What is wrong?

asiadrabik · Oct 28, 2008

Hi ,
I am a bigginer in photography.I love take photos of birds and nature.I was told that my photos are not sharpen enough.What then I do wrong?
Mostly I take photos from a big distance and then crop them on software so the object is closer.I printed then and they seemed to me ok,but it looks they are not.There are links to my photos.What is your advice?
http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/8ccd9fbf4cba4380.html
http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/dda5411906753a66.html
http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/1368641c13b072b5.html
http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/4671ead869e52a2c.htmlhttp://www.fotosik.phttp://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/1368641c13b072b5.html

Atropine · Oct 28, 2008

Well, pic 2 and 4 seems to be slightly out of focus, the third (horse) is pretty overexposed. Over all the photos are no disasters, but a little bit soft if you disregard the focus issue. Most photographers add a little sharpening in post process, don't know if you have done that. I can see you have a 450D, but what lenses do you use? And why are you shooting at ISO 400?

asiadrabik · Oct 28, 2008

Yes ,as I said I am beginner.About ISO it is some kind of experiments for me ,so I try different settings.
I use mostly canon lenses 70-300mm IS USM.
I don`t use tripod maybe that is a problem?
,but most of pictures is just taking because it was a moment to do it ,then you have no time to put your tripod and so on./sorry for my English/
I know I have to learn a lot and I will be greatful for any advise.So what should I do to avoid this softness in my picures? always use a tripod?
Is then ISO 200 the best for taking pictures during a day?

KhronoS · Oct 28, 2008

Indeed the photos are not very sharp.

Try having a shutter speed shorter than 1/300 , and use a tripod.

I like the last photo with the geese

Dao · Oct 28, 2008

I am still learning, so correct me if I am wrong. It looks like they have the out of focus issue.

Most of your photos has high shutter speed (1/800 ... 1/1250) since you are taking it with ISO400. With that setup, you may want to change the Aperture from F/5.6 to a higher number to increase the depth of field (DoF). In that case, it maybe easier to get the object in focus.

For example. in photo #2.
Focal length 300
Aperture F/5.6
Shutter speed 1/800

If the object is about 15 feet from the camera, the DoF is 0.15ft. Which is very shadow. Change the Aperture setting from F/5.6 to F/11 will double the Dof to 0.31ft. Then even if you miss the focus point a little bit, you maybe able to get the part you want in focus. but of course, you need to watch out for the shutter speed. Make sure is it not slow enough to have camera shake effect on the photos.

asiadrabik · Oct 28, 2008

If I will do f11 the shutter speed is like 1/125, so is much slower.I always thougt that when you take pgotos of birds or moving objects the speed is important .Well .I am going to practice more ,but I still worry about this sharpness.

tsaraleksi · Oct 28, 2008

I think the problem you are having is cropping too much. Even with a very high-grade lens you will have trouble with image quality if you're doing heavy crops.

asiadrabik · Oct 28, 2008

Yes ,maybe I do too much cropping ,but the first photo,and this one with goose is not cropped,so .......

Atropine · Oct 28, 2008

You should be able to use ISO 100-200 when you shoot outdoors at daytime. A simple rule is to use as low ISO as the circumstances allow. But you will get the hang of it along the way. As for the aperture, I think it can be quite nice with a shallow DoF which isolates the object you want to capture. This is of course a matter of taste and opportunity.

As for the softness, there are several things to check. I don't think that movement is the issue here since you have been shooting with very short exposures, and the softness would have looked a little bit different for that matter. Be aware that most wide range zoom lenses are a bit soft in their top and bottom ends and I believe 70-300 is a very wide range. Though I'm not really familiar with the technical performance of this lens I would guess it is kind of soft in its extremes.

Are you focusing manually or with AF? Just to sort things out you might want to check if the lens is focusing correct in AF mode. Put the camera on a tripod or something sturdy and take some test shots on a newspaper or a test sheet. Make sure you have sufficient light and use a cable release or timer release to eliminate sources of shaking. Note where the focal point is supposed to be when you are shooting and check with the photos if it is where you expect it to be.