Sharpness question w/ examples

benlonghair · Jun 24, 2009

Greetings all. I'm having problems with sharpness, and I'm pretty much 100% sure it's me. I'm wondering if there is any trick to this. I'm working with an egg collection from the early 1900s. (And, yes, for you environmentalists, this is legal since they were collected pre Migratory Bird Treaty Act according to the FWS.) I'm not thinking about composition at all at this point; composition means nothing if you can't focus the camera. I'm aware I should have probably been at f/16 or something instead of f/8.

I'm on manual focus (auto is not as acurate as my eye), VR off, tripod, using auto timer to fire off. The only other thing I could really do is lock the mirror up. These are taken at ISO 100 with the 18-55 5.6 VR kit lens at 55mm. EXIF data should be there and on flickr. (Click originals for link to EXIF.)

Too soft for my liking:

A 100% crop of that photo:

Now this one came out pretty good. I want to learn to reproduce this:

100% crop:

paulk_68 · Jun 24, 2009

Do you have any examples using AF? Try f/11,.. although they should be sharp at f/8. And, it might be that you are just too close when taking the pictures, try moving back just a little.

benlonghair · Jun 24, 2009

paulk_68 said:
Do you have any examples using AF? Try f/11,.. although they should be sharp at f/8. And, it might be that you are just too close when taking the pictures, try moving back just a little.

I've got 6-8" of closer focus, so unless it gets less sharp as it gets closer to it's minimum focus distance, that shouldn't be a problem.

Here's one with auto focus, no VR, f/11.

Maybe it's the $129 lens?

EDIT: paulk_68 that third pic down in your travel pics section (html version) is amazing.

100% crop:

Pure · Jun 24, 2009

Nikon DX 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 VR Lens Review: 3. Test results: Digital Photography Review

Use that.

Your best bet is 35mm @ f8

Dwig · Jun 24, 2009

benlonghair said:
...

I'm on manual focus (auto is not as acurate as my eye), VR off, tripod, using auto timer to fire off. The only other thing I could really do is lock the mirror up. These are taken at ISO 100 with the 18-55 5.6 VR kit lens at 55mm. EXIF data should be there and on flickr. (Click originals for link to EXIF.)

Too soft for my liking:
...

The first one is not too soft at all. At least that portion that's in focus.

If you carefully examine the black fabric/carpet just below and in front of the egg you will see an area that's quite sharp. Its seems you misfocused. Best focus is in front of the egg.

Are you being careful to finalize your composition and zoom setting before focusing? If not, that could be the problem. Modern so called "zoom" lenses often have a slight focus shift when zoomed. They generally hold focus at infinity and exhibit some focus shift when focused closer. The closer the focus distance the greater the focus shift.

benlonghair · Jun 24, 2009

Pure said:
Nikon DX 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 VR Lens Review: 3. Test results: Digital Photography Review

Use that.

Your best bet is 35mm @ f8

Wow, that's a cool site, thanks.

Lynnzora · Jun 24, 2009

Maybe it's just me but the last one you posted of the egg in auto seems the sharpest... I like it though. I guess it depends on your preference.

benlonghair · Jun 24, 2009

Dwig said:
The first one is not too soft at all. At least that portion that's in focus.

If you carefully examine the black fabric/carpet just below and in front of the egg you will see an area that's quite sharp. Its seems you misfocused. Best focus is in front of the egg.

Hadn't noticed that. Thanks. I guess it's just a question of experience.

Lynnzora said:
Maybe it's just me but the last one you posted of the egg in auto seems the sharpest... I like it though. I guess it depends on your preference.

It's also 3x the size of the other two.

paulk_68 · Jun 24, 2009

benlonghair said:
EDIT: paulk_68 that third pic down in your travel pics section (html version) is amazing.

Thank you for the compliment and for taking the time to look, Benlonghair. The site will be changed quite a bit over the next few weeks so please check back in the near future.

Samanax · Jun 25, 2009

benlonghair said:
Maybe it's the $129 lens?

It's a good possibility.

benlonghair · Jun 25, 2009

Samanax said:
benlonghair said:

Maybe it's the $129 lens?

Click to expand...

It's a good possibility.

It seems (optically) to be fairly good (for the price). The thing that annoys the snot out of me is the fact that the manual focus is so touchy. It goes from 1" out of focus to the back to 1" out of focus to the front in just a touch. It's like you breath on it and it's out of focus again.

bigtwinky · Jun 25, 2009

You said that you use manual focus because your eye is better than the auto. Have you attempted the same picture using auto focus? I'm curious to see the results. I find using the 9 AF points in my camera doesn't give me the results I want, but using the single middle point to focus on and learning to recompose my shot after finding my focus works best for me.

I think Dwig nailed it in that your focus point is in front of the egg, not on the egg in the first image.

Samanax · Jun 25, 2009

Dwig said:
The first one is not too soft at all. At least that portion that's in focus.

If you carefully examine the black fabric/carpet just below and in front of the egg you will see an area that's quite sharp. Its seems you misfocused. Best focus is in front of the egg.

Are you being careful to finalize your composition and zoom setting before focusing? If not, that could be the problem. Modern so called "zoom" lenses often have a slight focus shift when zoomed. They generally hold focus at infinity and exhibit some focus shift when focused closer. The closer the focus distance the greater the focus shift.

bigtwinky said:
I think Dwig nailed it in that your focus point is in front of the egg, not on the egg in the first image.

Is the camera selecting the focus point or are you selecting the focus point? I'm not familiar with the Nikon D60 so I'm not sure about this, but shouldn't you be able to manually select which focus point is used? I know with Canon DSLRs you can select the focus point manually.

benlonghair · Jun 25, 2009

bigtwinky said:
I think Dwig nailed it in that your focus point is in front of the egg, not on the egg in the first image.

My second post with pics (post 3 in this thread) is on AF with no VR. Center focus point.

Samanax said:
Is the camera selecting the focus point or are you selecting the focus point? I'm not familiar with the Nikon D60 so I'm not sure about this, but shouldn't you be able to manually select which focus point is used? I know with Canon DSLRs you can select the focus point manually.

No, I'm selecting the focus point. The camera chosing the auto focus point lasted about 5 minutes with me. If I want I can manually change it on the fly, but I generally keep it on the center one.

Samanax · Jun 25, 2009

Have you checked to see if that camera/lens combo is front focusing? Focus Test

Or maybe that lens suffers from lens creep...I know my Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM will zoom out by itself if my camera is pointed downward and I'm not holding the zoom barrel.