sharpness - DPChallenge Forums

04/09/2007 02:56:12 PM · #26

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:

You said you used a tripod and reshot to attempt sharpness. What was the aperature and shutter speed? Was the subject moving?

Another thing to remember is that a tripod is no good unless you use either a shutter release cable or the timer.

I would like to help if I can, but I would need ot know your settings.

I didn't know that thing about the tripod... that's really interesting. Hmm.

and the subject was moving. the aperture was 100 i think? and the shutter speed was 1/60 seconds i think again... lol
im really not good with all this technical stuff =/

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

04/09/2007 02:56:43 PM · #27

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:

Nullix

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

04/09/2007 02:57:03 PM · #28

Um...

Hello?

It's a competition.

Deal with it. If you can't handle the competition, don't compete.

cpanaioti

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

04/09/2007 03:07:04 PM · #29

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:
You said you used a tripod and reshot to attempt sharpness. What was the aperature and shutter speed? Was the subject moving?

Another thing to remember is that a tripod is no good unless you use either a shutter release cable or the timer.

I would like to help if I can, but I would need ot know your settings.

I didn't know that thing about the tripod... that's really interesting. Hmm.

and the subject was moving. the aperture was 100 i think? and the shutter speed was 1/60 seconds i think again... lol
im really not good with all this technical stuff =/

The EXIF data on the original file would show you the exact information. (usually) If the subject was moving 1/60 is not a fast enough shutter speed except maybe for a snail. ;o)

04/09/2007 03:14:23 PM · #30

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:
You said you used a tripod and reshot to attempt sharpness. What was the aperature and shutter speed? Was the subject moving?

Another thing to remember is that a tripod is no good unless you use either a shutter release cable or the timer.

I would like to help if I can, but I would need ot know your settings.

I didn't know that thing about the tripod... that's really interesting. Hmm.

and the subject was moving. the aperture was 100 i think? and the shutter speed was 1/60 seconds i think again... lol
im really not good with all this technical stuff =/

The EXIF data on the original file would show you the exact information. (usually) If the subject was moving 1/60 is not a fast enough shutter speed except maybe for a snail. ;o)

lol yah i know how to find all the technical stuff
but what it means... im not so good at =P
[sort of]
my dad tries to tell me... im just pretty bad at it. lol

but i found out yesterday the highest shutter speed my camera goes to is 1 second & the lowest is 1/60.
or atleast thats all i could get it to go to.
=/

Message edited by author 2007-04-09 15:14:52.

cpanaioti

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

04/09/2007 03:18:11 PM · #31

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:
You said you used a tripod and reshot to attempt sharpness. What was the aperature and shutter speed? Was the subject moving?

Another thing to remember is that a tripod is no good unless you use either a shutter release cable or the timer.

I would like to help if I can, but I would need ot know your settings.

I didn't know that thing about the tripod... that's really interesting. Hmm.

and the subject was moving. the aperture was 100 i think? and the shutter speed was 1/60 seconds i think again... lol
im really not good with all this technical stuff =/

The EXIF data on the original file would show you the exact information. (usually) If the subject was moving 1/60 is not a fast enough shutter speed except maybe for a snail. ;o)

lol yah i know how to find all the technical stuff
but what it means... im not so good at =P
[sort of]
my dad tries to tell me... im just pretty bad at it. lol

but i found out yesterday the highest shutter speed my camera goes to is 1 second & the lowest is 1/60.
or atleast thats all i could get it to go to.
=/

You need to look at the specs for the camera to see the max shutter speed it's capable of. The 1/60 may be due to the use of flash. Did you use flash?

04/09/2007 03:25:59 PM · #32

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:
You said you used a tripod and reshot to attempt sharpness. What was the aperature and shutter speed? Was the subject moving?

Another thing to remember is that a tripod is no good unless you use either a shutter release cable or the timer.

I would like to help if I can, but I would need ot know your settings.

I didn't know that thing about the tripod... that's really interesting. Hmm.

and the subject was moving. the aperture was 100 i think? and the shutter speed was 1/60 seconds i think again... lol
im really not good with all this technical stuff =/

The EXIF data on the original file would show you the exact information. (usually) If the subject was moving 1/60 is not a fast enough shutter speed except maybe for a snail. ;o)

lol yah i know how to find all the technical stuff
but what it means... im not so good at =P
[sort of]
my dad tries to tell me... im just pretty bad at it. lol

but i found out yesterday the highest shutter speed my camera goes to is 1 second & the lowest is 1/60.
or atleast thats all i could get it to go to.
=/

You need to look at the specs for the camera to see the max shutter speed it's capable of. The 1/60 may be due to the use of flash. Did you use flash?

the specs? 7 that isss =/
& no i didn't use flash on this one.
i did on a few of them, but not this one

04/09/2007 03:32:44 PM · #33

if your subject is moving, a tripod is almost useless. to freeze motion, you need to be using fast shutter speeds like 1/100 and faster. remember that your aperature controls your depth of field, big numbers=sharpness throughout the entire frame while small numbers will isolate your subject and blur the background or foreground. If you can post what the subject was, ISO, shutter speed, aperature, I can help you with the sharpness.

04/09/2007 03:39:19 PM · #34

subject as in what was in the picture?
i thought it wasn't allowed to tell which is my picture in the challenge... lol

but anyways ISO: 100
shutter speed: 1/24.2 [geez. i was off]
aperture: 3.20

i think i got all those right.

04/09/2007 03:58:57 PM · #35

with those settings...

if subject is moving, you will get blur. reason being the shutter speed is just too slow to freeze motion. your options would have been to increase ISO. at a higher ISO, you need less light so you would have been able to use faster shutter speeds. Downside to that is you would get grain. High ISO also means more grain. Other option would be to introduce lighting. Using lights is an entirely different beast. YOu can spend a lifetime learning lighting techniques.

if subject was not moving, its all on you. Most probable factor of blur is either you shook the camera when you released the shutter, hence the need for a cable release. They are cheap and should always be in your bag. Or, your depth of field and focus were off. With an aperature of 3.2, you are going to have a very shallow DOF. If you were trying to isolate the subject than its fine and as long as you focus correctly you will get a sharp subject w/ a blur background (bokeh). If you wanted a sharp subject and sharp background, you would need to use a smaller aperature like 8 or 11 or 16.

Hope that is clear enough. Ask more questions if you need.

04/09/2007 04:01:21 PM · #36

well i wanted motion blur, because it made it look better.
i had a few where there was no motion blur & those just looked a little too staged... like i glued the... things together & i dunno. it just didn't look good.

& i did do a little bit of light, but like you said... it could take a lifetime to learn techniques =P
lol

but thank you for all that. its really helpful =]]
thank you!

cpanaioti

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

04/09/2007 04:02:31 PM · #37

Originally posted by CrazyStripesss:

the specs? 7 that isss =/

//www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp4500/page2.asp

Specs for your camera. As to how to invoke faster shutter speeds you'll need to read your manual.

Message edited by author 2007-04-09 16:02:39.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

04/09/2007 04:10:52 PM · #38

ironically, your shutter speed was too fast for motion blur. Chances are that people aren't realizing you wanted motion blur because the streaks are too short or not enough motion in evident in your picture so it just looks blurry in a bad way. You probably wanted a shutter speed of about 1 second which would have made your aperature more like 8 or so. With those settings, anything that is still would be very sharp and you would have had nice long motion lines.

taterbug

Nikon D300

04/10/2007 02:20:31 AM · #39

Your camera has sharpness settings of- auto, high, normal, lo
What do you have it set on? Try experimenting between the settings, and see what gives you the best results you are wanting.
Also, what editing software do you use? If you are starting with an image that is not simple out of focus, you can add sharpness with USM(unsharp mask), or smart sharpen, or the similar tools depending on the program. There is actually a tutorial on site (on the menu bar, Learn

MadMan2k

Sony Alpha a6400

Tamron 70-180mm F/2.8 Di III VXD

04/10/2007 03:10:05 AM · #40

Sure, sharpness is overrated, and you can make amazing images without anything 'sharp' in them, but you have to have a firm hold on the rest of the aspects of a good photo to do that.

I would strongly recommend reading a book about the basics of photography; it'll help a lot with all the settings and stuff like that, and you'll understand more about why 1/25th of a second can't stop motion... Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is great. Yes, even though he photoshopped a fish in the river in one of the pictures.

There's something to be said for not worrying about any of the technical aspects of photography, but unless you have a background in art, a natural talent and an extremely simple, almost foolproof camera (hint: no digital camera qualifies at all), you won't be very succesful at making images anyone wants to look at.

Here's an example of an image with hardly anything sharp in it, but it's still a very well known photo, and extremely effective:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Capa%2C_D-Day1.jpg

Message edited by author 2007-04-10 03:39:59.

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

04/10/2007 03:27:50 AM · #41

MadMan2k touched on some good points. Another thing you must keep in mind is the amount of time people spend voting on each image. Given the high number of entries voters don't spend a whole lot mulling over each photo so you have to hit them with everything right away. This includes meeting the challenge theme AND showing professionalism in your execution. For better or worse, an out of focus, soft focus or unsharpened photo doesn't convey professionalism in the two seconds it is viewed during each vote unless of course the challenge theme is based on of those things. This is not to say you can't win having one of those things in your photo but as MadMan2k mention you better make up the difference elsewhere. So if your image is a bit soft you better have a subject that say WOW such as a hawk swooping down and capturing it's prey or a very clever idea that meets the challenge better then everything else and so on and so forth.

Message edited by author 2007-04-10 03:29:03.

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

04/10/2007 08:42:45 AM · #42

you can't use a shot of Normandy as an example of acceptable blur. For starters its not the photo that is so compelling, but its historical context. If those were little kids swimming in a pool, no one would have given it a second look, but its D Day so it has a whole new perspective. Besides that, I doubt the photog was "going for this look" he was probably just trying to stay alive.

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

04/10/2007 04:10:24 PM · #43

Originally posted by Jmnuggy:

While that photographer may not have been trying to achieve that effect it most definitely has great impact on the photograph. That motion blur effectively conveys chaos which is how that event is often remembered as. So for me that photo is compelling because it's both historical and the way the scene was photographed intentional or not.

Message edited by author 2007-04-10 16:10:54.

Canon EF-S 15-85mm IS USM

04/12/2007 03:37:14 PM · #44

the point i was trying to make before was that if blur is intended such as motion blur or soft focus, than that is fine. If the photo is supposed to be sharp and it has parts that are not sharp than that is no OK. If a portrait is blurry, that is unacceptable. reshoot it and make adjustments to ensure that sharpness is there. Never should someone defend a blurry photo by saying something like "look at the whole picture" or "don't just focus on the blurry part".

Obviously certain instances some blur or softness is needed.

UrfaK

Canon EOS-650/T4i Rebel

04/13/2007 05:11:55 PM · #45

It's sooo frustrating to see ones pics get ignored because they can't get to that clarity people demand.. My Sony's ridiculously deceptive and I have to give up my preffered shots because the quality, that looks amazing on the lcd, is trash on the computer...

But the camera isn't everything... The idea is getting a solid, satisfying shot... Do not think the viewer is stupid but don't expect them to over-analyze either. They will not get half the things you assume they will ...

Love your camera [in a purely platonic way :p] because it's your first guide towards learning.. Also check out the pics of the low mp camera.. insanely good scores on some if them...

Just understand your camera and try some postprocessing to help you sharpen with more efficiency..