Help Needed to Find Out What's the Problem with this Photo?


Gerald Lam CK

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Jul 2, 2009
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Hi Everyone...will appreciate your input on this photo that i have taken indoor hand held with Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 VC lens. It looks pretty sharp on my camera screen but when i sent it to print a 4R and A4 size, the 4R still looks decent though not really as sharp and the A4 is totally unsharp with no contrast or depth.

ailynn19.jpg


The size of the file that i sent to print is 4.87MB which i think is more than sufficient to print A4? How come it's still not sharp? Isit bcoz it's hand held? I cant rmber what shutter speed i used...
 

Is this picture straight from the camera?
 

Is this picture straight from the camera?

Nope...but all i did was to edit the colour tone only. I shot in RAW.

The problem is that the photo is already blur, any size file you send won't help.

I suppose so...but is it coz of hand held?
 

Lighting conditions look very bad.

Even if you had put the cam on a good tripod, you might have gotten a sharper photo of someone in very bad lighting conditions.

Solution? Add light. Change the light ratios. Add flash. Shoot in a different location.
 

Hi Everyone...will appreciate your input on this photo that i have taken indoor hand held with Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 VC lens. It looks pretty sharp on my camera screen but when i sent it to print a 4R and A4 size, the 4R still looks decent though not really as sharp and the A4 is totally unsharp with no contrast or depth.

The size of the file that i sent to print is 4.87MB which i think is more than sufficient to print A4? How come it's still not sharp? Isit bcoz it's hand held? I cant rmber what shutter speed i used...

From the EXIF you were shooting at f/2, 1/50s, ISO400, at 50mm focal length (not sure how you can get f/2 from a f/2.8 lens but that was what was recorded). Looking at the picture, there is no area that is sharp, so it is most probably due to camera shake. Since your effective focal length = 50 x 1.6 = 80mm, the rule of thumb suggests 1/80s or faster shutter speed. Shutter pressing and bracing techniques are also important to avoid shakes. :)
 

Lighting conditions look very bad.

Even if you had put the cam on a good tripod, you might have gotten a sharper photo of someone in very bad lighting conditions.

Solution? Add light. Change the light ratios. Add flash. Shoot in a different location.

Yes, lighting was bad, but it was just a casual shoot and i only got my external flash with no other support lights.

From the EXIF you were shooting at f/2, 1/50s, ISO400, at 50mm focal length (not sure how you can get f/2 from a f/2.8 lens but that was what was recorded). Looking at the picture, there is no area that is sharp, so it is most probably due to camera shake. Since your effective focal length = 50 x 1.6 = 80mm, the rule of thumb suggests 1/80s or faster shutter speed. Shutter pressing and bracing techniques are also important to avoid shakes. :)

Haha..i can tell y why, coz i tink i shot this with 50mm f1.8 instead of the Tamron. I just realised I used 2 lenses that day. Lol.

Guess i shd have used a higher shutter and ISO + on a tripod with shutter release. Haiz...thx dude!
 

I'm just guessing, for this photo that is not sharp or clear, it could be due to your AF focussing.
Is it set on to continuous servo? In this mode, a photo can be taken while the shutter release button is pressed halfway. That might explain why it is not in focus.
Just my 2 cents ;)
 

From past experience, what looks sharp on the DSLR's 3" screen even if you enlarge it while checking can still turn out pretty blur on the computer screen or in print later ... best bet in low light conditions is still a tripod, or crank up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed ... better a sharp picture with a bit of noise than a blurry picture yeah? Just my thoughts ...
 

I'm just guessing, for this photo that is not sharp or clear, it could be due to your AF focussing.
Is it set on to continuous servo? In this mode, a photo can be taken while the shutter release button is pressed halfway. That might explain why it is not in focus.
Just my 2 cents ;)

Hi...hmm, that's sth i dunno. So i shd use One-Shot Focus? I tink i used Al Servo.

From past experience, what looks sharp on the DSLR's 3" screen even if you enlarge it while checking can still turn out pretty blur on the computer screen or in print later ... best bet in low light conditions is still a tripod, or crank up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed ... better a sharp picture with a bit of noise than a blurry picture yeah? Just my thoughts ...

Yeah..shd just bump up ISO. Sigh
 

From past experience, what looks sharp on the DSLR's 3" screen even if you enlarge it while checking can still turn out pretty blur on the computer screen or in print later ... best bet in low light conditions is still a tripod, or crank up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed ... better a sharp picture with a bit of noise than a blurry picture yeah? Just my thoughts ...
did you zoom in 100% to check sharpness from the camera monitor? if you don't check, it is always safe to print a 2R.
 

it looks more like camera shake. this is the settings i would have used indoors - ISO800-1000 instead of 400 and at least 1/60 at f2.8. it's hard to check for sharpness on your lcd. your best bet is still to get your fundamentals right.

side note - choose a more interesting background if you want to take portrait.
 

did you zoom in 100% to check sharpness from the camera monitor? if you don't check, it is always safe to print a 2R.

I printed A4 just to test how it turns out to be like.

it looks more like camera shake. this is the settings i would have used indoors - ISO800-1000 instead of 400 and at least 1/60 at f2.8. it's hard to check for sharpness on your lcd. your best bet is still to get your fundamentals right.

side note - choose a more interesting background if you want to take portrait.

Yeah...but will i get pixels on A4 if i use iso 800 or 1600?
 

I printed A4 just to test how it turns out to be like.

There is no point in printing A4 (S8R) if it doesn't look sharp on the computer screen, unless you want a blur print.

Yeah...but will i get pixels on A4 if i use iso 800 or 1600?

It is noise, not "pixels". And as brandycoke mentioned, it is better to have noise rather then blur picture.
 

Yeah...but will i get pixels on A4 if i use iso 800 or 1600?

i suppose u mean high iso noise? depends on your toleration to noise, before printing it out, u can always try to view on your computer monitor first, zoom the photo to a level that the size u see on monitor is approx A4 size, if the noise level is ok for you, shouldn't be any problem, there are also many noise reduction software out there, try those to further reduce the noise if you want.
 

Hi...hmm, that's sth i dunno. So i shd use One-Shot Focus? I tink i used Al Servo.
Being all things equal, that is right ISO, right light, right aperture, right speed & all, yes, try single shot mode ;)