soft pictures

[tug2]

Okay, I got my new D60 on Friday and I know nothing about digital photos. Took lots of Halloween pics of my nieces on Sunday and had them printed at Sam's. The pics are what I consider "soft" even after I "sharpened" them in Photoshop.

I'm using Jpeg's larges file, 400 resol. and shot at 100 ISO F 8 around 125 and or 60 shutter speed with a fill flash.

What else could I do to get their faces sharper? The color seems fine. I'd post the pics if I knew how. Any help is mucho appreciated...

ES

[lazoj]

Do you have any samples online? What lens did you use? Where was the AF point?

[tug2]

I don't know how to get the pictures online. I used a canon 75 - 300mm lens I've had about 10 years. The AF point was right on one of their faces and I checked it several times. Kinda paranoid about getting out of focus b/c it happened once on a what would have been a really good shot on my Elan 7.


I know it's hard to answer these questions without seeing the pictures. Also, the pictures look better on my computer than when printed. Does that mean anything?

Thanks for any help...

Es

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Es,

One way to get images on line would be to use a service like www.pbase.com. I believe it's free, but a subscription is required, if you want to link to images so that you can include them in posts.

Without seeing any examples, I can only speculate. My first thought is that it might be the lens. When I bought my D30, I owned the EF 75-300 IS. I found that it performed very poorly with the D30 - very soft images especially at the long end and a bit muddy. I got rid of it. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the lens, just that its performance characteristics, don't suit the CMOS chip.

The lens aside, I would suspect that you need to spend more time devising a suitable workflow to process the images. When I first got my D30, I was initially disappointed with the images "out of the camera". Now I realise that it's just a matter of the correct editing.

The D30 workflow I use is not suitable for the D60, so I can't offer any help here. It might be worth posting a specific query asking for specific post-processing suggestions for the D60.

Of course, it might be Sam's fault.

Regards,

[henkbos]

Send me a picture and I'll see what I can do with my 'normal' workflow on D60.

[adamsmith]

Have you ruled out camera shake? You mention shooting with the 75-300mm lens at 1/60 and 1/125 shutter speeds, which is right on the border of what the average person can handhold at the 75mm end of the lens. Ideally, you want to shoot no slower than 1/125 at the 75mm end, and no slower than 1/500 at the 300mm end.

If you think camera shake may be the issue, the options are: wider aperature, tripod and/or higher ISO setting. Using a wider aperature obviously gives you softer results and less in-focus areas overall (smaller DoF), but that's a lot nicer than a whole frame with the shakes.

-Adam

[jgarn]

One suggestion: Try printing them somewhere else. I use www.replicolor.com, they're located in Salt Lake City but I do believe they will ship. Their color department is just amazing when it comes to outputting digitial work.

[Longwatcher]

I had a similiar problem. Looked good on my computer after I sharpened it once or twice, but not when I printed, so I just hit sharpen again in photoshop, which looked overkill on my computer screen, but looked good when printed. I discovered, especially since I got the S9000 printer, that I need to hit sharpen once or twice beyond what looks good on the computer to get it to look good when printed. You might try that.

[tug2]

Well, I've only taken one set of pics with the camera and it's been raining here in Houston ALL WEEK!! and more this weekend to come. I'll do some more testing and see what comes out.

BTW, are there any printing companies out there who provide mail order digital printing without a tax id #? I looked at the www.replicolor.com but am wondering if there are more???

Thanks,

es

[billfranklin]

There are more. Try www.ofoto.com. I have used them and their work was decent. What Sams in Houston did you use. I use the Sams at Williowbrook and have been more than satisfied with their work. Charles, photo manager, will really work with you. If you would like to discuss this more with me off forum, email me at billfranklin@houston.rr.com. Bill

[gmitchel]

How did you sharpen them in PhotoShop?

Did you use something like the Sharpen filter? Don't.

Use the Unsharp Filter Mask. You'll need to experiment with the parameters.

Cheers,

Mitch

[percywalker]

It is normal for the sharpening result on screen to look different from the sharpening on the print. Viewing distance is another factor to consider when sharpening. All said, you have to print, examine the print, then adjust in Photoshop, and print again.

Fred