How to get the super sharp shot?

[Flootje]

Since a couple of years i got into sports photography, mainly kitesurfing and windsurfing. Before the EOS 10D came out i was using the EOS 3.

I find it hard to get the super sharp shot with this camera, what am i doing wrong?

I almost always shoot in manual, does anyone has any tips for me, how to shoot best and most efficient and how to get the pinsharp shot!

Thanks

[vvizard]

A lot of light will help. High f/number combined with a fast shutter (yeah, requires good light), along with a properly focused lens..

You can try to change the C.fn 4 to suit your needs. You can for example set it to use the Exposure-lock button as a focus-lock instead, so that it won't focus when half-pressing the shutter, but rather when pressing your "new" focus-button. That way it won't have to refocus between shots. But hey, this doesn't work to well with objects moving forward or backwards to/away from the camera.

And besides, I'm just a newbie who haven't done any sports-photography at all, so this is just what I would have tried if I where to do it for the first time :) Sure someone else can answer you in greater detail.

[Flootje]

hey Vvizard,

Thanks for your advice, i changed the focus button a while ago and it's easier for sure...i think i have to buy a better lens...now i have a 100-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 and the small one is doing a better job in focusing anyway but that's a better lens 28-135mm 3.5-5.6 image stabelizer

I was thinking of buying a 300 mm and put a boubler on as i do need to work with a 600 now and then...
good idea????

[CyberDyneSystems]

A 300mm prime is an excellent investment,. but pricey to be sure. The 300mm f/4 is affordable.. but it will not auto-focus with a 2X teleconverter. You would need a 300 f/2.8 for that trick to work... and now we are talking thousands of dollars!

RE: Sharpness... the 10D likes premium glass for sure. Those 100-300mm zooms are pretty weak on a 10D. (except for the excellent Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX which is in a class by itself)

Try the 300mm f/4 L,
it will give you fantastic images,. and it WILL autofocus with a 1.4X T-con... (just not the 2X)

[tzrider]

Hi there,

Please remember the auto focus of the 10d
is slow and that of the 3 a very excellent
and very fast one.

If you don't have to depend on auto-focus,
don't use it and pre-focus or focus manually.

Also the 10d produces very soft images, try to
shoot RAW and use Capture One. I have some
nice Canon primes that worked all fine on my
d60 but it is nearly a shame to put them on a 10d.

I rather work with minor lenses and RAW on
the 10d then with top ones and JPG. I don't
like the internal RAW convertor of the 10d one
bit

Hope Canon soon comes with something else

Jeroen

[KennyG]

The 10D autofocus isn't that bad as long as you only use the centre point.

You can use AF and AI focus very sucessfully for most sports with the 10D. I can focus on, track, and take in-focus pictures of F1 cars with a 10D and my 300L 2.8. I regard that as pretty challenging, even for the 1D.

Yes the images are slightly 'soft' but they retain all the detail and post-processing hasn't killed anyone that I am aware of. C1 is excellent, I use it and recommend it. Good primes bring the 10D to life - see what I shoot with.

There is no RAW convertor inside the 10D. I assume you mean you don't like the JPG images. Actually large JPG isn't that bad and is good enough for most users. There isn't a huge difference between large JPG and converted RAW when printed.

Most of the poorly focused sports shots I see are due to a mixture of wrong shutter speed, multiple AF points on anything other than the 1D/1Ds, slow lenses including slow AF motors and lack of technique. What looks like poor or soft focus is usually blur.

[cardigan1979]

Hiya there,

90% of my work is sports.

To improve sharpness all I use is 'Sharpen Edges'

DO NOT use sharpen becomes too grainy/noisy

[scottbergerphoto]

I use the 10D with all L glass, a Gitzo tripod, Ultimate Ballhead, and Remote Release. The sharpness of the 10D falls off as light intensity does. On cloudy dark days, metering with a Sekonic L 358 to confirm the in-camera meter, with a perfect histogram, the resulting pictures are not as sharp as on bright days or with flash. There must be something in the digital system that produces softer pictures in lower light situations. I don't mean dark. Toady, a cloudy, damp day, I shot about 100 pictures Raw Adobe RGB, Canon 16-35 L f/2.8. The pre converted pictures viewed in BreezeBrowser are not as sharp as pictures I took two weeks ago at the same place on a sunny day, viewed the same way.
I have done the focus test numerous times with perfect results.
If someone knows about a documented explanation as to why the 10D produces softer pictues in low light please provide it.
Scott

[Flootje]

Off to try and shoot some more today...
another question, do you people use a seperate light meter or do you trust the light meter that's build into the camera (10D)?

To KennyG i use the A1 focus now most of the time and i put the middlpoint as my focus point...

Do i put the whitebalans on automatic or do i set it in manually or do i have to do the test with the white paper and do it like that??

Thank you all for your answers, it's all very interesting!

[scottbergerphoto]

flootje wrote:
Off to try and shoot some more today...
another question, do you people use a seperate light meter or do you trust the light meter that's build into the camera (10D)?

To KennyG i use the A1 focus now most of the time and i put the middlpoint as my focus point...

Do i put the whitebalans on automatic or do i set it in manually or do i have to do the test with the white paper and do it like that??

Thank you all for your answers, it's all very interesting!


1. The 10D meter is very accurate. But if you have a scene with a wide variation in lighting levels, it's wise to take an incident reading or spot reading of the area you most want to properly expose. A cheap way to do this is to zoom in on the area, take a reading, write it down or lock exposure, and zoom out to recompose your picture. The Sekonic L 358 is a reasonably priced, excellent meter with flash capability.
2. I use One Shot focus unless I'm shooting action and Focus isn't the priority, getting the shot is. Then I would use Servo. I don't let the camera decide.
3. If you shoot Raw it doesn't matter. You can set it later. I usually choose the closest to what I'm shooting and adjust later in Raw conversion. A purist, less lazy then I am, would shoot a custom white balance using an 18% grey card for each new lighting situation.
Enjoy your camera.
Scott

[psk4363]

Be very careful using a seperate light meter with a digital camera. I have the Sekonic L328 B for use with the EOS 30E in the studio but never use it with the 10D.

External light meters measure light and compare it to an 'average' 18% grey in incident light mode. Digital cameras use a pure white as the standard so unless you use the seperate meter in reflective mode against the rear white side of an 18% grey card, and ignore the preferred incident light reading, save your money on the meter and the card and trust the very dependable camera meter.

As regards the white balance, usually I leave it on the AWB setting and then, shooting in RAW correct any mistakes in Photoshop CS.

Cheers,
Barry

[AJSJones]

scottbergerphoto wrote:

I have done the focus test numerous times with perfect results.
If someone knows about a documented explanation as to why the 10D produces softer pictues in low light please provide it.
Scott

Scott - I would submit that it's not the camera but the contrast in the image - this affects perceived sharpness and the contrast is usually higher with good light than low light. Have you tried LCE (local contrast enhancement) - it's a form of USM using a large radius (30-50 pixels) and low amount 10-30% (adjust to taste) - it can do wonders for a "soft" i.e. low contrast image and will make it "look" sharper....

Andy

PS I second the recommendation of the 300 f/2.8! Pricey but an exceptional lens. The 1.4x has little effect on image quality and the 2x has only a slight degradation. Even with stacked converters it yields better images than using interpolation in software AND it still AFs on a 10D since the 10D only recognizes one of the converters. However, you stll need good light for good AF.

[scottbergerphoto]

psk4363 wrote:
Be very careful using a seperate light meter with a digital camera. I have the Sekonic L328 B for use with the EOS 30E in the studio but never use it with the 10D.

External light meters measure light and compare it to an 'average' 18% grey in incident light mode. Digital cameras use a pure white as the standard so unless you use the seperate meter in reflective mode against the rear white side of an 18% grey card, and ignore the preferred incident light reading, save your money on the meter and the card and trust the very dependable camera meter.

As regards the white balance, usually I leave it on the AWB setting and then, shooting in RAW correct any mistakes in Photoshop CS.

Cheers,
Barry
I shot over a hundred pictures yesterday using my Sekonic L 358 and compared it to the reading on my 10D. The readings were within 1/2 stop for most situations. The meter on the 10D can't expose properly for shaded areas on a sunny day and similiar situations where there are wide differences in light intensity. Since I was using a 16-35 2.8 I wasn't able to zoom in and measure the exposure for dark areas. There is no replacement for a separate meter in those situations. In addition many people on this forum use an 18% Grey Card for their custom white balance.
Scott

[scottbergerphoto]

AJSJones wrote:
scottbergerphoto wrote:

I have done the focus test numerous times with perfect results.
If someone knows about a documented explanation as to why the 10D produces softer pictues in low light please provide it.
Scott

Scott - I would submit that it's not the camera but the contrast in the image - this affects perceived sharpness and the contrast is usually higher with good light than low light. Have you tried LCE (local contrast enhancement) - it's a form of USM using a large radius (30-50 pixels) and low amount 10-30% (adjust to taste) - it can do wonders for a "soft" i.e. low contrast image and will make it "look" sharper....

Andy

PS I second the recommendation of the 300 f/2.8! Pricey but an exceptional lens. The 1.4x has little effect on image quality and the 2x has only a slight degradation. Even with stacked converters it yields better images than using interpolation in software AND it still AFs on a 10D since the 10D only recognizes one of the converters. However, you stll need good light for good AF.

Thanks for your advice on Local Contrast Enhancement! I just redid some pictures I shot last weekend in very cloudy conditions using this technique and they really are much better!
Scott

[CyberDyneSystems]

flootje wrote:
Since a couple of years i got into sports photography, mainly kitesurfing and windsurfing. Before the EOS 10D came out i was using the EOS 3.

I find it hard to get the super sharp shot with this camera, what am i doing wrong?

I almost always shoot in manual, does anyone has any tips for me, how to shoot best and most efficient and how to get the pinsharp shot!

Thanks

A tripod and cable release will work wonders too :)

[Belmondo]

I've often read that there is value to taking shots in 3-shot bursts (or more). Invariably there will be some movement as a result of pressing the shutter release. That will only affect the first picture. The rest become products of the camera's ability to focus, and yours to stay 'on target.'