What am I doing wrong?

Fast lenses are considered to have apertures that are f2.8 and larger. the fastest zooms available in the Canon range are f2.8 and these are as you will see the most expensive also.

Cameras like the 350D and the 20D/30D (I have the 20D) have a number of AF points but the centre one is more sensitive when used with a lens that is f2.8 or faster (f2, 1.8, f1.4 etc) so AF can be faster when used with a good lens. The lower the fnumber the bigger the lens opening (aperure) the faster the shutter speed you can attain. So fast lenses are useful in lower light.

I would suggest you buy a book on "understanding exposure" by Bryan Petersen. Will give you an insight into fstops, shutter speeds and ISO so that you get the most from your camera and lens.

Also in that first image, did you have one AF point selected or do you still have all AF points active.

When they are all active you may be focusing on the wrong area. there doesn't look to be much sharpness on the first but that may be down to where the camera focussed.

Also when using a larger aperture (like f3.5 as you noted) the depth of field (amount of the image in focus) is smaller than if you had closed down the aperture (f5.6, f8 or smaller).

Learn what settings to use. Using any of the creative modes and the flash will not pop up. I use Av (aperture priority) 90% of the time as I mainly like to control the depth of field. the camera will select an appropriate shutter speed to give a correct exposure in most cases.

Read and Learn and you will benefit greatly with much better images.

Regards
Jim
 
welcome to my world :lol:

i posted similar questions on this thread http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70293&highlight=jerseygirl

i am finding shooting in RAW format to help and for my type of shooting i just picked up a new lens. i really like the photos you posted, and i feel your pain re: the "crisp issue" for #1... i have been taking TONS of shots at various settings and am s-l-o-w-ly beginning to understand what "works" and what doesn't...
 
I have a similar crispness problem when I shoot with a Nikon D50. But I recently tried a Tamron Macro lens on the D50 and it looked amazing. So I think it may have something to do with the lens.

I couldn't buy the lens, though and I went back to using my Sony Cybershot. I like the pictures a lot better but I want a simple point and shoot with a good zoom. 3x just doesn't cut it for me.
 
your lense doesnt allow you to go below f/3.5 because this is as good as you can get from your lense......regarding the sharpness....you were using ISO1600....try something like ISO100...if you image is still not sharp...then it has serious problem.....and instead of using manual mode.....i would suggest you use A or S mode since you dont seem to know much about the fundamental of exposure.....shouldnt rush into manual mode to begin with

you second picture looks decent for a ISO1600 shot......try to shoot ISO1600 with a point and shoot and you'll see the difference (not sure if P&S goes up to ISO1600?)
 
ISO is very important. It controls the sensitivity of the sensor that detects the light. Higher ISO's are needed as the light decreases. Shooting high ISO results in a noisier image, which means lower quality. This is stated above, more or less, but I like saying it.

Anyway, most of those crispy bird pictures are achieved in post processing. Your best bet at great pictures is to shoot in RAW. A RAW file is like a digital negative and gives you all the data that your camera captured without any camera processing. Thus, you can take the file home, edit it with RAW processing software. The key advantage is RAW files allow non-destructive editing. Every level and curves edit on a JPG loses some data. With RAW, you can worry about White Balance in post, and you can even create mulitple 16-bit files with differing exposure settings and layer mask them together in Photoshop to create a richer image (sort of a poor-person's HDR).

Once you edit your image in RAW, you open it in Photoshop and get the results you want. Using multiple layers with blending modes, selectively saturating/desaturating, will give you an image far crisper and clearer than what you will get by just pointing your camera. In the perfect situation, you may not need to edit your picture much. But you can almost always improve an image by slightly tweaking it.

Take your second image that you posted in this thread. Create an Adjustment Layer for Saturation and raise it +15 or+20 (normally this is alot). There is a lot of color there in the feeder and the feathers that isn't apparent. If you layer mask a curves adjustment just on the birds and lighten the shadows a bit, you get more detail and combined with the saturation increase you see more colors on their feathers. Create a duplicate layer, run a High Pass filter over it (around 3 or 5 pixels, adjust down til the halo dissappears) and set the blend mode to Soft Light, adjust layer opacity to 20 or 30%. Then I might layer mask this High Pass layer and only sharpen the birds and the feeder. I might also blur that branch in the top left, since it is distracting. Sometimes adding a duplicate layer set to Overlay or Soft Light and setting the Opacity to 3% to 10% gives more vivid colors. It tends to darken the image, if done too much, but you can use a Screen or Lighten duplicate layer to lighten the image or mask into darker areas. There are alot of options once you start playing around.

I usually keep the original image on the bottom. Once I am done editing I combine all my edited layers into a folder so I can easily turn them off to compare to the original. If I sense that I have over-done it a bit, I will just adjust the opacity of the entire folder until I get an image that looks natural yet vivid. Then I duplicate the original and merge it to the folder (keep another copy of the original below that one). Then I have a .psd file with my original image and my edited image on two separate layers. Sometimes I save an unmerged version with all my edited layers, but this creates .psd files that range from 100MB to sometimes 600MB (rarely). (Wedding album pages that I design are usually 200MB-300MB though, but its important to keep your layers until the bride accepts the design.)

If you don't understand or don't care what I posted above, its okay.
If nothing else, learn to use ADJUSTMENT LAYERS in Photoshop, instead of just regular Curves, Levels, Saturation, Color Balance, etc. adjustments. If you do a LEVELS adjustment to an image, you change the image. If you create a LEVELS ADJUSTMENT LAYER, you do not change the image you are working on, and you can always go back and change the adjustments that you made. You could get similar results by just duplicating the layer, but ADJUSTMENT LAYERS use less memory and add less size to the file. So, iif you create an ADJUSTMENT Layer, the file increase will be modest, but if you duplicate the layer (to prevent changes to the original) the file size almost doubles.

And I'm spent.
 
Forgive me for not having read the whole thread, but here are some tips that might help.

- Get as close as you can, optically. Cropping is like the dreaded "digital zoom"

- Use as low of an ISO as possible. I think your camera goes down to 100.

- Use a tripod for somewhat stationary subjects. The birds, especially the cardinal are sometimes stationary for plenty of time.

- For subjects with more motion, you will need a faster lens or higher ISO. Faster lens = $$$. Higher ISO = more grain.
 
Thank you ALL for your help and insight for this lowly newbie. I truly appreciate it.

Harkain, while I may not be as into the jargon, I do kind of "get it". I appreciate the time it took you type out the reply. The layers thing in Photoshop just has me perplexed, how you can have all these layers on a single image and they all work with the image.

I also want to thank those who explained the lens "speed" thing. I'd wondered what the f's on my lens were for. Guess I need to save up my egg money for a new lens eh? ;)

I'll try the Av setting and keep trying. Goodness knows it can only get better, I don't know if it could get worse.
 
try something like ISO100...if you image is still not sharp...then it has serious problem.....quote]

What if ISO100 gives a shutter speed of 1 sec? @) It's not just ISO.....

THe OP needs to understand the relationship of ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

I've said many times, get the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Petersen

Will explain in very basic terms everything you need to know about exposure and will help you make your own selections regards your settings.
 

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