D90 - In-Camera sharpening advice?

Krydel

Krydel

Messages
112
Name
Ollie Adams-Liggins
Edit My Images
Yes
So i finally found the settings to change sharpening, contrast, saturation etc in camera and i was hoping for some advice from d90 users.

I find that images from my d90 are a little soft. I recently shot a hundred or so pictures and out of them all 2 were kept because it was too soft. This is either auto-focus issues (im on auto area?) or the sharpening.

What settings do you use for the sharpening? at default its at 3. I have just notched it up to 5 marks to see what difference it makes.

What settings do you use on your camera to get the best out of camera results?

EDIT** also, whilst im here. could anyone simply point me in the direction of a telelphoto lens that preferably uses as little of my current 18-105mm range as possible? 70mm and above and VR.
 
Just gotten a D90 myself so will watch out for replies on this thread to do with you first question.

With regards to the lens - I have the 70-300mm AF-S VR which is very good.
 
If you shoot raw the only effect of those settings is the jpeg displayed on the LCD not the image you download to PC.
 
Personally, I've always turned the in-camera sharpenning (as far as possible while using JPEG) and done it in PSE. Different uses, different sizes etc need different amounts of USM rather than a blanket setting.

I normally use the centre focus area and recompose - on most cameras, the centre area is the most sensitive.

Another vote for the 70-300 VR although the 55-200 is a cheaper (but shorter and more overlap) option.
 
Nod said:
Personally, I've always turned the in-camera sharpenning (as far as possible while using JPEG) and done it in PSE. Different uses, different sizes etc need different amounts of USM rather than a blanket setting.

I normally use the centre focus area and recompose - on most cameras, the centre area is the most sensitive.

Another vote for the 70-300 VR although the 55-200 is a cheaper (but shorter and more overlap) option.
Click to expand...

Have you missed a word out here? It would help if you said as far as possible down or up =P

centre focus area and recompose... so what, focusing on it with centre point, then moving camera to get the composition you wanted originally?
 
Nod said:
Another vote for the 70-300 VR although the 55-200 is a cheaper (but shorter and more overlap) option.
Click to expand...

Forgot about the 55-200mm - have owned that 2 and is equally good. I upgraded to the 70-300mm just for that little extra reach but yea the 55-200 is definately the cheaper option if budget is tight.
 
Post examples with 100% crops, and tell us where you were focusing.
 
Krydel said:
Have you missed a word out here? It would help if you said as far as possible down or up =P

centre focus area and recompose... so what, focusing on it with centre point, then moving camera to get the composition you wanted originally?
Click to expand...

Oops! Sorry, yes. Should be an OFF in there somewhere but from the context (Personally, I've always turned the in-camera sharpenning (as far as possible while using JPEG) and done it in PSE.) that should be fairly obvious.
 
Sharpening OFF? seems a little odd to me, but i won't complain. You say all the sharpening should be done in photoshop?
oig20n.jpg

16t7wm.jpg
 
Thats motion blur, and somewhat missed focused.

Its not a sharpening issue. The swan was swimming away from you, and your shutter speed was 1/100 at a 105mm focal length. Swimming at 2 miles an hour at 1/100 is causing the pixel blur, hence softness.

Increase shutter speed, I'd be want 1/320 at least for that sort of thing.
 
If you use ViewNX that should have come with the camera, it has an option to show the focus point.
 
puddleduck said:
Thats motion blur, and somewhat missed focused.

Its not a sharpening issue. The swan was swimming away from you, and your shutter speed was 1/100 at a 105mm focal length. Swimming at 2 miles an hour at 1/100 is causing the pixel blur, hence softness.

Increase shutter speed, I'd be want 1/320 at least for that sort of thing.
Click to expand...

It was a pretty gloomy day, i should have used a higher ISO it seems. Im loathed to use 800 or more.
 
Krydel said:
It was a pretty gloomy day, i should have used a higher ISO it seems. Im loathed to use 800 or more.
Click to expand...

better to have some noise than motion blur.

Set Auto ISO to a 1/250 threshhold, and cap it to ISO800.
 
Krydel said:
Im loathed to use 800 or more.
Click to expand...

Don't be! High ISO performance is one of the D90's good points. Its much better to get a bit of noice than a bit of blur.

Keep practising and you'll see improvements. Keep an eye on the shutter speeds :)
 
puddleduck said:
better to have some noise than motion blur.

Set Auto ISO to a 1/250 threshhold, and cap it to ISO800.
Click to expand...

I don't use auto ISO :confused: i always use either Aperture Priority or P mode and set ISO manually. I don't know how to do those things either :bonk:

justinitus said:
Don't be! High ISO performance is one of the D90's good points. Its much better to get a bit of noice than a bit of blur.

Keep practising and you'll see improvements. Keep an eye on the shutter speeds :)
Click to expand...

Up to what ISO would you say was usable on the d90?
 
Mine's currently at default setting. I like to sharpen pics in Lightroom when I export them unless a pic deserves further editing and then I would get some photoshop sharpening in.
 
Krydel said:
Sharpening OFF? seems a little odd to me, but i won't complain. You say all the sharpening should be done in photoshop?
Click to expand...

I don't say it necessarily SHOULD all be done in PP, just that that's the way I do it. Apart from anything, sharpening is best left until the last operation before final use, so unless you print direct from the card with no PP, that'll probably be in PS or similar, after resizing, levels, saturation etc. The camera will also apply a generalised level of sharpening while different photos at different sizes for different uses will all benefit from different levels, radii and thresholds of USM.
 
Krydel said:
Up to what ISO would you say was usable on the d90?
Click to expand...

I just fired off a few shots in a darkish corner of our kitchen (sorry for the subject matter - its the only colourful thing I had to hand!!).

Both were taken handheld in aperture priority mode, on D90 with Sigma 18-50 set to 50mm and f5.6.

ISO800 - shutter speed 1/2.5sec
DSC_8921.jpg


ISO3200 - shutter speed 1/10sec
DSC_8926.jpg


And a crop of the ISO3200 shot
DSC_8926-Copy.jpg


Hope this helps (y)
 
Thanks for the pics and all the advice! So i'm guessing i should turn sharpening back to default now and do any extra sharpening i need in cs4 :) thanks!

EDIT** For this single point focus thing, is it possible to do like the auto-area one does, and choose more than 1 focus point?
 
No you can only use one focus point at a time - just move the multi selector button up/down/left/right to select which one you want. I mainly use the centre one.

You can create custom picture styles in the menus - I have one I use a lot that I named "Standard Plus" - I'll check what its made up of in a minute, but I know I upped the sharpening from std. Its the one the above 2 pics were taken with
 
The custom picture style I used is the same as standard, except sharpening is set at +7 and saturation +1 (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top