What am I doing wrong??

[BWI Scott]

OK, I'm about to throw in the towel here soon. The following pic was rejected for being too soft. Now I agree is does look soft, but what I want to know is why is it soft? I'm using a Canon D60 which is certainly not the best camera but should be quite sufficient. And the lens was a Canon 70-200 2.8 L . This was one of the first few shots I've taken with that lens. I been experimenting with different settings and I just don't seem to get any " crisp" shots like the ones I see on here. So the Camera is good and the lens is very good..so i'm leaning toward ME being the problem. Should the pic be fairly crisp out of the camera or does it need editing to get that effect. Any help at all would be appreciated.

[RingwaySam]

Never throw in the towel, i've thought about it countless times. It does look soft and I do agree, you should be getting quite crisp shots.

1) Are you using auto-focus?
2) What settings are you using?
3) What quality are you saving in

and maybe you could post a few originals.

[BWI Scott]

Here is a fullsize out of the camera shot I took today.

I tried upping the shutter speed to see if I could get some sharper pics.

1/1000

F 3.5

Auto Focus was used

Image Stabilization was on mode 2

And I used the largest JPG setting to save the images.

This is not one of the better shots I get but it's pretty typical of most of them.

HELLLPPP!!!

LINK TO PHOTO

Sorry for the large image, I don't know how to include only a link .

[Shadower]

http://www.members.aol.com/kaosrogue711/sample.jpg

Sorry for the large image, I don't know how to include only a link .

Edit your post and change the "img" text between the brackets [ ] with "url" and you got yourself a link instead of a huge picture

[JordanD]

Your aperture is your problem. You should keep it around f.8-11. Then you'll probably get sharper shots.

[Crism]

Use f/8 on the aperture and it should be better. Otherwise you can just send me your lens because its...uh...broken...

[RingwaySam]

Yep, the aperture is way to low! Use F/8-F/10 on sunny days.

[LX-A343]

First of all .....

I'm using a Canon D60 which is certainly not the best camera

... you're kidding, right? Even the trusty D30 (not 30D) warrants perfects shots, if a) properly used and b) properly post-processed.

Solutions: learn to use the camera. Learn, what different apertures and shutter speeds really mean, what effect they have. I agree with the above said: I normally wouldn't use F3.5 if something higher is possible. OTOH, the lens you used should even produce good result with such settings.

Second, learn how to post-process a photo. There are two workflow's on the net (Jid's workflow and Eric's workflow) which give you a first good insight into post procesing.

Example: just by using my standard USM settings, I came up with this:


And that's not the final result. With a few minutes more, I'm sure, even better results are possible.

Another example, just by sharpening a bit and adjusting contrast, which also helps to get a sharper looking image:



Gerardo

[Will M]

Whatever you do , Don't give up as much as it seems like a simple solution this is obviously something you wanna go further in judging by ur camera gear

Remember , Winners never quit , Quitters never win

[JordanD]

I'm glad I never gave up, even after the times I wanted to smash my point and shoot onto the concrete.

[bobby]

I'm glad I never gave up, even after the times I wanted to smash my point and shoot onto the concrete.

Ditto

[seahawk]

Why should anyone give up it he could get help in these forums ? It is not dumb to ask, but somebody who does not ask surely is dumb.

[brianw999]

I started out life here getting rejections for too soft as well even though they looked ok on my monitor. I have found that to get a pic accepted I have to sharpen to a degree that, on my monitor looks TOO sharp !
Gerardo's comment about addition of contrast giving a sharper pic is also very valid, especially as contrast adjustment doesn't cause the halo effect that you tend to get with sharpening alone.
Maybe a look at your monitor settings would be in order ?

[BWI Scott]

After looking at some of the PS actions on the link above, I think that alot of my problem was the final editing. Now I know I still need to learn alot about the actual photography, (aperature, shutter speed, white balance) but i'm learning on a trial and error basis here..with alot of error ! But I went back over some of my old shots that I thought looked good and using the PS actions they look much better. So thanks to everyone for the help with this matter.. and I'll be back soon with my next one.

Scott

[JordanD]

Whatever you do, don't give up.