out of focus images with my D90

lance70 · Nov 17, 2009

Hi, anyone know what I'm doing wrong because I keep getting out of focus images when I take pictures of these tigers. It seems fine when I take other pictures. This place is close to me so love going up there but not having any luck with the pictures.
I tried this with the stock lens the 18-105 and then had a 18-200 I borrowed from a friend and I still get the same results. I don't know enough to try anything fancy with the camera, just trying auto mode and from reading on here I would also do several pics in aperture-priority mode and have it set on F9. Even had the camera resting on a fence in one of these pictures so I wasn't getting camera shake. I feel like selling this camera and going back to my little Canon point and shoot :grumpy:

Big Mike · Nov 17, 2009

They look sharp enough to me. :scratch:

lance70 · Nov 17, 2009

Big Mike said:
They look sharp enough to me. :scratch:

really? hmm I don't know if my eyes are playing tricks on me or what, it's something about their coats that always seems to be blury to me, even if I just focus on the face it's like the hair on their face will seem out of focus. I can snap a picture of anything else around there and it will seem in focus to me, so maybe it's just how they are going to turn out, thanks. :lmao:

Big Mike · Nov 17, 2009

Well, the whole shot isn't in focus...but that's because the DOF (depth of field) isn't deep enough for the whole scene. That's not out of focus.

KmH · Nov 17, 2009

The 18-200 is a collection of compromises necessary to make it a 10x+ zoom. It is a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none (including sharp focus) lens and has the worst barrel distortion ever seen at DPReview.

Also when working with a zoom there are DOF considerations beyond aperture. In the case of the top image the focus on tigers face is about as good as one can expect from the 18-200. DOF is why the rest of the tigers body is not sharply focused even though you used f/9 to make the image.

A tripod is always an essential tool for ensuring you get all the focus performance out of your glass.

PhotoXopher · Nov 17, 2009

Looks like you were shooting in aperture priority at F/9 and got around 1/160th of a second shutter speed at 200 ISO.

Could try a larger aperture or higher ISO and see what happens.

lance70 · Nov 17, 2009

hmmm okay, that makes sense, yeah didn't think about all that, sounds like I need a different lens too, thanks for the help! This has really been bothering me.

lance70 · Nov 17, 2009

you are right on with the ISO, it was on 200, so I will try a higher ISO next time, that's something I have not done much with or read about yet, thanks.

maka · Nov 17, 2009

i hope u don't mind

lance70 · Nov 17, 2009

maka said:
i hope u don't mind

I don't mind at all, wow that really did sharpen it up! I like that

thanks!

Stormchase · Nov 17, 2009

Might be wrong but I would also make sure your shooting in RAW format to get the sharpest picture.
Also a tripod will help!

GeneralBenson · Nov 17, 2009

lance70 said:
maka said:

i hope u don't mind

Click to expand...

I don't mind at all, wow that really did sharpen it up! I like that thanks!

Waaaaay too much sharpening. You can't use USM to sharpen lack of DOF. And it made the head, which was already sharp look like a cartoon.

KmH · Nov 17, 2009

Stormchase said:
Might be wrong but I would also make sure your shooting in RAW format to get the sharpest picture.
Also a tripod will help!

RAW images usually look much softer than JPEGs because they don't get any in-camera sharpening. A RAW capture, after all, is virtually exactly what the image sensor saw. So, RAW by itself can't add sharpness to an image that didn't have it to begin with.

PhotoXopher · Nov 17, 2009

KmH said:
RAW images usually look much softer than JPEGs because they don't get any in-camera sharpening. A RAW capture, after all, is virtually exactly what the image sensor saw. So, RAW by itself can't add sharpness to an image that didn't have it to begin with.

Bingo.

That's RAW in a nutshell... I didn't realize this for weeks! :lol:

None of the color settings (Vivid, Neutral, Standard, etc) take effect either.

itznfb · Nov 17, 2009

Since this is a jpg and already sharpened my default action for RAW files still over sharpened a touch but you can see just a simple touch get rid of the softness. Definitely wouldn't call it an out of focus issue though.