessing the ISO is up some. It is an older camera body as well. So, it will not perform as well as the newest cameras today. Not that it's a bad camera though.
 
Benhasajeep made some good points, the sharpest spot I see it she the left eye and this appears to be a small aperture (F1.8,2.8) but over all the image looks to have a little motion blur due to hand holding and low shutter speed which is because of low light.

Older and lower end bodies do need more light and good glass to make better images it can be done. Also increasing ISO will create some more noise so there is a balance with ISO, Shutter speed and f-stop(exposure triangle).

The EXIF data I pulled was ISO 640, F-stop 2.8 and shutter 1/30sec, ISO is starting to be the highest I would go with this body, 2.8 is a pretty shallow depth of field and 1/30 is about as low as you would want to go hand held some people don't shot below 1/60 hand held.

Again over it is not bad, add some more light, lower your ISO to 400 or lower, f2.8 is OK as long and you know it is shallow and more things can be out of focus and get the shutter speed up above 1/60sec to help with the motion blur.
 
Aperture f2.8 - ok so no lens is sharpest wide open (smallest f number/widest aperture), but this lens should still deliver a sharp image even wide open at f2.8

What is important to note is that the depth of field (area of the photo in focus and sharp) will be thinner at a smaller f number. This increases the amount of background blurring; but with the reduced depth of field you might find that not enough of the subject is sharp as you want it.

Note if you're comparing your camera to a point and shoot or micro 4/3rds then the depth of field those cameras produce will be greater (and the amount of background blurring less) even at the same aperture value. This is because the sensor size also comes into play and the sensor in those cameras is much smaller than the one in yours.
This might give a false impression of their camera being sharper


ISO 640 - perfetly fine and on a good expose shot shouldn't cause undue levels of noise.


Shutter speed 1/30sec - here is your likely enemy. The guideline is that minimum shutter speed should be 1/focal length of the lens you're using; in order to avoid handshake blurring.
It's a rough value as it assumes good fitness and posture whilst shooting; at the same time it tends to break at very short and very long focal lengths. Very short focal lengths you can often handhold slower than the rule suggests; and vis versa for very long focal length lenses.

If you were shooting at 1/30sec that's pretty so and unless you were on a tripod you likely got some motion blur sofening the photo.
In addition even if you were using a tripod remember that if the tripod is on a carpet floor or other surface that shifts; then your own body motions might well create enough to cause blurring.







I would recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson as a good place to start getting better understanding and control over your cameras core settings. Understanding and using aperture, shutterspeed and ISO will really help you unlock the true potential of your camera.
 
Aperture f2.8 - ok so no lens is sharpest wide open (smallest f number/widest aperture), but this lens should still deliver a sharp image even wide open at f2.8

What is important to note is that the depth of field (area of the photo in focus and sharp) will be thinner at a smaller f number. This increases the amount of background blurring; but with the reduced depth of field you might find that not enough of the subject is sharp as you want it.

Note if you're comparing your camera to a point and shoot or micro 4/3rds then the depth of field those cameras produce will be greater (and the amount of background blurring less) even at the same aperture value. This is because the sensor size also comes into play and the sensor in those cameras is much smaller than the one in yours.
This might give a false impression of their camera being sharper


ISO 640 - perfetly fine and on a good expose shot shouldn't cause undue levels of noise.


Shutter speed 1/30sec - here is your likely enemy. The guideline is that minimum shutter speed should be 1/focal length of the lens you're using; in order to avoid handshake blurring.
It's a rough value as it assumes good fitness and posture whilst shooting; at the same time it tends to break at very short and very long focal lengths. Very short focal lengths you can often handhold slower than the rule suggests; and vis versa for very long focal length lenses.

If you were shooting at 1/30sec that's pretty so and unless you were on a tripod you likely got some motion blur sofening the photo.
In addition even if you were using a tripod remember that if the tripod is on a carpet floor or other surface that shifts; then your own body motions might well create enough to cause blurring.







I would recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson as a good place to start getting better understanding and control over your cameras core settings. Understanding and using aperture, shutterspeed and ISO will really help you unlock the true potential of your camera.

The motion of the mirror can also increase blur when shooting at a slow shutter speed. I haven't done enough research to know exactly how much, but I wonder if that could be some of the difference OP sees in his friends images.
 
Indoor existing light, even coming in from the window, can be rather low light (unless it was bright and sunny at the right time of day). The differences you saw could have been due to shooting in low light, and maybe you needed to adjust camera settings. A camera is recording light so you need to think about that when you take a picture.
 
Thank you very much, got a bunch of ideas to keep reading on... will consider upgrading my camera also, just wouldn’t know where to go. I know I like Canon...
 
Don't think it's your camera. I see motion blur. Try taking some images outside stopped down to 2.8-5.6.

This was with an old Nikon D90 and much older, manual focus, 180mm f2.8 ais.

2017-11-14_07-38-50.jpg
 
I see insufficient depth of field for the scene! There are "some" sharp areas, but the lens aperture is too wide to get the scene into decent focus. Had this been shot at say, f/11, with a rather lengthy, timed exposure (say 1 to 2 seconds), the shot could have been sharp.
 
Every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn't a very interesting photograph. If it were, they would have more to say.

don't go down the rabbit hole of sharpness..
also, the 24mm EF-S is a cheap lens
 
Every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn't a very interesting photograph. If it were, they would have more to say.

don't go down the rabbit hole of sharpness..
also, the 24mm EF-S is a cheap lens

Thanks! what is your favorite lens?
 
Favourite that I use is the AF-S Nikkor 105mm f/1.4G
 

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