Not that sharp.. is it just me? or the lens?

Keep plugging away! Takes time and practice to begin figuring all the variable out and then every time you shoot they change anyway!

The 18-135 should have IS, if on tripod, turn it off as suggested. Keep track of your shots as you go so you know which are tripod/handheld. I'm not familiar with the 400D and its ISO tolerances. That's another exercise that you should do, find your camera's "high" ISO limit (what's the highest you can push ISO and be comfortable with the amount of noise introduced?)

In shade, going with a slower shutter speed and lower ISO would be ok IF you are on a tripod. Slower shutter allows more light but is less forgiving on handheld shots.

marzie84 wrote in post #15120067
Canon 400d.
I only edited the saturation and contrast a little on paint.net

Have you adjusted the picture style settings in the camera. If your shooting jpeg at this point and not really doing alot of PP many times the original settings don't process sharp images with good saturation. I used to have the 400d. I would increase the sharpness, contrast and saturation thru the picture style menu and take a similiar shot the same way and see how it looks.

I think it is your AF method. The grass seems sharp in the front. if you go into DPP it will show you which focus point your camera selected. To get sharp portraits, you need to enable just one focus point and put that on a good contrast area on their eyes. This dog has a lot of black so your camera probably chose a good contrast AF point in a different plane (like the grass).

ct1co2 wrote in post #15120133
Although you have a cooperative subject, your shutter speed is right on the edge of being fast enough to avoid camera shake and it's possible your subject could be moving ever so slightly causing the out of focus image. The IS won't help if your subject is moving, only if you are.

More importantly, although you may be aiming at the eyes, if you let the camera decide the focus point, the camera is going to search for the area in the image that it thinks has the best contrast, regardless of what your intention is. I would suggest choosing your own focus point (start with center), and try again. I would also suggest getting out of auto mode. You may want to try AV mode, where you decide the ISO and the aperture, and the camera will decide the appropriate shutter speed. The more control you take of the camera, and the less decisions you let it make can help.

Zoom out just a touch as well, you clipped off your poor dogs ears.
Keep shooting and refining your technique and the better results will follow.

haha yeah i think i get a little to excited with the zoom!! I only had a 18-55mm lens before this one so the extra zoom is quite new for me lol. Thank you for all your help i will try choosing a focal point instead of lettig the camera decide and see how i go. This is a wonderful site, so many people willing to help

aquaforester wrote in post #15120144
Have you adjusted the picture style settings in the camera. If your shooting jpeg at this point and not really doing alot of PP many times the original settings don't process sharp images with good saturation. I used to have the 400d. I would increase the sharpness, contrast and saturation thru the picture style menu and take a similiar shot the same way and see how it looks.

Thank you i will give that a shot and see how i go. I havent had this camera for very long, only a few months.

lettershop wrote in post #15120149
I think it is your AF method. The grass seems sharp in the front. if you go into DPP it will show you which focus point your camera selected. To get sharp portraits, you need to enable just one focus point and put that on a good contrast area on their eyes. This dog has a lot of black so your camera probably chose a good contrast AF point in a different plane (like the grass).

Wow thank you for that information very helpful, i will try it out

Have you tried setting your f-stop to something between f/8 and f/11, then adjust your shutter speed? Also, why are you shooting at ISO800? It appears to be daylight outside, you should be shooting at ISO100 or 'maybe' ISO200, IMO.

I'd try something along these lines:
Shutter speed: 1/20
f-stop: f/9
ISO: 100

Another thing you could try is to set your ISO, then take a series of pictures starting at f/5.6, then f/6.3, f/8, f/9, f/11, f/13, etc. adjusting shutter-speed accordingly. Once you have done this, examine each of the pictures before you adjust anything. There will be at least one, if not two that are really sharp. This is your lens' sweet spot.

How to find your lens' sweet spot

The Sweet Spot Lens Settings...

So you are getting a lot of advice and suggestions to make changes to settings, techniques and more! Proceed by making them slowly, one a time even, so you know which adjustment achieved success. If you change several at once you may or may not get your desired results and won't know which parameter was the "make" or "break".

+1 on the above

I really like my 18-135 lens. It is a very sharp lens. Try this... Single Point and One Shot focus, Spot or Center Weighted metering. IS on if hand held. IS off if on a tripod. 1/800 or more f-7.1 for handheld ISO as needed. Picture style as desired. I think you will like the results.

Mike

The 18-135 is a quite capable lens. It performs better at f/8 than f/5.6. It looks to me like your camera focused on the closest object, which is the grass. I would recommend selecting a specific AF point to get the camera to focus on what YOU think the subject is. Cameras are pretty stupid; they just focus on the closest thing to the lens, if you let them.

I just upgraded my 18-135 to the 15-85. The 15-85 is sharper across the entire frame, even wide open. What surprised me was that there is a BIG difference between 18mm and 15mm AND not so much difference between 85 and 135. One thing to note is that the 18-135 is quite good at the long end of its zoom and at f/8. I do believe the 15-85 has more CA (purple fringing) at 85 than the 18-135 has anywhere in its range. LR4.2 makes that a non-issue for me.

Oh, nice looking puppy, too!

MikeWa wrote in post #15121665
I really like my 18-135 lens. It is a very sharp lens. Try this... Single Point and One Shot focus, Spot or Center Weighted metering. IS on if hand held. IS off if on a tripod. 1/800 or more f-7.1 for handheld ISO as needed. Picture style as desired. I think you will like the results.

Mike

This.

The 1/FL rule for minimum shutter speeds should really read 1/(FL*crop-factor), when handheld that is. IOW, at 120 mm the advised minimum shutter speed shoudl eb around 1/(120*1.6) or approx. 1/200s. Note that this is a guideline only, as minimum handheld shutter speeds vary from person to person, vary with moods, cafeine intake, etc. And when shooting puppies, or kids, you will likely have to use a shutter speed that is twice as fast as you would normally use: they move too much and very quickly too (IOW, in this case 1/400s).

HTH, kind regards, Wim

Read the comment from wimg.

1/160 shutter is way too slow @ 120mm.

In your example, you will probably need at least 1/400 just to be on the safe side, and it might still miss since your subject is a dog.

Auto AF is also a no-no. Centre point only, Al servo is the way to go.

wimg wrote in post #15121898
This.

The 1/FL rule for minimum shutter speeds should really read 1/(FL*crop-factor), when handheld that is. IOW, at 120 mm the advised minimum shutter speed should eb around 1/(120*1.6) or approx. 1/200s. Note that this is a guideline only, as minimum handheld shutter speeds vary from person to person, vary with moods, cafeine intake, etc. And when shooting puppies, or kids, you will likely have to use a shutter speed that is twice as fast as you would normally use: they move too much and very quickly too (IOW, in this case 1/400s).

HTH, kind regards, Wim

No doubt what you are saying is true. But why work close to the edge when you don't have to. 1/800 th will get a sharp pictures. Even if the dog moves a little. This doesn't mean you can't get them with 1/20 second but they will be sharp at 1/800th. It's on the camera so why not use it. Then provide enough aperture DOF to allow for some error and get the picture. It makes for a good starting point. After that you can try other settings to make the picture pop.

Mike

At longer focal lengths, as previously mentioned, you need 1/shutter speed X 1.6 to stop motion. This means 1/200. I'd want f8 for depth of field and sharpness. I'd bump up ISO until I got these exposures for photos of an animal. If it is really dark out, you might wait for a different time of day or better lighting.

Your lens is going to be sharper at shorter focal lengths, so I'd try to keep the focal length shorter, if you want sharper photos. Lots of zooms have this characteristic. Personally, I never use servo, but you should take lots of quick shots.