preventing soft focus

[Jemmind]

I've been looking around and looking in the photos that are posted and alot of people critique that the focus is "soft" and some of my pictures from the 3000D but especially from my panasonic point and shoot, the focus is soft, or slightly off. How can I prevent this? Tripod, holding camera stiller, or is this a matter of focusing correctly or what?
Thanks
Julie

Maybe this should be in the general photography forum?

[PhotosGuy]

It could be a combination of all of those, or none of them. It's difficult to say without seeing a specific pic.
If you're taking a pic of a person that you've determined must be sharp, try a shutter speed of at least 1/125 sec, f-8 to f-16, & focus on the eye.
Keep in mind that soft focus doesn't have to be a bad thing! Used on purpose, selectively, it can be a tool like any other. There is no GOOD or BAD, just what works.

[ilya]

I've been looking around and looking in the photos that are posted and alot of people critique that the focus is "soft" and some of my pictures especially from the point and shoot, the focus is soft, or slightly off. How can I prevent this? Tripod, holding camera stiller, or is this a matter of focusing correctly or what?
Thanks
Julie

Maybe this should be in the general photography forum?


There is soft and then there is soft. Pictures come out of the Rebel and/or 10D a bit "soft". The difference between these and P&S is that the control over postprocessing is left up to you instead of the camera. You would use Photoshop or equivalent to sharpen up the pictures to your liking.

Then there are other "soft" types of problems. One is yes, misfocusing which is a matter of practice and getting to know the AF system. The other "soft" is caused by speed blur and/or camera shake. That's corrected mostly by sacrificing ISO to getting the extra stops, using flash, and or a tripod goes a long way to helping those issues.

Cheers