Getting a sharp clear photo!

Seajay

Seajay

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Cathy
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Hi everyone I have now decided to try not using my canon550d on auto.

Today I took some shots of my dog on av at the lowest setting I could get and took a few on auto iOS then moved the iOS to 100 for the last lot.

I did enjoy it but my photos are no way nearly as sharp as they should be

What am I doing wrong do you think. I did use a tripod today and my 70-200 lens.
 
Has your lens got IS???? if so it needs to be turned off if on a tripod
 
A lot will depend on the in camera settings you have for your jpegs.

What are you using for your post processing?
 
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Initially I'd say that your iso is too low. If you're photographing a moving dog you'd need a fairly high shutter speed so if you have the camera in aperture priority with that low an iso I'd be surprised if it could reach a speed fast enough to freeze movement (1/500 say). Unless you're trying a panning shot of course.

Also you could probably dispense with the tripod, it's probably more likely to be a hindrance with a subject like that.
 
Sorry here is the picture taken today
As I am a novice not too sure what info you require but LIlah was very still while I was taking them.
No idea what exif is sorry but I do appreciate each of your comments and hope to take some of Jonus tomorrow to help improve my shots.




My Lilah by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
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That image was shot with a shutter speed of 1/30s - which is too slow. The ISO was 100, if you'd have upped that to 400 then you could have used a shutter speed of 1/250s which is borderline for shots where the subject (dog) and camera (you) are likely to be moving.
 
Thank you I will change the settings and try again tomorrow.
It will take me a little while to get to grips with all the settings
I appreciate the help a lot!
 
Just keep an eye on the shutter speed of the shots. VERY rough general rule is that forget anything less than 1/60th if hand holding even for a static subject. The more zoomed in you are the higher that handheld shutter speeds needs to be (roughly 1/focal length x 1.6 in this case).

You may well find even with the aperture full open you need to bump up the ISO to get that photo sharp.
As above 1/250th really minimum for something like the dog shot.

You can try shoving the camera in AV mode, set say ISO400, point the camera roughly at the subject, half press the button and see what shutter speed it suggests - adjust iso up if it looks too low.
High ISO brings more noise but its better to have that than blur. Its all a compromise.
 
This is really kind of you all and just the help I require.
If the weather is good I will try again using this information and see what I get.
Really looking forward to trying now. Not great at learning from books I learn better by doing the job so fingers crossed.
 
And if you take a photo of your dog again, get down at eye level and put him/her about a 1/3 of the way in to the frame and looking either straight at you or into the frame rather than out of it. You will be surprised how much better the image will look
 
The good news is the 550d is not a bad performer ISO wise you can easily get away with 800 and 1600 is fine with a little noise reduction in pp
 
TBH looking at the pic of th dog even at the largest size it doesn't look too unsharp unless you're VERY picky (or I need specsavers :lol:)

I would think that just a little bit of sharpening would produce an excellent shot.

.
 
It's hardly very blurry, just a little off because of the shutter speed. The image is usable, printable as a family pet photo even. The dog possibly moved slightly when you took the shot. Up the ISO a little in similar conditions, to get a faster shutter speed as mentioned. Should do the trick. Nice doggy :) [though I'm more a cat person]
 
I do agree that shooting at 1/30 was pushing luck, especially with a live subject and a 70mm lens on a cropper. I also find the original photo at large size (2048x1365) to be undeniably soft.However, while not a perfect solution I think it is possible to improve the result with some sharpening in post. Here's a quick fix in Lightroom, showing the largest size image at 100%....

20121127_095038_.JPG


If you look at some of the longer whiskers you will note a sort of double image effect, which I would think is down to movement during the rather long (for this type of shot) exposure.

Here's how it looks when reproduced, with the edits, at 50%....

20121127_094409__LR.jpg
 
WOW! That did help and it looks so much better now.Truly everyone I really appreciate this help and the time taken to answer me.

I have been out in the garden trying all morning but I am missing something actually I m not getting at all..LOL! but determined not to use auto.

I started out using AV as I am trying to get the dog only but with the background blurred.HUH! well no way was it working the shutter speed kept going down to about 100 and when i increase the iso the photo was way too light, but i don't mind it is all in the learning.

I then moved the dial to TV and it was a little better.I think this one is much sharper than yesterday but that background will just not go away?? I did remove a mark from her fur on photoshop.

I will keep trying and after lunch I will get down to eye level and try again.


Sticks by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
If you have the room to move backwards try moving further away from the dog and use the long end of your lens. If you have lots of room try also to position the dog further away from the background.

This was shot at 275mm and f/5.6 on my 7D. No edits. I should imagine that 200mm and f/4 should not be too far off producing a similar background blur.

20110308_145357_4816_LR.jpg
 
Fabulous picture and beautiful dog. This is just what I am trying to capture and not getting it.
Will go and change my lens and get straight out for some practice .
Thank you
 
Look at the lighting as well. You are choosing to shoot in the shade, which is putting pressure on ISO and/or shutter speed. It also means you have quite flat (non contrasty) lighting, which is creating a less vivid impression. Bright light means you can shoot at low ISO and attain those higher shutter speeds. It also adds highlight and shadow detail to the subject and can add gloss to the coat.
 
Yes you are so right about the light and when I next take them to Turnberry I will try again.

I did another hour of shooting in the garden today and then it clicked that maybe I should have my lens on manual! DUH! no wonder the settings were changing all the time.

Even though I still need lots of practice the one below got my background blurred which is great but the dogs were fed up with me following them around and when I move further away they move too to be next to me,so next time will be when we are out and about.



IMG_7091 by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
Right so I can keep my lens on auto?

I turned to AV turned to smallest aperture and set iso to 200 but the iso kept changing because of the light . I am getting a better understanding of Iso so my efforts are helping me along with all of your help
 
tdodd said:
I do agree that shooting at 1/30 was pushing luck, especially with a live subject and a 70mm lens on a cropper. I also find the original photo at large size (2048x1365) to be undeniably soft.However, while not a perfect solution I think it is possible to improve the result with some sharpening in post. Here's a quick fix in Lightroom, showing the largest size image at 100%....

20121127_095038_.JPG


If you look at some of the longer whiskers you will note a sort of double image effect, which I would think is down to movement during the rather long (for this type of shot) exposure.

Here's how it looks when reproduced, with the edits, at 50%....

20121127_094409__LR.jpg
Click to expand...

Was this done with a high pass filter?
 
hi there, nice shots btw for just switching from auto! :) im not sure if you want to spend any money? but one of your best options imo would be to get a canon 50mm f1.8!!! there sooooo cheap and will give you some great options for what you need :) there are a couple in the for sale thread here for around £50-£60, there only £70 brand new also from digital revs, now this lens will make your life soo much easier as you can shoot wide open at f1.8 and you will get a real nice blurred back ground being able to shoot so fast with the 50mm f1.8 (nifty fifty) and shooting wide open to blur the background will also let loads more light in compared to your 70-200 which means........yup! you will be able to use it in low light conditions and get away with lowest possible ISO too :) for the price you will be shocked at the pics you will get with this lens, its really sharp at f2.2 also :)
 
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The sharpening was performed in Lightroom 4.2, using the settings you can see on the right hand side. I have no idea what sort of technique Lightroom uses for the sharpening.
 
Seajay said:
Right so I can keep my lens on auto?

I turned to AV turned to smallest aperture and set iso to 200 but the iso kept changing because of the light . I am getting a better understanding of Iso so my efforts are helping me along with all of your help
Click to expand...

If you set ISO to 200 and had it on Av then only the shutter speed should have been changing. How did the ISO change when it was set to 200 or do you mean you had to keep changing the ISO?
 
ernesto said:
If you set ISO to 200 and had it on Av then only the shutter speed should have been changing. How did the ISO change when it was set to 200 or do you mean you had to keep changing the ISO?
Click to expand...

Auto ISO is also available in AV mode so its quite possible that it changed as well if that was selected.
 
Ok what I meant was that I started out with Av set the smallest aperture I could and set ISO to 200.
AS the lens zoomed to take the shot the aperture was changing and I had to keep changing the iso to try and get the aperture to open up more to get my background blurry but the results were too light I think I then changed to auto Iso .

I will also look at a nifty fifty. As I want to master some nice portraits of my grand kids . I have thousands of pictures of them but ever quite got the one I would ave on my wall. My kids love them and hang them but I want something special that I can be proud of.
 
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Can't get into the for sale section to check or a nifty fifty but will go and try to purchase one from ebay.
Thank you for the tip though!
 
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Seajay said:
Ok what I meant was that I started out with Av set the smallest aperture I could and set ISO to 200.
Click to expand...

Smallest aperture? You mean the highest number? (f/22 or f/30 or whatever)?

That might well explain softness as well as the lack of light. Generally you'll start to lose sharpness above f/11 or so and cheaper lenses really really lose it around the f/16 mark. That and you really are restricting the amount of light in massively.

Or do you mean the widest aperture (lowest number) such as f/4 or f/5.6 etc ? Those will give the most light in but the least depth of field. But will be sharper than f/22 etc.

Remember the aperture is the opening size as a inverted fraction so in terms of size 1/4 is a much bigger hole than 1/16 so the numbering system goes the other way to what you would expect.

AS the lens zoomed to take the shot the aperture was changing and I had to keep changing the iso to try and get the aperture to open up more to get my background blurry but the results were too light I think I then changed to auto Iso .
Click to expand...

OK im going to assume you mean wide aperture (ie not narrow). Lenses typically have a widest aperture that is dependent on their focus length.

For example, the cannon kit lens is labelled as 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6.

That means the aperture isnt constant. At 18mm the widest is f/3.5. At 55mm that changes to f/5.6 so you can see as you zoom the widest aperture possible decreases. This is very common in lenses. That's why it was changing.
To put it another way, 18 to 55mm requires 1 1/3 stops of extra light.

The 50mm you're on about is a prime, doesnt zoom so has a f/1.4 aperture all the time.

Constant aperture lenses are usually more expensive and better quality.
 
Aw! I see what you mean. I think i read that to take a nice portrait get the F number as low as you can as this gives a large amount of light and will help to knock the background out a little . I had mine as small an F number as I could but was zooming in and and out depending on where the dog went. Oh I have so much to learn thank you all one again and I truly am taking notes if everyone's help so thank you. I ay try again today but won't keep bothering you all with my photo results. Also will try and get the nifty fifty online
 
Well just ordered the nifty fifty from the digitalrev link Mark thank you . I am so desperate now to try it and hope it does not take too long to come.
 
Don't get carried away with using it at f1.4 all the time though as that can introduce more problems due to the very small amount of depth of field!
 
It is the 1.8 I have ordered and I won't use it all the time as i won't learn if i do.

I have also been trying to get a great shot of Turnberry lighthouse for years so that will be my next adventure after portraits of the kids.Who knows I ay even get one with the water all blurred just like I see on here sometimes I love that look in a photo. So l may need to ask about lens help for tat in the future but or now I want to walk before I run as they say :)
Thank you
Cathy
 
Thanks Chris I hear what you are saying and have taken note . This is what is good about being here everyone shares their knowledge many thanks!
Cathy
 
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