Advice please... what's going wrong?

Ben:

Ben:

Messages
960
Name
Ben
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,
I popped out this afternoon in the hope of getting some nice candid shots of my daughter.
The photos looked ok in camera and full view on computer but I got home to edit them and discovered they aren't very sharp at all, noisy and generally not clear when zoomed in.

Gear and settings
Canon 80d
24-105mm F4
Handheld
RAW
90mm
ISO400
f4
1/1250
Neutral profile
Straight out of camera

I'd have expected those settings to produce a crisp image, what am I doing wrong...?
Is it that f4 just isn't sharp on this lens?

IMG_1109 by Ben Bailey, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Looks OK to me. The child's face is in shade and low contrast (as well as a bit underexposed), so doesn't jump out as super sharp, but the focus point looks about right (but possibly not perfect). At f4 the trees behind are blurred just as I would expect them to be. If you wanted then in focus you needed to be at f11 or f16. But like the shot the way it is. A little bit of post processing to bring up the child's face and coat, and it will be just fine. A fraction higher exposure, contrast and some warmth and saturation - don't overdo it. I'd also crop some foreground, and remove (or at least dull) those bright horizontal bars in the background.

If they looked OK in terms of sharpness at full view, I'd be happy enough.
 
Looking at the photo on flickr I'd say that for a wide open wide-ranging zoom lens and ISO400 that was pretty darn sharp. Increasing exposure a stop would help reduce noise in shadow areas, especially where you had to lift them, and you could likely bring down the highlights acceptably still. You could also apply clarity & sharpness with a brush in lightroom to make the subject appear a little crisper.
 
Last edited:
Winkyphoto said:
Looks OK to me. The child's face is in shade and low contrast (as well as a bit underexposed), so doesn't jump out as super sharp, but the focus point looks about right (but possibly not perfect). At f4 the trees behind are blurred just as I would expect them to be. If you wanted then in focus you needed to be at f11 or f16. But like the shot the way it is. A little bit of post processing to bring up the child's face and coat, and it will be just fine. A fraction higher exposure, contrast and some warmth and saturation - don't overdo it. I'd also crop some foreground, and remove (or at least dull) those bright horizontal bars in the background.

If they looked OK in terms of sharpness at full view, I'd be happy enough.
Click to expand...

Really appreciate the feedback Neil, thanks. Perhaps I'm expecting too much when zoomed in close.
Had edited the image earlier and covered everything you suggested. Along with removing the blue sign above her head!

Really like this edit now...
IMG_1109-Edit by Ben Bailey, on Flickr
 
F4 may not be the sweet spot for your lens, try stopping down a clock or two. My old f1.7 produced the best images at f4.
 
JohnX said:
Might need a bit of AF fine tuning. Appears to be front focussing.
Click to expand...
Yep, also my thoughts. The clue is in the pavement focus. Looks sharpest just in front. But to my eye the image is acceptable in-focus for computer viewing or small prints.
 
Thanks for all the response guys. Does appear the pavement is slightly better focused than her face.
I had the focus set to Zone AF instead of 1 point AF, not sure whether this would make a difference.
Will test focusing tomorrow...
 
Ben: said:
Thanks for all the response guys. Does appear the pavement is slightly better focused than her face.
I had the focus set to Zone AF instead of 1 point AF, not sure whether this would make a difference.
Will test focusing tomorrow...
Click to expand...

Use single point to test on static. Don't let the camera choose.
 
gremlin16 said:
My thoughts too John, to my eye, the tarmac about 1 foot in front of the subject is sharp. Edit looks nice though, I would suggest removing the rest of the blue sign ‘post’ too though just to make it a little tidier.
Click to expand...

Agreed - that wasn't so obvious in the smaller original image.
 
Try focusing in liveview to check autofocus accuracy. The 80D has autofocus micro adjust if needed.
 
Hi again,
I've just tested the lens with the following settings
70mm
f4
Single point center focus on the second battery
Tripod & 2 sec timer

These 2 images were taken seconds apart, 1st one has focused correctly on the 2nd battery. 2nd is focused on the 1st battery.

I thought if a lens was front/back focusing it was constant? Not changing per shot...is this normal?

Correct focus - 2nd battery by Ben Bailey, on Flickr
Front focused - 1st battery by Ben Bailey, on Flickr
 
I have noticed with my Nikon that the 'single point' isn't as small an area as one might like, although it wouldn't be as bad as what you've seen here suggests. No disrespect, but are you quite certain the camera was set to use a single point?
 
ancient_mariner said:
I have noticed with my Nikon that the 'single point' isn't as small an area as one might like, although it wouldn't be as bad as what you've seen here suggests. No disrespect, but are you quite certain the camera was set to use a single point?
Click to expand...

100% on single point

Just tried my 50mm 1.8, didn't see too bad.
Switched back to the 24-105 and no issues with focus this time... frustrating.
 
As well as the sharpness issues (if she's moving try continuous focus on her eyes) think about composition and all the elements in the frame - there's a bin in the background and the lead/harness doesn't look very good, I reckon you might want to show an element of freedom with kid shots which that doesn't allow
 
Another thing to consider is scale. If your lens is focussing in the wrong area (tarmac) it’s probably missing by a 30cm at most. When you shoot a row of batteries up close, that same difference will only be a couple of mm so it will be much harder to detect. Hope you get to the bottom of your issue.
 
I assume she is walking towards you so in those circumstances I would have the camera set to BBF, AI Servo, single point focus on her face and exposure measured at shutter release.
Its almost worth setting one of the camera presets (C1 etc) to do that so if you try to catch her running around you are all set up.
 
Scirocco_09 said:
As well as the sharpness issues (if she's moving try continuous focus on her eyes) think about composition and all the elements in the frame - there's a bin in the background and the lead/harness doesn't look very good, I reckon you might want to show an element of freedom with kid shots which that doesn't allow
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input Scirocco, in hind sight I should have taken more time to compose the photo better.

gremlin16 said:
Another thing to consider is scale. If your lens is focussing in the wrong area (tarmac) it’s probably missing by a 30cm at most. When you shoot a row of batteries up close, that same difference will only be a couple of mm so it will be much harder to detect. Hope you get to the bottom of your issue.
Click to expand...
Very true! Will take some more time to see what's happening next time I'm out.

troutfisher said:
I assume she is walking towards you so in those circumstances I would have the camera set to BBF, AI Servo, single point focus on her face and exposure measured at shutter release.
Its almost worth setting one of the camera presets (C1 etc) to do that so if you try to catch her running around you are all set up.
Click to expand...
I used to use BBF but switched back since getting the 80D, may have to use it again! Thanks for the ideas Chris
 
Its not mentioned in the gear list, but have a look to see what the other camera setting were.
The subject looks to be moving toward you, so if the camera was set for one-shot the the toddler could be moving out of focus point, but still within the acceptable DOF.
As said above if you are using multiple focus point settings then the actual camera focus point may be the point of highest contrast,not where you want it to be, they are cross type points so that's not an issue.
For a moving subject check the AI Focus or AI Servo options,
 
90mm on a 80d is like 144mm on FF and its not that easy to get shots with that focal length, especially without IS.
Your fast shutter speed should have been more than good enough without IS but if she is moving and your hands were moving enough then you can get a whole set of poor shots.
I was using a 135mm on FF without IS the other day hand held and loads of shots looked slightly out of focus but with IS I can use 200mm and get much better results.
 
The lens looks to be front focusing...

I started a thread recently were I was pulling my hair out with AF accuracy issues. But the tarmac is a good indicator as to what is going on.

I tried a few ways to AF fine tune my lenses. The dot tune method (video on youtube) seemed to work well - I also checked with with a serial box stood up right with a ruler against it - I was happy after that.
Your shutter speed is more than fast enough to eliminate camera shake.

I am not familiar with your camera, but have expansive are the AF settings in terms of tracking etc? If the lens isn't front focusing, it has picked up a stick on the floor and focused on that.

But with your body and that lens, you can and should expect rock solid images.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top