What is the matter with my photos?

OP, I read through the thread and nobody seems to put significant emphasis on post-processing. Tastes vary on color/contrast etc but normally, unless you have somewhat radical picture styles, a photo on 'Faithful' will come out 'boring'.

I took the liberty of post processing one of your samples.

MakisM1- at work at the moment so don't have the best monitor to view it, but it looks to be strikingly less 'soft'. And that was on a SOOC jpeg which I had to resize to conform to posting requirements on this forum. What PP did you do exactly? I see you use GIMP - I also use a mix of linux & Windows OS so have access to same, though I normally use LR5 these days. I use standard picture style in-camera and normally adjust mainly blacks/whites, clarity and sharpness in LR5.

I did an UnSharp Mask at (1.0, 0.5) for sharpness, Hue/Saturation moved the Hue towards Green slightly in the General Button, boosted it also in Yellow, Green and Cyan buttons (by increasing saturation less than 10. Then increased the contrast by a little bit and decreased lightness commensurately to maintain the same lighting.

If you use Linux, you can use Darktablle, rather than LR and GIMP reather than PS. If you have any questions, send me a PM and will be glad to help.

Copidosoma wrote in post #16778127


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.

This is the thing I would have done if I had the problem you described. Then if the photo came out sharp, bingo, you have an AF problem. If not, at least you set your mind at ease about your AF, and can start looking for some other reason.
IMHO

guntoter wrote in post #16781998
This is the thing I would have done if I had the problem you described. Then if the photo came out sharp, bingo, you have an AF problem. If not, at least you set your mind at ease about your AF, and can start looking for some other reason.
IMHO

Yes I've tried that but I seem to have this (apparent) problem with middle & far distant objects that are relatively small anyway, and as stated quite often above, it maybe unrealistic to expect these to be sharp even in live view. It's looking like my technique rather than hardware is mostly to blame, but I'd like to run this test anyway. Can you suggest a relatively simple scenario that I can do? Something like an object covering not less than 1/3rd viewfinder and not more than 50mtr away? I need it to be sufficiently demanding to push the system enough to see if there is any focus problem in addition to the factors already identified.

BTW - I did some fairly crude focussing tests on a high contrast image with an adjacent sloping ruler placed at 45-degrees and it looks like there may be some front-focussing on 2 of my 3 lenses, but it's inconsistent so I haven't taken it further as the 40D doesn't have MFA and this was before I got the 70D.

Go to this site, read the instructions and download their target. Follow the instructions carefully.

http://www.peleng8.com …k-focus.html#.UzByFY_ANa​g

Well it's not a great translation to English, but the only clue for distance to target is to fill the frame with the focus chart. Other than that, does distance matter too much? Also it seems to be suggesting manual focus in MF mode until getting focus confirmation. That is different to possibly all other focus tests I've seen - they use AF. I'll give it a go tomorrow when it's light.

jolly.tall wrote in post #16783111
Well it's not a great translation to English, but the only clue for distance to target is to fill the frame with the focus chart. Other than that, does distance matter too much? Also it seems to be suggesting manual focus in MF mode until getting focus confirmation. That is different to possibly all other focus tests I've seen - they use AF. I'll give it a go tomorrow when it's light.

Probably to eliminate the AF system as a source of focus problems; if you can't get a sharp image using MF (I'd suggest using Live View and 10x magnification instead of relying on the AF confirmation beep) then there's something actually wrong with the lens/body combination. If you DO get a sharp image that way, then go back to AF and see whether you're getting some sort of front/back focusing going on.

Normally the distance recommended is 20x the focal length. So if you are testing a zoom, you will have to test it at different distances on each end.

The method they suggest (one-shot with confirmation is equivalent to AF (MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT DOING IT IN LIVE VIEW). You can use AF instead (I did) as long as you are certain you will not introduce camera shake.

Also, don't do it with artificial lights. CFLs are reported to throw AF off in some instances.

Here is a shot of my target:

IMAGE LINK: http://s37.photobucket​.com …1024_zps6ef3092​9.jpg.html

IMAGE LINK: http://s37.photobucket​.com …36in_zps6a56fab​7.jpg.html

melcat wrote in post #16781776
You're mixing up the words "diffraction" and "aberration".

No mix up!
i am speaking about diffraction witch is not use only for the sensor at very little aperture. (aberration is an another problem)

All Zoom are set up to try to work all the way, but due to all the moving part, at their extreme range the pictures are soften, specially on cheapo lens !

read any kind of test zoom lens and you will see that this problem is recurrent to zoom lens, even to prime at very wide open aperture

Reservoir Dog wrote in post #16783669
All Zoom are set up to try to work all the way, but due to all the moving part, at their extreme range the pictures are soften

Once again, even if this were true it would have nothing to do with diffraction.

what AF mode are you using for your shots?

palad1n wrote in post #16778031
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.

i completely agree with PALAD! these are very small and important factors to photography,which are often underestimated.

DreDaze - almost exclusively one-shot using centre-point, focussed on object of interest, then shot recomposed if necessary. Back button decoupled from metering.

JT the main issue as I see it is the quality of light and conditions.

Your sunset/rise images work nicely, good saturated colours and black silhouettes.

Malham Cove on the other hand is bland, the overcast sky is giving a very diffused light which 'flattens' an image. The same or similar 'flattening' occurs when shooting landscapes around midday, and judging by the shadows on your airfield shots I would hazard a guess that they were taken around this time or in the afternoon. I may be wrong of course. Put simply the sun behind you will 'flatten' an image but not as much as shooting into the sun. The sun behind you though can bring out the intense blue in the sky. The sun low and to the side can create a 3D effect in an image.

Remember the brain and eye work together to create your impression of the scene you see. As a photographer and artist the job is to interpret what makes that scene pleasing to you, then find out how to record that impression on the media of your choice.

In my opinion and painful experience (of getting it wrong for the vast majority of time!) all the equipment, perfect technique and post processing in the world can only make an image 'acceptable'. It's the light that gives it the wow factor.

To achieve front to back focus, I guess you are using the hyper-focal distance or focusing roughly one third into the scene. Using the MFA facility only really comes into play in focus critical (read portrait and the like) situations in my opinion. If you feel that your equipment isn't focusing correctly the use live view an manual focus to compare with an AF image of the same scene.

I hope these ramblings help.