[Schellamo]

Does anyone have any tips for achieving sharp focus?
I feel like I'm having trouble at the moment getting my photos sharp. A few are sharp to my eye, alot are almost sharp but not quite... I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice to share?

[slejhamer]

Fast lens and tripod.

Well, tripod first.

Adequate shutter speed. Flash can help.

Cut back on the caffeine.

Fast lens.

[slejhamer]

Also consider: what's the cause of the problem - you (camera shake) or the subject (movement.) Tripod won't help with the latter. But I think your problem is camera shake - just a guess, based on some of your posted images.

Relax, keep your elbows close to your body, breathe out. Feet shoulder-width apart. Left hand should be under the camera like a little platform. Proper technique really helps. After I sold my first lens - an IS lens - I found out how bad my technique really was. No more IS to use as a crutch.

Tripod. Or try to use your body like one.

And finally, what level of post-processing are you doing? Almost all digital images need some sharpening with the handy "unsharp mask" tool or some variation thereof.

And, as you can tell, I do believe that good optics help.

[Irma]

Very nice advice Mitch.

Few weeks ago I decided to place my tripod in one corner of the living-room ready to use... It is great just to grap it and use it... Using the timer or remote control also helps..

[byrt_001]

hi

uuhmm steady hand, hold your breath and shoot.

regards

christian

[Toad]

As far as using tripods, I have found 2 things that help a lot.

1. Quick release plates: It is tedious to screw a camera into a tripod every time you want to use it. A quick release plate makes it far more painless. Snap it on - snap it off. Quick and easy.

2. Tripod sling: Carry your tripod around like a quiver of arrows on your back or slung low at your side. It is a lot less cumbersome than carrying it in your hand. I usually carry mine with my F100 attached. If I see something, I whip the sling off my shoulder and I am setup and ready to shoot.

These 2 small attachments really make carrying a tripod possible for me. As I often use Velvia 50 slide film, a tripod is not really just a preference. it is a necessity when you typically shoot at 1/8 sec or less.

[Schellamo]

Well, this for instance was taken at 1/60th f/1.8 with a tripod and using bounced flash. I took other photos with the same settings which came out acceptably sharp, but this one just annoys me because it could have been a nice photo


(p.s- I know its a bit early for xmas but I'm planning on making personalised christmas cards for my friends and family)

[Kombisaurus]

Practice! Practice! Practice! Practice!

I find that just practicing, thinking "be still. be still" helps me a lot. And gently squeeze the shutter, don't press it like you would a regular button.
But often when I'm out shooting I forget this and my shots start to go bad simply because I'm not conciously trying to be still. But the more you practice the more second nature it becomes - at least I instinctively get a decent stance now.

Also, particularly with moving subjects.. pick an autofocus point and a feature on the subject and forget about the rest of the image, try to keep the autofocus point on that exact place on the subject. Your composition might suffer a bit but you'll be much more aware of the movement and/or camera shake.

Maybe be a bit more pessimistic about your estimates of a "safe" shutter speed. Although everyone spouts the reciprocal of the focal length as a safe shutter speed for hand-holding, remember this is supposed to apply to "35mm equiv" focal lengths and it varies a lot from person to person and situation to situation anyway.
Just because some rule says 1/320sec is safe when using a 200mm lens on a DSLR (1 / 200mm / 1.6 crop factor) doesn't mean you'll end up with sharp photos. You might need 1/500sec? No doubt you will improve and can adjust your own "safe shutter speed" rule as you improve.

Take lots of safety shots, refocussing between each. That way even if you only get it right 1/3 of the time you'll still get a lot more good shots. This is especially important for sport or anything fast-moving where even under ideal conditions you will get plenty of out-of-focus shots.

And finally.. find something to lean on. If you are standing near a wall or tree or car or table or fence or anything solid.. use it! Anything that will make you more steady will help.. so pressing up against a wall, or leaning down with your elbows on a table if you can't set the camera up directly on the table.. they all help.

And of course everything else mentioned above.
I feel that my focussing skills have a long way to go too, so I also need to follow all this advice.

[Schellamo]

Thanks everyone for your tips.

I must admit, I was jumping around and doing the hokey pokey trying to get him to look towards the camera and not take the hat off, so when I pressed the shutter, I was pretty hasty about it.

Its okay really, I took about 40 shots (in about 4 minutes LOL) and only need about 4 and I did get some crackers which are good and sharp.

In regards to my shutter speed, as you can see, they all came out a tad dark (though nothing levels won't fix) at 1/60th and I couldn't stop higher than f1.8 to get a quicker speed. Perhaps I needed to tilt the flash to 75 degrees or something to get more light on him....

[shuttertalk]

Hey Michelle, with the one you posted, it looks more like a mis-focus to me... if you examine the chest and belly area, they actually look sharp - so that's where the camera was probably locked on to.

You might want to try doing a focus lock on the target area (half-press and hold) and recomposing before taking the shot. Either that, or manual focus...

[slejhamer]

Hey Michelle, with the one you posted, it looks more like a mis-focus to me... if you examine the chest and belly area, they actually look sharp - so that's where the camera was probably locked on to.

You might want to try doing a focus lock on the target area (half-press and hold) and recomposing before taking the shot. Either that, or manual focus...

I agree completely. The focal plane is way behind his face. This could be caused by a number of factors, but the first one to check is user error - can you set your camera's focus point? Try that and practice selective focus with still objects.

[muzza]

Also, shooting a f1.8 will give a very very narrow DOF so missing the focus is even easier.

[Petographer]

Hey Michelle, with the one you posted, it looks more like a mis-focus to me... if you examine the chest and belly area, they actually look sharp - so that's where the camera was probably locked on to.

You might want to try doing a focus lock on the target area (half-press and hold) and recomposing before taking the shot. Either that, or manual focus...

I agree completely. The focal plane is way behind his face. This could be caused by a number of factors, but the first one to check is user error - can you set your camera's focus point? Try that and practice selective focus with still objects.

I would have to agree with this also. Set your camera's focus point. It seems you have it set at the center point. Try all points.

[Wedding Shooter]

Definitely focus point issue along with DOF.

[Don Schaeffer]

Use as small an fstop as possible for maximum depth of field. If you use a tripod, sacrifice shutter speed for f-stop reduction.

I did try to sharpen in in Photoshop.

[Schellamo]

Thanks don, its okay though, I did get other sharp photos from this session. I think my problem was timing, trying to get good focus and also get him looking at the camera with eyes open before he climbed off the bed or backdrop, or took off the hat LOL.

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

I think this particular photo is not soft because of camera shake or slow shutter speed, its oof, or more correctly the face wich i assume you wanted to be sharp is out of focus. The shirt shoulders, legs etc. is however in focus.

1.your focus where hunting and was looking for the greatest contrast within the focus area (wich is alot bigger then what you see in the viewfinder) and locked on his striped outfit

2. or you where to close to the subject, maybe he moved towards you? and the head was to close for the camera to focus.

If your shooting with a speedlight i would recommend the fastest sync speed your camera allows, this freeze motions, since kids tend NOT to sit still :-)

I also tend to use continues focus when im taking pictures of kids.

Also a tripod and a remote helps alot.

Regards
/P.L

[Schellamo]

Great idea's there Paul, thanks!
I don't think I did set it to continuous focus in this instance, so that would've been a good idea. I haven't quite got my head around the speedlight yet, but I guess if I just set the camera to a fast shutter speed, and put the flash on auto, it'll tell me what the fastest synch speed is, right?

I was using a tripod, but I find my remote (which is wireless) is a bit too unreliable to 'catch' the moment as I've had to press it a few times before it'll trigger in the past. It also has a 2 sec. delay which I don't know how to turn off.

Thanks again for sharing your wisdom

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Wisdom :-) i dont know, i think its more an experience from my own misstakes LOL

Yes i think that would work, im not to familiar with Canon though.


But i think this should work

Set you camera to full manual.

Set shutter speed 1/200 s (wich is your fastest flash sync speed)

Set desired F/stop (offcourse your speedlight cant handle everything, but f/8 and below should work without problem, )

The flash should be in full auto (ttl metering that is)

a 1/200 flash sync should be suffcient to freeze the babies movement without problems.


The 2-sec delay could be a setting you need to change in the camera.

Let us know how it works out.

Regards

/P.L

[Schellamo]

Thanks so much Paul and everyone!!
Here's some photos I took this morning, and look how sharp they are SOOC!

1/200th f/4.0 with bounced flash



and outside, with no flash at 1/500th f/1.8

[Paul.R.Lindqvist]

Looks great Michelle!

Beautiful!

Thanx for sharing these.

/P.L

[Irma]

Great Schell!

They look beautiful...