Softness question

Nwcid

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So I have been starting to shoot people, which is very new to me. I have been having struggles with "sharpness", especially in faces. I am not sure why this is happening and would appreciate any help.

I have picked 2 pictures which are basically shot with the same settings, one is sharp, one is soft. I most of my others exhibit the same issue. If you would like me to post a couple more, I can.



This one is shot with the D7100, 70-300 vr @100mm, ISO 100, f 4.5, 1/250 sec. I am much further away from my subject in this pic, then the next one.

dsc_3119-jpg.154985


This one is shot with the D7100, 70-300 vr @80mm, ISO 100, f 4.5, 1/250 sec.
DSC_2982.jpg


Did I miss my focus point of her face in the first one? Is something else going on?
 

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You have missed the focus. The lens is focusing ok - look at the sleeves - but the lass's eyes are not in focus. You need to choose a single focus point on your camera and then make sure that focus point is on her eyes. I do not know Nikon cameras so I cannot give precise help but on my Canon I can choose a single focus point towards the top of the viewfinder which is what I would do here. Your aperture is fine - f/4.5 - if it was smaller, you would get more of her face in focus but the background would become more intrusive.
 
You have missed the focus. The lens is focusing ok - look at the sleeves - but the lass's eyes are not in focus. You need to choose a single focus point on your camera and then make sure that focus point is on her eyes. I do not know Nikon cameras so I cannot give precise help but on my Canon I can choose a single focus point towards the top of the viewfinder which is what I would do here. Your aperture is fine - f/4.5 - if it was smaller, you would get more of her face in focus but the background would become more intrusive.

Thank you for the feedback. I double checked my settings, as I thought I was in single focus, and I am. I am not 100% sure I was on the eye, but I know I moved the focus area to the face. I have been shooting single point for a long time as that is how I have found to shoot underwater best.

Obviously I need a lot more practice, and will be doing more. Just looking for pointers to make the practice more effective.
 
So I have been starting to shoot people, which is very new to me. I have been having struggles with "sharpness", especially in faces. I am not sure why this is happening and would appreciate any help.

Did I miss my focus point of her face in the first one? Is something else going on?
The first thing to check is your active focus area. I attempted to see it on my software, but your focus areas did not show up for me. I'm not sure why not, but you should be able to check in your camera's LCD. Turn on the indicators, and you will see a bunch of yellow ones and one red one.

To me and @john.margetts the sleeve looks sharper, so maybe that's where your camera focused. Another edge that looked fairly sharp is the rear handrail, but I don't think that was the focus.

If your camera is free to select its own focus area, then you really don't have any control over where the focus is going to be. You can select "one point" focus, and then move it around in the frame until it is on or close to where you want it. If it is just off a bit, then half-press to focus, re-frame, and finish the shutter press.

Another possibility is that it could be your VR. Is the VR turned on? Or did you have it on but mounted your camera on a tripod without turning it off?
 
Looks like I found one of my errors. My focus got set to AF-A vs AF-C, which is what I normally use.

screen-shot-2018-03-12-at-11-26-00-am-jpg.154988
 

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