What am I doing wrong?

[beccaboo0713]

I am having a heck of a time. Either I am being anal and seeing things or I am really having these problems. My images look noisy and soft. What am I doing wrong?
Camera: 20D
Settings:
1/160
f/2.2
ISO 200
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4318800645_d9a8d1c121_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4316686023_a43375ba28_b.jpg
P.S. Don't mind the water mark I am doing a small 365 blog project and I watermark the pictures that go on there with the name of the blog and the date. ;)

[crashthenet44]

My images look noisy and soft.

Where is the noise you're talking about in these shots? I don't see any. Maybe you need to stop pixel peeping?

The eyes in these shots appear very sharp. Is it DOF you are having issues with?

[beccaboo0713]

In the black and white I see it in the shadows on his skin on the second one I see it on the floor. I do have medically diagnosed obsessive compulsive tendencies. So maybe I am crazy. It might be DOF. I am shooting in tight conditions.

[TeeJay]

Certain parts of the image will appear soft (or OOF) if you use an aperture of 2.2! (what lens were you using?)

Try closing up the aperture to get more depth of focus.

TJ

[beccaboo0713]

I am using 50mm 1.4 in VERY tight conditions. My house is the size of a postage stamp.

[Living Daylight]

I'd say your wide aperture is the problem, though these shots look reasonably sharp to me anyway.

[photonoob1]

if its the same 50mm prime lens that i have , it is sharpest around f/2.3 - 2.5 ish

[TeeJay]

At the settings you give, assuming you might be (say) six feet away from the subject, your depth of focus is just 0.36 feet - thats 4 1/4 inches!

If you are even closer (say 4 feet) then that DOF comes down to under 2 inches!

TJ

[beccaboo0713]

Thanks. That's my problem, I am too close. I need to be able to step back.

[TeeJay]

.... I need to be able to step back.

... or shoot at f6.4; where your DOF would then be 12 inches. :D (at 6ft away from subject)

TJ

[vk2gwk]

Like it has been said many times before... don't open that wide if it is not really intentional to have a very shallow DOF. With a bit tighter aperture the #1 shot would have been in focus and not only the eyes but the rest of the kid as well. Determine in advance what depth of field you want: what should be in fcus and what not. Measure the distance en then set you F stop accordingly.

I do not see any noise and the eyes in both pictures are not soft either. But again, when you use F5.6 or F8 you don't need to worry that much - only about a fairly neutral background.

[stsva]

The great thing about these images is that they work really well right now. I've seen a lot of people post about how soft/out-of-focus their shots are and the subject will be very soft but something else in the image will be sharp, or often nothing is sharp. In yours, the absolutely must-be-sharp part of a portrait, the eyes, is nice and sharp. You may decide you want all of the baby sharp, but I just wanted to mention that you don't have to have every shot that way, and these look just fine as-is. It's basically an artistic decision which way you want to go, but if you can duplicate how you shot these you may find that it's a very popular look. The important thing is to understand what you're doing and why you're doing it, so you can produce a very narrow depth-of-field portrait with sharp eyes if that's what you want, or a portrait with everything in focus if you prefer that. Take a look at this depth of field calculator to see what depth of field you get at different focal lengths, distances from subject, and apertures: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html.

[beano]

I'm not seeing any noise. Perhaps your monitor isn't calibrated? I know when my calibration goes out, i see lots of noise in shadows. ;)

These don't really look soft to me either!?! Are you sharpening the images, or are they straight out of camera?

[JayJay]

At the settings you give, assuming you might be (say) six feet away from the subject, your depth of focus is just 0.36 feet - thats 4 1/4 inches!

If you are even closer (say 4 feet) then that DOF comes down to under 2 inches!

TJ

Hi TeeJay, I have this lens as well and would like to know more about its DOF - could you explain how you made these calculations.

JayJay

[Living Daylight]

You can use this calculator:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

You can also get tables somewhere, and pop them in your camera bag. Generally, however I prefer to experiment. Eventually you will get a good feel for it.

Hi TeeJay, I have this lens as well and would like to know more about its DOF - could you explain how you made these calculations.

JayJay

[JayJay]

You can use this calculator:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

You can also get tables somewhere, and pop them in your camera bag. Generally, however I prefer to experiment. Eventually you will get a good feel for it.

many thanks, it'll be good to have some guidance from the tables but I take your point about experimenting.

[Living Daylight]

many thanks, it'll be good to have some guidance from the tables but I take your point about experimenting.

I have a few of my son here http://www.flickr.com/photos/32885752@N05/ if you need any ideas. I love taking his picture, and he enjoys posing.

[pyrojim]

Your shots look really good. The eyes in both look spot-on to me!

and an adorable subject.

[JayJay]

Many thanks L.D. he looks really cute!