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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> focussing a subject
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 04/07/2007 03:00:31 PM · #1
I don't want to bore any of you with what to you must be such a basic part of photography, but can you give me some advice on focussing for portraiture photography. I tend to have my camera set to one shot and focus on the eye but if you look at my pics none of them are in brilliant focus. Even on a fast shutter speed I don't have the clarity that most of you have. Please, please, please can you give me a clue as to what I am doing wrong

Thanks - Fran
 04/07/2007 03:33:41 PM · #2
Can you post an example? I looked through a few shots from your portfolio and they looked pretty good to me.
 04/07/2007 03:38:13 PM · #3
I was looking through your portfolio. Your top rated image is a quite nice portrait, but I noticed one important thing in the processing you list. There is no sharpening. Typically, digital processing requires some amount of sharpening. Many here use Unsharpen Mask (USM) and others that have CS2 CS3 use smart sharpen. Both work very well.

For USM, typical settings for sharpening are between 85,0.5,0 and 125,0.2, 0 (slider settings). Others may be able to provide additional help on 'sharpening' those nice images you take.

Here are a couple of your photos that I treated with USM

USM 125,0.2,0 (applied 2 times)

Original from your portfolio

USM 85,0.5,0

Original from your portfolio

These seem to be much sharper than your originals.

Message edited by author 2007-04-07 15:47:32.
 04/07/2007 05:46:00 PM · #4
I am so sorry I didn't get back to the thread, I was called away.
I've just been looking at the two pics you've played with and the difference is amazing.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for me. It's easy to become disillusioned when you never seem to get the clarity you're after.

Thanks - Fran
 04/07/2007 06:13:44 PM · #5
One tip about sharpening... Don't over do it. I over do it all the time. Sharpen it less than you think it needs, then go look at something else for a few minutes before coming back and deciding you over did it! It just takes a bit of getting used to.

Also I generally do the sharpening last and save an unsharpened image before I do. Then if I want to do a resize, to post on DPC for example, I'll open the unsharpened version, resize it then sharpen it.
 04/07/2007 07:49:39 PM · #6
Thanks for that, I'll keep it in mind
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