Not getting sharp focus on Nikon D90

[babbupandey]

Hi Guys,

I own a Nikon D90 and I usually have problem getting a sharp focus in my pictures. I know nothing is wrong with my camera because I used auto mode to take the same picture and the focus was very sharp.
However, I usually like to shoot in aperture priority mode with dynamic focus so I can choose the point I want. Any tips will be welcome and appreciated.
Thanks

 

[dyyylan]

Might want to post some examples

 

[gsgary]

Check your shutter speed it is probably camera shake

 

[babbupandey]

I will reply with some pics and with description of how I took that photo. But regarding shutter speed, I was shooting in daylight and it was automatically setting it to be pretty high 1/1000s or something like that and I also had VR on - which considerable reduced the shakes.

 

[Dominantly]

It's probably a result of your aperture, focusing mode, and dof.
If you are shooting f/11 at 1/1000, with moving your focal point to your subject and not focus/recomposing, you should have sharp focus in your photos.

 

[babbupandey]

Here is a sample, looks good until you zoom to 100%, the focus is really shoddy
Here are the details of how I shot the photo:
Mode: Aperture Priority
ISO: 200
Aperture: 1/5.6
Shutter Speed: Auto (chose 1/1000s)
Focal length: 55mm (FX equivalent: 82)
I chose Dynamic AF-Area mode as the auto-area was selecting multiple points but I wanted the first pole to be in very sharp focus.

The crop at the first pillar (where it is supposed to be sharpest):

 

[SushiWarrior]

You're at a wide open aperture, lenses are generally very soft wide open. Stop it down to F/8 or F/11 and see what it looks like.

 

[babbupandey]

You're at a wide open aperture, lenses are generally very soft wide open. Stop it down to F/8 or F/11 and see what it looks like.

This looks reasonable, I will try it asap. One quick question though, shouldn't the point at which I focussed should have still been clear or will that too be lost in the dof?

 

[Fedaykin]

You're at a wide open aperture, lenses are generally very soft wide open. Stop it down to F/8 or F/11 and see what it looks like.

Yep, this seems to be your problem. Try it at f/11

 

[Dominantly]

With a shot like this, you should be looking to a smaller aperture to give you greater detail throughout the shot.
Next time, try and stop all the way down to your smallest aperture (f/22 at 55mm with that lens), then focus about 21feet from out in front of you. Your depth of field will extend from 11 feet to infinity, your near level of acceptable sharpness will be from 21 feet to infinity.

If you are focusing your shot all the way back into your scene (IE those trees), your focus on the foreground will be crap, making your shot look 90% soft (which most people will not get past).

 

[Alan92RTTT]

I chose Dynamic AF-Area mode as the auto-area was selecting multiple points but I wanted the first pole to be in very sharp focus.

This could be part of the issue. Set the AF-area mode to Single Point.

Dynamic and auto will pick where the focus goes and it may not be where you want.