tack sharp images - help needed to save sanity.

[Michaelaw]

I think in the shot with the woman I would have kicked the ISO up to 400 or even 800 so as to increase my shutter speed. I think the 1/80 here is what's causing the image to soften a tad in the hand held approach. Failing that, I would try an external flash on the hot shoe and try some bounce with a shutter speed as high as will allow. I am fairly new to this stuff myself but that's what I would try.

[Travis]

The first image (person in shade with blinds)

This was shot in shutter priority mode. You selected a speed of 1/80 and the camera had to correspond with an aperture that would get you a correctly exposed image. Only problem is you don't have a wide enough aperture to shoot 1/80 with the ambient light in this room.

Your camera elected to use the widest aperture available (in this case F4). This is why the image is under exposed.

To answer the question about sharpness for this image. Lenses are never as sharp at their widest apertures. They are sharpest a stop or two down from widest. This lens is most likely sharpest at f7-f11.

Was you intention for this shot to be a silhouette? or did you want the persons face properly exposed? if it's a silhouette I wouldn't worry so much about sharpness, if it's supposed to be exposed and razor sharp than you can -

A - Use flash to increase the amount of light in the room and increase the aperture to F7

or

B - Increase the ISO (which will bring some noise) and increase aperture.

This is a sharpness to signal to noise ratio trade off.

Flash and Increased aperture would be my choice


The 2nd picture (kitty)

This looks pretty sharp to me. In this case you kept the shutter at 1/80 and shot it at 100mm. The iso was increased to 1200 but the camera is handling it well. Mostly because the image is correctly exposed. The aperture was F4.5 is is the widest for this lens at this range (100mm).

If you are referring to the out of focus areas under kittys chin this is the effect of depth of field when shooting both at 100mm and a relatively wide 4.5 aperture. This effect is often desirable. However if you wanted all of kitty in complete sharp focus you would have to

A - Stop the aperture down to F7. This will force you to either increase your ISO (which will increase the noise) or use a slower shutter speed (which may introduce motion blur). You can't really move the shutter speed much further down because your're shooting 100mm. This would suggest 1/100 for the appropriate shutter speed. You are already pushing it at 1/80 (unless you have IS lenses in which case you might be able to go a touch slower but if your subject moves it's over).

B - Use flash and stop down to F7. Decrease the ISO back down to base.

EDIT: The are three links on the post but two of them lead to the same kitty so I can't comment on the third image.

[kat]

The first image (person in shade with blinds)

This was shot in shutter priority mode. You selected a speed of 1/80 and the camera had to correspond with an aperture that would get you a correctly exposed image. Only problem is you don't have a wide enough aperture to shoot 1/80 with the ambient light in this room.

Your camera elected to use the widest aperture available (in this case F4). This is why the image is under exposed.

To answer the question about sharpness for this image. Lenses are never as sharp at their widest apertures. They are sharpest a stop or two down from widest. This lens is most likely sharpest at f7-f11.

Was you intention for this shot to be a silhouette? or did you want the persons face properly exposed? if it's a silhouette I wouldn't worry so much about sharpness, if it's supposed to be exposed and razor sharp than you can -

A - Use flash to increase the amount of light in the room and increase the aperture to F7

or

B - Increase the ISO (which will bring some noise) and increase aperture.

This is a sharpness to signal to noise ratio trade off.

Flash and Increased aperture would be my choice


The 2nd picture (kitty)

This looks pretty sharp to me. In this case you kept the shutter at 1/80 and shot it at 100mm. The iso was increased to 1200 but the camera is handling it well. Mostly because the image is correctly exposed. The aperture was F4.5 is is the widest for this lens at this range (100mm).

If you are referring to the out of focus areas under kittys chin this is the effect of depth of field when shooting both at 100mm and a relatively wide 4.5 aperture. This effect is often desirable. However if you wanted all of kitty in complete sharp focus you would have to

A - Stop the aperture down to F7. This will force you to either increase your ISO (which will increase the noise) or use a slower shutter speed (which may introduce motion blur). You can't really move the shutter speed much further down because your're shooting 100mm. This would suggest 1/100 for the appropriate shutter speed. You are already pushing it at 1/80 (unless you have IS lenses in which case you might be able to go a touch slower but if your subject moves it's over).

B - Use flash and stop down to F7. Decrease the ISO back down to base.

[kat]

I have books that explain f-stop, ISO and Shutter speed. I can read them and think I understand until 10 mins later I try to use it and it's out the window. I'm back to the books now.. blessed aperture and it's mixed up numbers!!!

[Michaelaw]

That's a pretty informative post Travis, wish I had that kind of technical understanding. I'm with Kat sort of in one ear and out the other. So I think my reply was somewhat on the mark but you really flushed it out...I thank you

[Marko]

That info was amazing Travis. Thanks!

What I'd like to do though is isolate 1 element completely if possible.
Here's what I'd like to see.

3 shots - a portrait. get pretty close/tight if possible - we'd like to see the eyes loom large in the shot.
Focus on the eye (dammit the eye)
- Shutter priority 1/60, 1/125, 1/250.
I want to see the effect of shutter here.
Do this exercise twice.
One series you hand hold the camera.
One series - that's right - tripod all the way baby.

Different setups will be able to vary the output of the light (like when you are controlling studio lights) to match the F-stop and aperture combination. Others won't; like with natural light in some cases.

OR just get as close as you can - manipulate the ISO or F-stops to match the shutter speed for correct exposure. At F- stops like 4.0-5.6 and smaller you can tell easily tell if an image is tack sharp side by side.

Hope that makes sense, it should reveal a lot if you're up to the task - try not to be conscious of handholding. Make an effort to emulate your natural shooting pattern.
Love the thread!
Marko

[tomorrowstreasures]

Travis - i fixed the links - that is what happens when I am trying to sneak this in in between classes.....

another issue i have is that d#*n focus screen... in the days of the cross hairs - no problemo...i am ready for my aarp card folks - and i can' tell if i am on or not. so then - i rely on the auto setting for focus- still thinking of it as a pot shot of luck that i get focus .... the prime 85mm focusing ring has no grab to it. it spins really freely.

what i have learned so far is:
-the better you nail the exposure the better chance you have a fine tuned focus.
-larger aperture - better focus - but i love bokeh - and want to use it on a pretty regular basis in my images - so how does one avert that?
- the lower the iso - the sharper
- the faster the shutter speed the better chance for clarity
-fill flash works miracles so don't shy away from it
-as does a tripod -

and how exactly does one use a tripod, low iso, lg aperture when wanting bokeh, fast shutter speed when one is chasing around a toddler who is 36" or less to the ground in a dark room? sigh.

[tomorrowstreasures]

That's a pretty informative post Travis, wish I had that kind of technical understanding. I'm with Kat sort of in one ear and out the other. So I think my reply was somewhat on the mark but you really flushed it out...I thank you

not buying it Michael - nope - your images are amazing so start 'splaining how you got them

[tomorrowstreasures]

My bad and rude too - Travis - thank you so much for taking the time to sort through the images!!!! I am going to try the suggestions put forth in this thread....Marko - great exercise, too! The grandson is now home 1500miles away now, but I will find something else to practice on and post in this thread. Come along with me fellow learners! practice and post results!

Kat - i about wet my pants with your after Travis's explanation. i am still giggling!

Wonderful community here.... Marko, I bet you feel like a proud dad!

[Michaelaw]

not buying it Michael - nope - your images are amazing so start 'splaining how you got them

I just shoot using what I think I understand about photography and there's lot's of evidence in the form of very bad pictures to show I'm still very much a learning animal I don't do well with books but seem to thrive with hands on experimentation. In the case of toddler shots my answer is this...I shoot my girlfriends grandson using an external flash bounced off the ceiling (white) with a diffuser cup mounted. I generally shoot at 100 ISO 1/100 and set the flash to fill in. Using this method, I get 80% good results and tack sharp. Hope this helps. Again I don't fully understand to the levels of Travis why this method works but have a basic idea The other thing I'm prone to doing is a lot of experimentation because this is how I learn as I said. One of the methods I used to learn going back a bit was to set my old E-500 on auto and then go over the exif data to see what choices the camera made then I sort of back engineered it to try and figure out why. Where I want to be is at a point where I always get good shots because I totally understand the medium and in that I think I'm making some headway....