soft shots?

I've recently graduated from the P&S world to a Canon SL1 with kit lens and 40mm pancake.
I bought the camera just before a recent trip, so I really didn't have a lot of time experimenting with it.
There was a link in another forum to print a sheet for lens focus testing, and on a tripod, to my eye, it looked fine.
In camera, my shots looked OK, using the center focus point only and recomposing.
When I got home this weekend, I was disappointed to see a lot of shots looking soft.
Some might have been my own fault using too large an aperture for indoor shots with flash, shortening the DOF with multiple people in the shots, but now I'm concerned that there is an issue with the camera/lens.
Is there something I can look at, or just send them to Canon and see what they say about calibration?
Thanks in advance.

It could be many things, such as the recomposing, shutter speed, etc...

Try shooting static objects, outdoors. Set it to single shot/single point. If it still has issues after that, it's probably the camera.

post some fullsize samples with EXIF intact (as links).

Focus and recompose combined with a shallow depth of field will often mean missed focus. But what you describe could be many things. I wouldn't send it in just yet. The first place to start is to post some images so people can give you ideas on what the cause might be. More than likely it's you. And don't feel bad about that if it is. When I first got my Rebel XT I had a lot of missed focus shots as I learned the AF system... and I was coming from a 35mm Rebel G with a similar AF system. Learning the ins and outs of the AF of a particular body is just like learning anything else in photography.

What kind of post-processing are you doing? Most pictures out of the camera need some adjustments to contrast and some sharpening at the very least.

As was posted earlier, if you post a picture here as an example, it will be easier to give you some hints. "Soft shots" is a term that might be caused by many things. In particular an example picture will show whether its a focus issue, camera movement, DOF, subject movement or possible a lens problem.

Thanks for the responses.
I'll try to post a few shots when I get a chance.

Another 2 points.
I shoot most of my shots in Av. When I first got the camera, shooting in Av indoors with the flash on slowed the shutter way down, and everything looked terrible. I checked the manual and there is a setting when shooting in Av with flash to force the shutter speed between 1/60th and 1/200th, with the warning that the backgrounds might look a little dark since there is less time for ambient light to get back to the sensor. Could that play a role?

I also turned off the AF assist light since it's the most annoying thing I've ever seen. The thing shoots out at least 2-3 very bright pulses before firing. I didn't think it would be an issue since it seemed to lock on very quickly without it. I'm assuming this could also be a culprit.

Walt, I pp in LR4.

WaltA wrote in post #16017378
What kind of post-processing are you doing? Most pictures out of the camera need some adjustments to contrast and some sharpening at the very least.

As was posted earlier, if you post a picture here as an example, it will be easier to give you some hints. "Soft shots" is a term that might be caused by many things. In particular an example picture will show whether its a focus issue, camera movement, DOF, subject movement or possible a lens problem.

As others have stated several factors can contribute to what "appears" to be a soft image.

If your indoor shots were done under low contrast lighting conditions where the quality of light was poor, even with flash, that could make your images appear less than sharp. Couple that with large apertures and shallow DOF and the affect would be magnified.

By your own statement it sounsd like you are just becoming familiar with the equipment and its controls. No disrepspect intended but it's more likely the cause of the apparent softness is your technique rather than equipment failure. I would not waste time with a repair call just yet.

Post samples with full exposure info and we can likely give you constructive clues.

Merlin_AZ wrote in post #16017384
Thanks for the responses.
I'll try to post a few shots when I get a chance.

Another 2 points.
I shoot most of my shots in Av. When I first got the camera, shooting in Av indoors with the flash on slowed the shutter way down, and everything looked terrible. I checked the manual and there is a setting when shooting in Av with flash to force the shutter speed between 1/60th and 1/200th, with the warning that the backgrounds might look a little dark since there is less time for ambient light to get back to the sensor. Could that play a role?

I also turned off the AF assist light since it's the most annoying thing I've ever seen. The thing shoots out at least 2-3 very bright pulses before firing. I didn't think it would be an issue since it seemed to lock on very quickly without it. I'm assuming this could also be a culprit.

Walt, I pp in LR4.

Yes, this could very well be the case.

In AV the camera could be selecting a shutter speed that is sufficiently slow for camera shake to be blurring the shots, motion blur on the part of the subject, or both. And this will be even worse if you are using low ISO settings.

Merlin_AZ wrote in post #16017384
I also turned off the AF assist light since it's the most annoying thing I've ever seen. The thing shoots out at least 2-3 very bright pulses before firing. I didn't think it would be an issue since it seemed to lock on very quickly without it. I'm assuming this could also be a culprit.

Walt, I pp in LR4.

Absolutely. Are your soft shots mainly in low light situations?

Merlin_AZ wrote in post #16017384
Thanks for the responses.
I'll try to post a few shots when I get a chance.

Another 2 points.
I shoot most of my shots in Av. When I first got the camera, shooting in Av indoors with the flash on slowed the shutter way down, and everything looked terrible. I checked the manual and there is a setting when shooting in Av with flash to force the shutter speed between 1/60th and 1/200th, with the warning that the backgrounds might look a little dark since there is less time for ambient light to get back to the sensor. Could that play a role?

I also turned off the AF assist light since it's the most annoying thing I've ever seen. The thing shoots out at least 2-3 very bright pulses before firing. I didn't think it would be an issue since it seemed to lock on very quickly without it. I'm assuming this could also be a culprit.

Walt, I pp in LR4.

On the flash... read up on second curtain sync. It might help you out there. And when shooting in AV mode you really have to watch that shutter speed.

Colin Glover wrote in post #16017422
Absolutely. Are your soft shots mainly in low light situations?

Probably over 85% were indoors with light that wasn't great.
I'll take some time tonight if I get a chance to look at some files side by side and compare typical indoor vs. outdoor shots and see how they compare.

Mavgirl wrote in post #16017673
On the flash... read up on second curtain sync. It might help you out there. And when shooting in AV mode you really have to watch that shutter speed.

Thanks--I will read up on it.
My indoor shots with Av and flash were at least 1/60 since that was the setting I chose (#2 below).
There were 3 choices in the options:
1) camera control, which ended up way too slow to be useful
2) 1/60 - 1/200 (which is what I chose). Most shots ended up at 1/60
3) 1/200

I appreciate everyone's comments.

1/60 can introduce camera shake pretty easily if you're not being conscious about your hand-holding.

Most everything has been covered by the forum.

Congrats on the new camera!

Mavgirl wrote in post #16017673
On the flash... read up on second curtain sync. It might help you out there. And when shooting in AV mode you really have to watch that shutter speed.

I admit to not using it very often myself, but how would second curtain sync.be used in this situation?

Btw Mavgirl, do you do any wet plate work with your Calumet? I've got a couple of friends who use field cameras and make their own exposure materials. It is truly quite an art .

indoor shots can be done like this:

Set to M mode, meter the background and UNDERexpose that background by 2-stops. Shutter speed can be as low as 1/30 but better to start at 1/60.

Use bounce flash from any wall/ceiling (but not direct flash) and leave it to A-TTL.

What happens is that you "under exposed" background won't affect the final output and it will not be too dark either. The flash will take of your subject and expose it perfectly, freezing the subject without camera shake.

This technique is very explained here:

http://neilvn.com …chniques/9-more-examples/