Please help me nail sharp focus.....





Canon 50mm f1.8 40D 200 iso

1/250th f2.8

David
 
mrcrow said:
STOP IT DAMMIT!!!!

:D
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I would like to help out with a bit of background here for those of you struggling to achive the quality of image you aspire to.

After many years of 35mm photography and amassing a bag full of Canon FD kit I eventually took the plunge and bought my 40D as a Christmas pressie to myself in late 2007.

I immediately became beguiled by the ability to manipulate and fiddle ad nausem in PP, and especially the 100% view thing, but I was taking more pictures than I had for years, especially as they were now "free".

I thought I knew "all about" photography, but it was a pretty steep learning curve, and shooting in RAW was a great move, you just have to remember that whatever the qualities of your equipment there is usually something you can do in PP to make your image better.

There will be a limit, but normally there is something you can do.

Each of my lenses needs different levels of PP to produce the best images, and I have several on the wall at A2 size that convince me I do not yet need a 7D - want yes - need no :D

Modern digi SLR's are fantastic pieces of kit but they don't take great pictures by themselves, not even on the green square setting. I suspect the designers in Japan must get rather tired with all the "my **** isn't working properly" posts on the internet when infact the only thing not working to it's full potential is the photographer behind the camera.

So my advice is ask lots of questions, and don't give up :thumbs:.

HTH

David
 
Phew, where to start! David, that looks lovely and sharp, thank you so much! Your last post here - do you mean that you've sharpened those images? Am I being too hard on myself to think that I need to have it perfect in camera before editing then, before I can move on with my blog etc and start offering free shoots to friends so I can work towards this as a very part time job (my ultimate goal)? I'm finding it's holding my back psychologically here....

Which brings me to Mr Crow's post - good advice, I've def. trapped myself a bit with this one. I was all set to do my blog, then went and found myself an obstacle. It all started when images in Lightroom were looking even softer than when viewed in DPP - which led me to believe it must be the quality of my images (as for the very sharp ones, it wasn't an issue).

I'm looking at doing a weekend portrait course in Inverness :-D

Wonder if I should post here or on another thread the images I was thinking of going with for my blog before I go for them? So you can see some of my faves (rather than this practise shot).

I'll try the unsharp mask :-))
 
kitschenalia said:
Phew, where to start! David, that looks lovely and sharp, thank you so much! Your last post here - do you mean that you've sharpened those images?
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These last two had sharpness settings of 3 in the RAW tab and 100 in the RGB tab. Apart from that nothing else, then convert to jpg in DPP.

Getting it as right as you can in camera is the best start you can have and will make your life much easier if you are not having to constantly try to recover sub standard images.

Going on a course sounds a good idea but try to get an idea of a)what will be covered and b) what they expect you to know already. Last one is very important.

I'd start a new thread with any new pictures.

Good Luck

David
 
Willid1 said:
These last two had sharpness settings of 3 in the RAW tab and 100 in the RGB tab. Apart from that nothing else, then convert to jpg in DPP.

Getting it as right as you can in camera is the best start you can have and will make your life much easier if you are not having to constantly try to recover sub standard images.

Going on a course sounds a good idea but try to get an idea of a)what will be covered and b) what they expect you to know already. Last one is very important.

I'd start a new thread with any new pictures.

Good Luck

thanks for the information...raw isnt possible on my toy but going upmarket may convince me its the way to go

and considering PP i think more practice there may help me as well

cheers
geof

David
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