sharpness in photos


astroboi

New Member
Sep 21, 2009
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Hi guys im currently using D90 and kit lens (18-50mm) and (55-200mm) the prob im having is that there's no sharpness in most of the pictures i took. I need to do some touching up in CS before calling it done..

so my issue is, Is it true when pple said that kit lens wun give u the sharpness as those expensive lens? or is there anything i need to learn or brush up?
 

you should post some photos here to show how unsharp the photos are. Different factors could be due to motion blur, lowlight, wrong focus point etc
 

maybe you could post your camera settings too, when you upload your photo, would help a bit.
 

post a picture with all the info/exif intact so we can see.
 

_DSC0669.jpg


_DSC0647.jpg


Looks okay to me...usually need to cheat a bit by using unsharp mask in PP and so on but from what i see, it looks normal. Are you trying to isolate an subject?
 

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yes bro but the "hazey" effect i dun quite like ar..the picture is not as sharp as some bros posted here without editing on CS.. especially the color.. haizz... :(
 

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boh pian since got haze and some more construction going on. might want to get a haze filter.

for the colors itself, really depends on the camera settings. I usually put neutral colors so that easier to edit later on but from what i heard and seen, the higher grade of lenses have awesome contrast.

btw, if you dont mind...i took some liberties with the pic. took about 5 mins with basic image editor.

900bef1b.jpg


Your pics has the makings of the front cover of a book or magazine. My advise is dont give up and keep on trying.
 

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The soft lighting is not the best for good sharp shot.
 

....Are you trying to isolate an subject?
yes bro but the "hazey" effect

Are you trying to get blur background, which is commonly called "bokeh" (a term derived from Japanese word for "blur"), as we usually see in portrait photography?



..the picture is not as sharp as some bros posted here without editing on CS

If I recall correctly, filters in DSLR diminish the sharpness of a image taken and can be corrected through post processing contrasting and sharpening. You may read up with this dpreview posting to see the "side effect" of having a thin filter inside the digital camera sensor in pursuit of sharp image capturing by a digital camera.



.. especially the color.. haizz... :(
The underscore prefix to your images reminds me of standardized notation of DSLR when saving an image file is captured in Adobe RGB (or aRGB) colour space. Are you processing your photographs in Adobe RGB colour space and posting pictures created Adobe colour space?
 

yes bro but the "hazey" effect i dun quite like ar..the picture is not as sharp as some bros posted here without editing on CS.. especially the color.. haizz... :(

the ones you posted looks sharp enough to me. the color looks natural as well. try to shoot handheld then another on tripod on the same subject- eg a drink bottle with small words. Zoom in and compare; if one is as sharp as you like it to be, then probably its the breathing technique when handheld.

I did that to convince myself the kit lens is decent enough..and it is.
 

How to take sharp pictures:

1. Hold camera well

2. Use tripod if necessary

3. Use faster shutter speed

4. Use small aperture to get better DOF

5. Use camera/lens with image stabilisation

6. Select the right focusing mode

7. Try and use the lens "sweet spot"

8. Make sure your lenses are clean
 

boh pian since got haze and some more construction going on. might want to get a haze filter.

for the colors itself, really depends on the camera settings. I usually put neutral colors so that easier to edit later on but from what i heard and seen, the higher grade of lenses have awesome contrast.

btw, if you dont mind...i took some liberties with the pic. took about 5 mins with basic image editor.

900bef1b.jpg


Your pics has the makings of the front cover of a book or magazine. My advise is dont give up and keep on trying.

Reportage, good try on that photo. But I think you got over zealous on the contrast/brightness and blew the highlights. Also the composition choice looked funny, with the body being cut off...

TS, here is a version I did. Basically all I did was setting black and white and grey points using curves in the pic. I did not even do any sharpening. Notice that once the color contrast shows, the pic "looks" a lot sharper. I also did a simple crop. This is a 2 min job. TS, let me know if you want me to take this pic down.

4618943056_bd95507914_o.jpg
 

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Your photo looks fine at this size, for sharpness we probably need to look at 100% crop. If you want sharper, nothing a little USM/contrast adjustment wouldn't do for you in photoshop.

I say your equipment is definitely able to take good pics. At the end of the day don't be too overly worried or obsessed with sharpness, a good image is more than just being sharp sharp sharp.
 

I work with what i have. I find the people playing soccer a distraction and the person the face not visible not contributing to the picture as well so removed but since the face was a bit into the body so the body appeared cut off but i have seen books/mags with covers like so and they worked. as for the sky....better a white one then "reddish" something but see the overall concept lah.

in my rendition, one cant help wondering what the people on the pic are thinking about or looking at and the girl`s smile was the main concept.
 

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Your photo looks fine at this size, for sharpness we probably need to look at 100% crop. If you want sharper, nothing a little USM/contrast adjustment wouldn't do for you in photoshop.

I say your equipment is definitely able to take good pics. At the end of the day don't be too overly worried or obsessed with sharpness, a good image is more than just being sharp sharp sharp.
if only that was true :)....anyway even i learnt something from this thread.
 

Hmm... i think the TS is not referring to the foreground people but the background buildings not being sharp? I think he's trying to create a sharp image from front to back so this may be a depth of field issue? Hence his use of f14 to try to do so. :dunno: Daredevil's pp does bring out the background more though. :thumbsup:
 

Hmm... i think the TS is not referring to the foreground people but the background buildings not being sharp? I think he's trying to create a sharp image from front to back so this may be a depth of field issue? Hence his use of f14 to try to do so. :dunno: Daredevil's pp does bring out the background more though. :thumbsup:
I agree, see what the TS is trying to pull off. But of course at too small a aperture there is the matter of diffraction.

its a delicate balancing game in my opinion.