How do I take this picture?

[Mr. Lahey]

I am shooting with a 40D with either a Tamron 17-55 2.8 or a 50mm 1.4f and cannot seem to capture images as crisp or vivid as these. Can someone please provide tips as to how I can better acheive this effect? I tried upping the f number with my Tamron, but it is still nowhere near this level of image. Since I cannot post the images, I have placed the link. If some of you could kindly take the time to check out a pic or two and advise accordingly. Thank you.

www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-1.jpg (http://www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-1.jpg)

www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-9.jpg (http://www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-9.jpg)

www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-22.jpg (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-22.jpg)

[Nick Pro]

I was bored.

http://www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-1.jpg

http://www.chang-sang.com/photo/021608/BTMU02-1.jpg

[grphx]

Aprature around the 1.8 or 5.6 makes sharper pictures, but the dept of field is smaller so if you focus on the wrong thing(the ground and not the dog in this case) it will look real bad. Also as fast of a shutter speed you can do without it being too dark.

[Mr. Lahey]

pro, I didnt embed the images because I dont own them and was warned about doing that. Mods, if you are going to do something, please take the images off and not delete the whole thread like you did last time. Thank you.

grphx, thanks for you input. Out of curiosity, why did you select those two aperture readings? They are quite a bit apart arent they? I figured a much higher f number would have allowed me to blur the background more. I guess I was mistaken...Thanks again.

[grphx]

grphx, thanks for you input. Out of curiosity, why did you select those two aperture readings? They are quite a bit apart arent they? I figured a much higher f number would have allowed me to blur the background more. I guess I was mistaken...Thanks again.

I didn't mean to pick those certain numbers, just sayign the lower that number(I get "higher aprature" and "low aprature" mixed up. but the smaller the F/___ the less will be in focus. If you want to blur the background, pick either a low number, or use a zoom lens. A 50mm F/1.8 is about the same as 300mm f/5. The farther you zoom, the less stuff will be in focus with the same aprature.

[Anke]

I didn't mean to pick those certain numbers, just sayign the lower that number(I get "higher aprature" and "low aprature" mixed up. but the smaller the F/___ the less will be in focus. If you want to blur the background, pick either a low number, or use a zoom lens. A 50mm F/1.8 is about the same as 300mm f/5. The farther you zoom, the less stuff will be in focus with the same aprature.

Smaller the f-stop the larger the aperture, not "aprature", for your future posts.

[Roach711]

In bright sunlight, getting crisp shots is fairly easy since you can set a fast shutter speed to freeze motion and a small aperture (most lenses are sharpest stopped down to around f 8 to give you good depth of field (DOF). The fast shutter also tends to cancel out camera shake.

When the light is not so good it takes good technique (or a tripod) to get crisp shots. Camera shake and slow shutter speeds can make your images blurry and a wide aperture can limit DOF.

My mother used to curse the blurry pictures her camera took. Turns out when she pressed the shutter button the whole camera moved an inch or so. I showed her a better way to press the button and now it's a good camera.

[penagate]

My mother used to curse the blurry pictures her camera took. Turns out when she pressed the shutter button the whole camera moved an inch or so. I showed her a better way to press the button and now it's a good camera.

Hah. That sounds about right.

Every time I use a compact camera, though, I end up wishing they had built-in cable releases. It's hard holding a camera still while pushing a button on it when the damn thing is as light as a feather.

[deadpass]

you're gonna need a sharp prime and a patient dog.

[crackaonrice]

A lot of that image is in the post processing...upping sharpness, contrast, possibly some saturation, and adding a vignette really gives that effect.

[Curtis N]

General guideline for getting the most value from this forum:

If your picture sucks and you don't know why, post the picture with EXIF data!

When you ask, "How can I get awesome shots like these (insert link here), the answer generally involves hundreds of details and years of experience.