What is the matter with my photos?

I posted this earlier on dpreview general Samples & Galleries but it's yet to appear so I thought I 'd try a dedicated Canon forum.

I've been doing digital photography as a hobby for a few years, using a Canon 40D and recently a 70D. I have reasonably good EF & EF-S lenses. I take mostly outdoors shots. My images are usually disappointing. I do post-processing in DPP, latterly LR5. The main issue seems to be lack of an obvious focal point, and sometimes exposure is off the mark. I recently switched to back-button focussing, decoupled from the shutter button. It doesn't seem to have improved the situation.

I've included a couple of snap-shots I've just taken with a 70D out of my window to illustrate the point using EF 28-135mm & EF-S 17-55mm (in-camera jpeg - no post-processing - though I had to resize to max 1024px for upload here) 1/400 @ f5.5 hand-held with IS on. In both cases focus lock was on the Jet2 object [confirmed using AF display in DPP], and in both cases the foreground looks sharper than the object of focus. At 100% zoom on a 27inch monitor they both look awful. This is a pretty typical observation. I find it hard to believe both my camera bodies plus all 3 lenses are duff.

I assume it's my technique but I just can't seem to work out what I'm doing wrong. Perhaps I expect too much from my equipment and my 27" monitor exposes this? But sometimes sample images downloaded from web-sites look far sharper (eg dpreview sample images 40D samples 6 & 8). Any help would be most appreciated.

foreground is sharper and have more contrast because it is near to you..
you cant expect to have same sharpness on distant objects - there are many obstacles - fog, dust, haze, bad cloudy weather and light conditions,etc...you are probably focusing on infinite anyway, so there is no way to miss the focus.
on 100% crop looks everything only worse.

good lighting and weather conditions are main keys to sharp and contrasty images.

jolly.tall wrote in post #16777916
....The main issue seems to be lack of an obvious focal point, and sometimes exposure is off the mark.....

With due respect I think your main issue is not lack of focus but lack of focus of interest or good composition. The posted shots are, well...plain boring - sorry.

You can zap up the sharpness and contrast a little in processing and decide whether you want to expose for the sky or the foreground, but I can't see that the aircraft are out of focus.

I think the photos you posted look fine for what they are, which is essentially snapshots of nothing. No offense is intended. I throw out about 80% of my photos for the exact same reason. As you say, there is no subject in either of them. The quality of the photos seems fine. There is just nothing to see in them.

The second one is a victim of having more dynamic range than your (and anyone else's) camera can handle.

Ultimately, a snapshot is a snapshot.

If you look around and see fantastic images made by skilled photographers, you will find that they will rarely "blame" their equipment for the quality of their images.

Composition, focus, exposure and most importantly, quality of light (and the ability to judge and control that) are all extremely important to creating great images. It doesn't happen by itself and your equipment only has a very minor role to play in producing the best images.

Study the basics of photography and apply the principles. At the very least, go out and take a course.

Skills upgrades are always a good idea.

Also, you're not doing yourself any favors by shooting through window glass.

teekay & SqueekyBoy - it's fine, no offense taken - I know they're boring and without substance - they were just quick examples of the issue as I see it.

Snydremark - yes they were. How did you know? It's clean glass though I get pretty much the same result even without the glass in the way.

Copidosoma - I'm trying not to blame my equipment and hoped the problem was my technique/expectations (much cheaper that way).

My expectations are that if I (auto)focus on a particular object I expect it to be tack sharp and it almost never is.

jolly.tall wrote in post #16778101
My expectations are that if I (auto)focus on a particular object I expect it to be tack sharp and it almost never is.

Have you done a MFA adjustment on your lens? the severe pixel density on modern APS-c sensors means that any miss on focus is going to show up badly.

Were you using a tripod?

As noted, shooting through glass functionally degrades your lenses.

Were you shooting with your lens stopped down a few stops (but not too far, maybe f8)?

Sory, I haven't checked the exif data on your images, some of that info would be in there.

Also, take that same image just before sunrise or after sunset and you would probably notice that it looks a whole lot better (i.e. the light you have to deal with in these images is just really not flattering).

edit: now that I reread your post, some of the info is in there too.

Try this, set up on a tripod, use manual focus on live view zoomed in to 10x. Set your lens to f8.
See if you get a sharp image. If so, then you have a starting point. If not, then it will need a bit more work.

Copidosoma - not tried MFA yet - hoping to avoid it and all the uncertainty involved. Will try the tripod, live view & f8 next day - it's dark here now.

We really need to see some real shots of a real subject before we'll be able to give you any useful information. You're shooting a subject that looks to be a quarter mile or more from where you're standing with a fairly short lens; on top of that, the sun's peeking out which means that there is quite possibly some heat distortion being caused which will soften/distort things further.

jolly.tall wrote in post #16778101
teekay & SqueekyBoy - it's fine, no offense taken - I know they're boring and without substance - they were just quick examples of the issue as I see it.

Snydremark - yes they were. How did you know? It's clean glass though I get pretty much the same result even without the glass in the way.

Copidosoma - I'm trying not to blame my equipment and hoped the problem was my technique/expectations (much cheaper that way).

My expectations are that if I (auto)focus on a particular object I expect it to be tack sharp and it almost never is.

You are shooting through the closed window, during bad lighting and weather conditions and checking 100% crop of distant object in haze and fog?

it´s not only about clean window... your window is an "upgrade" to your lens, even if you have the best lens on the market, this super clean window would degrade your lens significantly. It´s like shooting through the glass of water...

look here : http://images.tutorvis​ta.com …-reflection-of-light.jpeg

jolly.tall wrote in post #16778101
My expectations are that if I (auto)focus on a particular object I expect it to be tack sharp and it almost never is.

Given the conditions you are shooting in the problem is almost certainly technique/the conditions. If you want to test the AF on your camera you need to do it is controlled conditions - shooting a target subject that will allow you to clearly see how the lens focuses. Distant objects through haze aren't suitable.

One more thing to add, the 28-135 is a budget lens, and won't resolve alot of detail to a 20mpx crop sensor. It works okay on a FF, and the old 8/10mpx crops, but on a 20mpx, it is going to disappoint, at least the copies I had would have.

Try stopping down to a smaller aperture than the f5 you used in those shots. You should be able to shoot at a slower shutter speed than 400, even handheld (but try using a tripod).

It can't improve them much, however, for the reasons others have stated: shooting through glass, dull composition with no definite subject, poor light, etc.

Agree that these are not good images to judge. But since you said you're pretty much never happy with images using multiple lenses on 2 different bodies, do you by any chance have cheap filters on your lenses?