Does it matter that its soft?

[Christides]

Here's a picture of my boy. nine times out of ten i never get a sharp shot of him but anyway.

was shot spare of the moment with only natural light comin thru windows and door.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/3029028233_fe9aeb2bf9.jpg?v=0 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/smudgephotographics/3029028233/)

[KarlosDaJackal]

At that size its hard to tell its soft. Anyway his eyes look good, the only obvious soft part is his hands, probably because he was moving them but I don't think the picture is any weaker for it. If anything a bit more motion blur on them might have been good.

I think its pretty decent actually, should be able to get a 6x4 out of it.

[Rankinia]

Its your son that youve captured. Does it matter to you that its not perfectly sharp? (though it doesnt look too bad this size to me). If the answer is no, then it doesnt.

[chauncey]

Hey, I've got 6 and none of them is the sharpest tool in the shed. and that's ok.

[doidinho]

As others have mentioned it's hard to tell at such a small size. One thing you can try when you get images that are soft is smart sharpen.

I ran a pass of smart sharpen (and adjusted the white balance). If you like it, give it a try on the original. Let me know if you have any questions.


Hold on, looks like I reposted you original here.

[doidinho]

Ok, here is the reworked one.

[doidinho]

By the way, what were your settings (ISO, shutter speed, and aperture)?

[Flo]

The sharpness didn;t ctach my eye, but I find it noisy? Could be just at this size...

Cute fella. Tried a B&W..http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/emmaloudawg/3029028233_fe9aeb2bf9.jpg

[Christides]

1/125 F2.8 ISO800 42mm. I ran it through Lightroom afterwards as it was alot darker and i cropped a fair chunk off the original image.
I tried to calibrate my monitor but i still think the colours may be out still. will try again later. I think the reworked one and the B&W one are an improvement on my original :)

In the house i have to chase him around at a high ISO as its quite dark inside and you cant predict his movements. having a flash on the camera never seems to give nice results so yeah...there you have it. im starting to learn to live with noise and maybe one day ill learn to use it as a tool i guess.

[Christides]

Robert, why did you choose skyports over anything else?

[doidinho]

Your going to have to really nail the focus to get a sharp full body shot at 2.8. The difficulty is compounded when you are chasing him around the house.

I would experiment with stopping down a stop and slowing the shutter speed to 1/60; it may give you better results, but then again it may not. I 'm sure with some practice you will sort everything out and find a technique that works for you.

I went w/ the Skyports because I couldn't afford Pocket Wizards and wanted something more reliable than the e-bay triggers. The Cybersync's were not out yet so that wasn't an option. I have used the Cybersync's since and am glad that I didn't get them as I don't care for the channel selector one bit.

[KarlosDaJackal]

If you want sharp motion capture, you need flash. If you want it to look pleasing as well you want bounced flash (of a white ceiling or wall) This will also let you use f/5.6 @ iso100 and still have a properly exposed shot. I've used up to f/16 with a flash bounced in a medium sized room, and could have gone up to f/22 if I went with iso200.

Bouncing of the ceiling looks natural because its effect is like you temporarily installed 500watt light bulbs in whatever part of the ceiling the flash hits, so the lighting looks the same only you now have much more of it to play with.

The flash is your shutter speed and the slowest a flash will fire is usually 1/700 so motion should not be a problem. Set your shutter to 1/200 to block out whatever natural light is left as the flash will easily light up a room, and you can set your white balance to flash and know its correct.

[dompap21]

It's always difficult to photograph an active toddler. Try using toys and other props to distract while you shoot...

[Bill Roberts]

When it's your boy, and you like the picture it really doesn't matter at all.
Sharpness isn't everything but the memory will be there forever.

cheers

[kiwichris]

As to the original question, Does it matter?

Depends, what is the finish size you want? as blowing it up will make it softer, but, a child of this age is soft, soft to the touch, soft in features etc. A little softness accents the natural way they are, does not to my mind, detract from the pic. To me, the sharper version above, has taken away something of the 'cute and cuddly'.

Just my thoughts.

[Chris Walker]

just looks really grainy to me

[Christides]

thanks for all the comments, will work on my bounce flash maybe :)
might even set a couple flashes aroundf the room and see what happens.