Is this too soft?

I rarely like anything I shoot, but I do *love* this particular image. However, I worry greatly about the lack of sharpness at 100%. What are your thoughts?

(Side Note: I'm not even sure why this happened. I placed the focus point directly over her eye via One Shot. I'm using a 60D with a Canon 70-300 IS USM non-L.)

Full View:

It looks OK to me given that you must have had a high ISO. Maybe a little underexposed though.
The mic looks sharp. Did you do any sharpening in PP?

Looks like its sharper around the guitar? Or is that just me..

Looks fine, but I think the focus point was over the mic

I think focus was good, just a lot of noise from high ISO.

Forget about obsesessing at 100%. That's ruined the pleasure of many decent photographers who overlook the importance of the moment and the composition. You love the image and that is what counts.

Do you plan on enlarging this shot to poster size? Most folks don't stick their noses right up to a print when appreciating it. You have a pleasing composition and I would not concern yourself with sharpness here - your first shot looks ok on my monitor and that's the one most people will be viewing. Very likely you got an execellent focus where you wanted and then she moved slightly. That's quite common with both subjects like this.

daniel1223 wrote in post #14880771
Looks fine, but I think the focus point was over the mic

No.

(This comes straight from DPP. No editing.)

mattmorgan44 wrote in post #14881191
I think focus was good, just a lot of noise from high ISO.

The noise mainly comes from sharpening. I'm at 800, which normally isn't this bad.

sapearl wrote in post #14881201
Forget about obsesessing at 100%. That's ruined the pleasure of many decent photographers who overlook the importance of the moment and the composition. You love the image and that is what counts.

Do you plan on enlarging this shot to poster size? Most folks don't stick their noses right up to a print when appreciating it. You have a pleasing composition and I would not concern yourself with sharpness here - your first shot looks ok on my monitor and that's the one most people will be viewing. Very likely you got an execellent focus where you wanted and then she moved slightly. That's quite common with both subjects like this.

I actually do plan on printing this large.

(At least, as large as I can without sharpness becoming an issue...)

Here's my EXIF data on the shot for those who might want it:

tupper wrote in post #14880743
Looks like its sharper around the guitar? Or is that just me..

It is sharper there. The 100% crop reveals that more clearly.

I'm bitterly disappointed, but I will not delete this shot because her expression and her pose are as close to perfect as I could possibly want.

Oh, I should note:

I took a burst of 4 with the focus point in the exact same place, and all of them came out this soft. One shot was *slightly* better than the rest, but none had her eye as sharp as the mic, which is what needed to happen...

Nikon seems to wade into my mind more frequently these days, but I'm sure the grass isn't any greener...

TheRightLight wrote in post #14882457
.....Nikon seems to wade into my mind more frequently these days, but I'm sure the grass isn't any greener...

I agree - it is not necessarily greener.

Perhaps that is just the best that particular lens/camera combo can deliver under that type of flat, shade lighting - which is not to say that it is bad.

You need to understand your equipment a bit more. The area covered by a focus point is much larger than the red square shown in the camera. Then add to that the fact that the microphone is more contrasty than her eye and you can understand why the camera focused on the mic rather than her eye.

Ideally, this should have been shot using AI Servo rather than One Shot; given the small target you're focusing on even a very slight movement by the subject would have been enough to throw the focus off; AI Servo would have allowed the camera to track the subject. If you wanted to shoot in One Shot mode you needed the manually tweak the focus ring to ensure the lens was focusing exactly where you intended.

PixelMagic wrote in post #14883627
You need to understand your equipment a bit more. The area covered by a focus point is much larger than the red square shown in the camera. Then add to that the fact that the microphone is more contrasty than her eye and you can understand why the camera focused on the mic rather than her eye.

Ideally, this should have been shot using AI Servo rather than One Shot; given the small target you're focusing on even a very slight movement by the subject would have been enough to throw the focus off; AI Servo would have allowed the camera to track the subject. If you wanted to shoot in One Shot mode you needed the manually tweak the focus ring to ensure the lens was focusing exactly where you intended.

Fair enough. Thanks for the help.

However, I'd like to ask: What do you think of the end result? Is this usable?