Question on cropping photos.

[rbrannen]

I am using a Canon EOS 20D with the two lenses listed below.. Presently have been shooting in Automatic mode and playing around with the Program modes.... I was at the lake yesterday and shot a couple of a baby bird (posted in the Nature area) the camera is presently set for large Jpeg uncompressed. When I crop the photos using adobe photoshop elements 2.0 or Photoshop 6.0 to reach the 100k size to upload the photos become blurred and noisey. Am I doing something wrong? They look great on the monitore before editing.

[Simon Spiers]

You will notice that the branch in the foreground is sharp and the bird is not.
Your camera has got confused and has locked it's focus on the branch instead.
I think manual focus is your best bet in a situation like this.
Sorry!

[rbrannen]

Thanks for the info.. I heard the noise and turned quick... I really appreciate all the input.

[robertwgross]

I agree with what Simon stated. The branch has a dark edge and a light edge, so it has more contrast than the bird, which is kind of a shadowy unknown. When there is any doubt, the lens and camera will try to lock onto the high contrast.

---Bob Gross---

[LadyHawk]

Maybe all your focus points are turned on. I got a lot better at focusing once I started using the central focus point only.

[Keiffer]

As to try to answer your original question, I make a copy and resize the copy down to 72 DPI I think its dpi or whatever that is LOL and make it about 45-65% down resize. Cropping cuts the picture and yes will in turn make it a smaller size.

[jscotti]

Maybe all your focus points are turned on. I got a lot better at focusing once I started using the central focus point only.

Yes, that's the way to get around this kind of focus confusion. Also, I set the CFn 13 to 1 so that I can use the multi-controller directly (instead of having to press the focus point select button to the right of the * button first) to change the focus point amongst the 9 points fairly quickly instead of using just the central focus point. After hearing all the discussion about CFn 4 on this forum, I ended up setting that option to 3 so I can use my right thumb to pick the focus point and then focus using the * button - it's taking some practice, but I did shoot 400 images today, so it's starting to sink in.... I do tend to leave the focus point in the center most of the time anyway and try to remember to put it back there so I don't have to think too hard the next time around.

Jim.