Sharpness

[Super Kev]

Hi folks,

I'm after some advice on sharpness of an image, I just cant seem to get everything with pin point sharpness, the photo I have uploaded here is of my sons football team, it was there team photo! Luckily I took a dozen and 1 came out near enough. Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong?There just seems to be absolutely nothing in focus at all in the photo!

AF Point selection

Manual Mode

1/400 sec. f/4.5 18 mm

Auto ISO which came out at 125

1/400 sec. f/4.5 18 mm

 

[Derrel]

Looks like poor lens performance to me, combined with a moderate f/stop of f/4.5, from a fairly close distance. Also, see the rapid, noticeable SIZE difference of the heads of the front row players and the back row players? Many kit zooms are weak at the wide-angle (short) end of their range, especially at wider f/stops. The group also appears to be at a slight angle to the camera, off-of-square by about 2 feet or so I would guess.

There are multiple issues here. The camera back is not parallel with the standing row, but is tilted downward at an angle, and that causes the DOF band to be "angled" as well.

When you come right down to it, there are 18-55 zooms that are just BAD performers at f/4.5 at their very widest few millimeters, and I suspect this is an examle of mostly that, just poor lens performance, but also the downward camera tilt, the exact, specific focus placement, and the f/4.5 f/stop from a close-in camera position, and the group also being at a slight angle...it's a number of issues.

 

[Super Kev]

Thanks,

Everything you say it true I guess! never even noticed my self the difference is size of heads from the front to the back.

The lens is an efs IS 18-135 Canon, Camera is a Canon 100D, might invest in a new lens to help out a little!

Thanks

 

[Derrel]

I think the key culprit was being too close to the group, with too short of a lens length, and the camera and the group both not perfectly aligned. If you had moved farther away, and zoomed to say, 40mm, the group would have had more-similarly-sized heads, and the DOF band would likely have covered them a bit better.

Remember the old days of team photos, with the photographer wayyyyy back there, 45-50 feet from the group, camera on a tripod? That Old-School 45-50 feet camera to subject distance minimizes what is called foreshortening, which is the exaggerated apparent perspective of the closest things to the camera.

The issues you encountered are ones that have been around for a long time in team and group photography, but these things are seldom discussed,and I have never seen a camera instruction book show the best way to shoot a team shot like this.

USing a smaller aperture, like f/6.3 or so, would likely have garnered you a better, sharper image, as long as you held the camera rock-steady.

 

[Super Kev]

I went closer simply because of the further I zooming in lower the F Stop goes meaning less light into the lens which raises the ISO which causes grainy pics.

I thought I'd let the most amount of natural light in causing the picture to turn out better, how wrong was I .......

 

[greybeard]

Try shooting at 24 to 35 mm and f/8. You will have to step back a bit but you will get a lot less distortion and most kit lenses are at their sharpest at f/8

 

[Designer]

.. might invest in a new lens ..

No, you don't need a new lens. I mean for this shot.

I went closer simply because of the further I zooming in lower the F Stop goes meaning less light into the lens which raises the ISO which causes grainy pics.

I thought I'd let the most amount of natural light in causing the picture to turn out better, how wrong was I .......

Don't start worrying about electronic noise until you see it. While it is true that in order to use the widest aperture that lens has to offer, you must be at the wide end of the zoom range, but since you're gaining only about a stop at the most, try to find your light some other way.

For instance; if you want to spend some money, get a speedlight. Now I don't mean to imply that if you had turned the team to face the sun that all your problems would be solved, but at least there would be more light on their faces.

The next thing you would notice is that all their eye sockets would be totally in the dark, making everyone have "raccoon eyes". At that point, you would see the value of using your flash set on "fill" making those shadows not so dark. Yes, you need flash in full direct sunlight.

It might have been you or someone else who decided to pose the team just there in the goal, but that is not where the sun wanted the team. I think you would have had better light if they had been repositioned so the sun was a little more toward the front of their faces. Maybe 45 degrees or so. It helps to have the luxury of time so you can set one or two people out there to help judge the light, and the range.

Speaking of range; as Derrel wrote, you need to get your lens square to the line of people, and not too high and not too low either. Choose a focal length, aperture, and distance to maximize the depth of field, and check this as you set up the shot. If you can estimate distances, then do that. If you are not very good at it, take a tape measure with you, and use it to find out how deep is your team, how far back you are, and run those numbers in a DOF calculator (or make up a chart of values that you can carry in your gadget bag). You can have the best focus in the world on one face, but if the faces at the back are out of focus, then people will be disappointed.

 

[greybeard]

There are several factors that need to be dealt with other than noise and today noise or grain is not near as big of a deal as it use to be. Focus accuracy, motion blur, distortion, and depth of field are all important especially for this type of picture, and we haven't begun to talk about lighting. OK: I setup my camera to be as foolproof as possible. I set the exposure mode to (A)perture Priority, set the ISO to (A)uto, with today's cameras noise is the least of my worries. I set the Minimum Shutter Speed to 1/125. I'm sure you can handhold a shutter speed slower than 1/125 but when you have the kind of light you had, use it. I set my zoom on a crop frame camera like yours to 35mm if I have the room and no shorter than 24mm. This keeps things looking natural without that stretched out wide angle distortion you can get at shorter focal lengths. Keep the camera level with the camera back perpendicular with the ground. (assuming the ground is reasonably level). I mentioned this in an earlier post but when ever possible, use f/8 with your kit zoom. Those lenses are as sharp as just about any lens at f/8. This aperture will also assure that you will have enough Depth of Field to get everyone in focus. Lastly, in full sunlight, use Fill Flash to soften those dark shadows. I use my popup flash and set my flash exposure to -1. This is how I shoot groups like the one you posted.

 

[Super Kev]

Thanks for the replies everyone, really appreciate it. I've just been asked today, they now want individual photos of each player. I have a flash similar to the speed light, Yongnuo I think it is, I'll add that to the camera and, and maybe use my tripod, I'll also have a bit time setting things up before taking them this time, I just went running in last time thinking I knew everything when really I know bugger all [emoji23]. What it classed as a fill flash, would that be near full power mid or low?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Derrel]

Fill-flash is typically set well below the exposure for the daylight level; something around a Minus 2.5 EV level on the flash is about right at 10-12 feet distances, to just fill-in the eye sockets and such with the fill-flash. Keep in mind, the camera you have will likely have a top flash synch speed of around no faster than around 1/200 second with the flash firing.

The on-camera or built-in pop-up flash can actually be used effectively as on-axis fill lighting! It is NOT necessary to have fill-flash be off-axis, or even off-camera. if your flash offers a Flash EC button/control, set the flash to a Minus level, somehwere in the Minus 2.5 EV value is about right in bright sunny conditons.

Take some test shots and try fill-flash in various conditions where there are shadows, or where you are shooting against the light,etc..

 

[KmH]

In addition to all the above, the light direction and quality could not have been much worse.
Having the 2 rows of players closer to each other and a lower camera perspective would also have helped with the DoF distortion.