Help with 85 1.2

Hello all, I have been having trouble getting sharp images like I see from everyone elses 85L lens. I know part of my problem is having steady hands when I took these photos my hands were shaking like a leaf, I had only a few minutes to take them so not much set-up time.

If you could be so kind to critique the photo and give any suggestions help me improve on the quality of photos. BTW the older lady is 99 she is amazing for her age.

Live view magnified focusing and a tripod was the only way I ever got truly sharp images from my Canons at shallow DOF...plus sharpening in post processing.

Try that - compose the frame, tripod mounted, then live view and zoom in on the eyes and manual focus and fire away.

I like the 2nd shot

Most of the photos you see posted here are edited /post processed in some form. If you can't be sure your hands will be steady I'd suggest using a tripod. An aperture setting of F5 on a full frame camera is very shallow and you're also using a relatively slow shutter speed (1/125). So if you don't nail the focus precisely and keep the camera steady you'll experience the slight blurriness you're seeing here.

Presumably you used 1/125 to be able to blend the ambient light with your flash. Personally I'd have used a faster shutter speed like 1/160 and increased the ISO to compensate.

What bothers me most about the first photo is the bright spot in the foliage over the subject's left shoulder. Its competing with her face for attention. If you try looking at her face you'll invariably find your eyes drawn to the bright spot. So I'd suggest cloning in some foliage or darkening the background to create more separation from the subject.

imagesbybarbara wrote in post #12101445
Hello all, I have been having trouble getting sharp images like I see from everyone elses 85L lens. I know part of my problem is having steady hands when I took these photos my hands were shaking like a leaf, I had only a few minutes to take them so not much set-up time.

If you could be so kind to critique the photo and give any suggestions help me improve on the quality of photos. BTW the older lady is 99 she is amazing for her age.

Workerdrone I will take your suggestion, I should have brought the tripod (I just hate the one I have its so heavy). I will try the live view as well, I didn't think of bumping the iso up I so use to shoot at asa 100 and 125.

I have fibromyalgia too so that does not help my shaking but just wanting some tips to help me be able to use this lens more efficiently.

Thank you for the help Pixelmagic, I did not even noticed the bright area until you pointed it out. Unfortunately I am lacking in the PP department these are straight from the camera with the exception of a levels adjustments. I guess I need to look for some tutorials to make my images pop.

Thanks for all the help.

Fibro has got to make a tough task even tougher

These are fine but for 'wow' images I think you just need some better lighting and background for these two, plus careful and respectful processing

Hope you don't mind but I did a really quick edit of the first photo. I opened it in Photoshop and used the Quick Select tool to select the subject. Then I used the Focus Magic plug-in at a 1 pixel setting to correct for the camera shake. Finally I used the selection to create a mask and used a Shadows/Highlights adjustment layer to darken the background by 15 levels; then a bit of selective sharpening to the eyebrows, eyes, jewelry. This all took about 3 minutes and there's a lot more you can do if you desire.

imagesbybarbara wrote in post #12101533
Thank you for the help Pixelmagic, I did not even noticed the bright area until you pointed it out. Unfortunately I am lacking in the PP department these are straight from the camera with the exception of a levels adjustments. I guess I need to look for some tutorials to make my images pop.

Thanks for all the help.

^nice teamwork!

Thanks...I decided to clone in some foilage here.

workerdrone wrote in post #12101635
^nice teamwork!

workerdrone wrote in post #12101545
Fibro has got to make a tough task even tougher

These are fine but for 'wow' images I think you just need some better lighting and background for these two, plus careful and respectful processing

Yeah Fibro is pretty painful but when you have that camera in your hand you try and forget about it even though you really feel it later.

PixelMagic wrote in post #12101606
Hope you don't mind but I did a really quick edit of the first photo. I opened it in Photoshop and used the Quick Select tool to select the subject. Then I used the Focus Magic plug-in at a 1 pixel setting to correct for the camera shake. Finally I used the selection to create a mask and used a Shadows/Highlights adjustment layer to darken the background by 15 levels; then a bit of selective sharpening to the eyebrows, eyes, jewelry. This all took about 3 minutes and there's a lot more you can do if you desire.

What a big improvement thanks, I will have to learn how to do what you have done. I have some photoshop knowledge but not as much as everyone I see here.

I did a quick edit with the image, do you think it looks better from the original?