Something I learned...

[Tony S]

Sorry, but I disagree that a tripod is a must here. It depends on other conditions, namely low light, if a tripod is necessary.​

Looking at his EXIF info on the second shot the tripod is needed with a 1/4" shutter speed. The shot looks slightly OOF still because the focus did not lock right on the lens. From the look of the detail on the counter top it seems like there was a bit of front focusing going on with the lens in the back half of the field of focus. If you can't use a tripod, then you will need to bump up your ISO so you can get shutter speeds fast enough to over come camera shake.

 

[QuadTap]

just a tip... each lens has an optimal aperture for sharpness. My 35 1.8G lens is sharpest at 5.6. You likely overshot your lenses optimal setting and gave up a bit of bokeh in doing so. You either have to test it out or find a reliable review where an expert did the testing.

 

[birdfish]

I really can't stress enough what a great tool live view is.

That's crazy because I have never even used my live view. But I will check it out.

 

[birdfish]

Sorry, but I disagree that a tripod is a must here. It depends on other conditions, namely low light, if a tripod is necessary.

Yeah I was wondering about that. I thought that generally a tripod isn't necessary unless you use a ss of more than around 1/60s. But I'm not positive about that.

 

[Joey_Ricard]

I really can't stress enough what a great tool live view is.

That's crazy because I have never even used my live view. But I will check it out.

A lot of people don't use it, you''ll probably see a great improvement in your work. That's what they designed it for.

 

[birdfish]

If you're trying to see the difference aperture makes in terms of sharpness (as opposed to depth-of-field), put your camera on a tripod, shoot at an object with fine detail (classified ads in a newspaper will work), place it far enough (say 6-8 ft), position it so that it is perpendicular to the lens axis, turn your AF/VR off, go into manual focus and focus (manually) at the center of the target using live-view magnified 10x. Take your first shot wide open, then reduce the aperture by a stop and do another shot. Keep going until you're reached the minimum aperture. Now upload your shots and check two spots: the center, and the upper right corner.<BR><BR>Many lenses will be somewhat soft wide open, then sharpen to their maximum around the mid-range apertures, then start softening again at higher apertures. It is quite instructive to see the difference between the edges and the center. If you go through this exercise, you will have an excellent idea of just how sharp your lens is, and where in the aperture range you will get this sharpness.<BR><BR>Another exercise, while you got the camera on a tripod and the target in place, is to change the camera to auto-focus, and get the camera to focus. Often, you'll find that the AF is less sharp than your manual efforts. This could be a case of lens/camera calibration or misadjustment. If the manual and auto focus are identical, be happy. If they are not, you may want to use a different test that shows you whether you are back- or front-focussing.

WOW that sounds like a great idea. Definitely gonna try that!! Thank you.

 

[ConradM]

Sorry, but I disagree that a tripod is a must here. It depends on other conditions, namely low light, if a tripod is necessary.

Yeah I was wondering about that. I thought that generally a tripod isn't necessary unless you use a ss of more than around 1/60s. But I'm not positive about that.

If your subject is stationary, no reason not to use a tripod.

 

[ConradM]

I really can't stress enough what a great tool live view is.

That's crazy because I have never even used my live view. But I will check it out.

You should have a feature that lets you pic a spot on the screen and magnify it. Makes focusing a snap.

 

[Joey_Ricard]

Sorry, but I disagree that a tripod is a must here. It depends on other conditions, namely low light, if a tripod is necessary.

Yeah I was wondering about that. I thought that generally a tripod isn't necessary unless you use a ss of more than around 1/60s. But I'm not positive about that.

If your subject is stationary, no reason not to use a tripod.

So you shot this without a tripod?
Capitol Blvd. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[ConradM]

Yeah I was wondering about that. I thought that generally a tripod isn't necessary unless you use a ss of more than around 1/60s. But I'm not positive about that.

If your subject is stationary, no reason not to use a tripod.

So you shot this without a tripod?
Capitol Blvd. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Umm, no. Did you misread what I wrote?

 

[Joey_Ricard]

If your subject is stationary, no reason not to use a tripod.

So you shot this without a tripod?
Capitol Blvd. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Umm, no. Did you misread what I wrote?

My misread Conrad. My apologies I see that you agree with using a tripod, I thought you said no reason to use one.

 

[ConradM]

So you shot this without a tripod?
Capitol Blvd. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Umm, no. Did you misread what I wrote?

My misread Conrad. My apologies I see that you agree with using a tripod, I thought you said no reason to use one.

Ninja edit! No worries. :mrgreen:

 

[kgeranzani]

Very nice!

 

[KmH]

You likely overshot your lenses optimal setting...

Absolutely.

and gave up a bit of bokeh in doing so.

I believe you are referring to depth-of-field (DoF), which is adjustable. CoC (Circle of Confusion), often refered to by the term- bokeh - is not adjustable, so you can't 'give up a bit of bokeh'.

 

[Ron Evers]

All I can say is, reshoot on a tripod @ f4 & focus carefully.