Sharpness problem, need help!

Darthchaffinch

Darthchaffinch

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Hi, went to the beach today and most of the photos came out sharp for scenery and some clothing, but for faces of my boys it looks naff (see pic below). Was shooting at a stop or 2 above wide open (for sharpest aperture), in aperture priority, with D90 and 18-55 nikon lens, single point focus (selected manually).
You can probbaly see that the light was very bright and harsh, so tried some weak fill in flash to try and get the faces clearer- but it didn't really work.
What am I doing wrong to get faces so badly captured?!? :help:
Thanks!

 
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There doesn't look much wrong with that to me.

Splitting hairs a little here but the only things that I can think that you could have done to potentially boost sharpness are, use a narrower aperture (you were at f6.3 so less than a stop from wide open), F8 would probably be optimal. You could also use the centre point only for focussing as this is typically most accurate. On that note, were you using AFA or AFC for auto focus?
 
i get exactly same problem..and i shoot in lowest ISO..will watch this thread for advice.
 
I don't see the sharpness as the problem, more that his face is in shadow so there is a loss of detail. Maybe a bit of fill light would help this one and perhaps some fill flash the next time?

Heather
 
There's nothing wrong I can see.. lettering on the jacket front is sharp, individual hairs on the back of the head are visible, everything between is in focus.

I'm not sure what you're expecting? is "sharpness" the right term for what you think is the problem - it might be worth trying to explain what you mean using more words.
 
Have to agree it looks good to me too, if you used fill in flash for this photo maybe a reflector might have been better.
 
If there was fill flash expected.. it didn't go off. EXIF reports flash as off, and there's no catchlight to suggest there was a flash.
 
Looks normal to me too. Its all about light, look at his ear, its a clear and hard exposure. You camera only has a limited dynamic range, not nearly as much as your eye sight, you might see his face as nice and clear but because the camera has dynamic limits it must meter for the bright sunlight to eliminate blow highlights, this inevitably compromises the details in the shadows making them look soft.

If you want his face as a hard exposure in those conditions you must either expose for his shadowed face, knowing your also blowing highlights, or ensure by your positioning that when ever he turns towards the camera his face is towards the sun, or use a reflector to balance the brightness, or even a natural reflector like a white wall or bright rocks, or wait for smoother light, or add fill flash.
 
there is nothing wrong with that image.
 
As others have said, what you're seeing as lack of sharpness is actually the lack of contrast on the important part of the image, because of the lack of light on it.

Slightly different subject placement, fill flash or a reflector, more muted coloured clothing - (red grabs our attention), would all help. Maybe a little PP to just bring the face up a little might be enough.
 
It's not so much the lack of light, and raising the brightness isn't really going to change that. The problem is the flat, non-contrasty, soft light in the shaded regions, which fails to enhance minute details through nuances of highlight and shadow.

Think of the almost invisible crater edges of the moon when front lit by the sun (full moon) compared to the way details stand out when the sun is raking across the surface (partial moon). When you replace direct, specular front lighting with directionless, flat/soft light from the whole sky then it will have even less apparent crispness/sharpness. It's just as sharp as in any other source of light, but you just don't see it so well.

20120517_142722_.JPG


It's not the lens or the camera or the focus or the aperture that's the "problem" it's the light, or more accurately the shade - not the quantity, the quality.
 
actually looking closely at it when zoomed I can see what you mean, the jacket is perfectly in focus and the face slightly out of focus.

Try using the AF-S mode for autofocus, centre AF point and lock focus on your sons eyes/eye. (keep the shutter half depressed whilst re composing)

try to keep the shutter speed up to reduce camera shake (1/160th or higher) and the aperture around F8/F9
 
Well judging from this crop....

It%2527s%2520Sharp.JPG


The hair looks sharp from the forehead to the bottom of the neck. The ear looks sharp. The zip looks sharp. He has young skin, unravaged by age, and it's going to look pretty featureless anyway. The eyes are well and truly sunken into the unlit recesses of his eye sockets. Viewed like this they aren't going to leap out screaming SHARP! But look at the shadow across his nose - sharp. And the shadow of his eyelashes also on his nose - also sharp.

If the bit in front (forehead) is sharp and the bit behind (back of neck) is also then why would you imagine that parts in between the two extremes (eyes) are somehow not sharp? Just because they don't LOOK sharp does not mean they are any less sharp than the the other parts of the photo within the DOF.
 
tdodd said:
It's not so much the lack of light, and raising the brightness isn't really going to change that.
Click to expand...
Oops, I was wrong about the impact of adding some fill in post. I did just try brightening the dimmer areas in Lightroom and I think it made a significant difference to the impression of sharpness. The real surprise is that it seems his eyes appear to be blue. Who would have known? Now I think it LOOKS sharp as well as being sharp.

20120518_074951_000.jpg
 
Poochops said:
Learnt a lot from this thread, and it isn't even mine! Thanks :)
Click to expand...

It's a great example thread, someone a few weeks ago asked how to make their shots wow, and had difficulty accepting that it was just a few minor amendments that were required.

For new photographers it's difficult to grasp that their very ordinary pictures could be improved vastly with just a little more attention. They seem to think that better photographers just happen to find better shooting conditions or better gear, or there's magic in the settings they choose.
 
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