Sharpness Issue

Is the reason this image is not Crispy Sharp because I'm shooting this handheld and not on tripod? Shot this with 6D Mark II and Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II. In addition, I've tried shooting the same image using my Canon 100mm Macro and the results seem to be worse. Help Please.

Where did intend to focus?

No exif, so we don't know your shutter speed or aperture. With a shot like this, if you are using a wide aperture, then you may well be focused on one small area. Also if hand-held or if there is any movement, then the focus point may move from whatever petal you were trying to focus on.

A tripod and no movement in the flowers would certainly help. The you can use LV to focus exactly where you want to.

ejenner wrote in post #18849376
No exif, so we don't know your shutter speed or aperture. With a shot like this, if you are using a wide aperture, then you may well be focused on one small area. Also if hand-held or if there is any movement, then the focus point may move from whatever petal you were trying to focus on.

A tripod and no movement in the flowers would certainly help. The you can use LV to focus exactly where you want to.

If you'd would, please explain how to make EXIF data available so others can view. Thx.

Bogino wrote in post #18849393
If you'd would, please explain how to make EXIF data available so others can view. Thx.

Images straight from the camera or exported from Lightroom will have the exif data embedded automatically unless you remove it. How are you generating the jpg files you're attaching?

mike_d wrote in post #18849444
Images straight from the camera or exported from Lightroom will have the exif data embedded automatically unless you remove it. How are you generating the jpg files you're attaching?

I download the images from my memory card to my PC and then edit them on my PC using LR.

When you export the file in LR, there is an option to include exif data. Just make sure it is selected.

Remember, "sharpness" is a matter of contrast between light and dark areas... and how tight that border is. If for example you highlights are over exposed, they will bleed over into the blundering areas and make it look like your image is less sharp. The colors and highlight areas in your shot (the yellow in particular) look very hot...

You have several paths to address this. This easiest is to move the highlights slider to the left just enough so that you start seeing detail emerge. You can also adjust the luminance of the yellows down a smidge. What leads me to believe this is a major contributor is in the center of the image the yellows look soft. Yet down in the lower left corner you have some more yellows on a flower that is on the same plane - but it is in the shade. Do you see how those flowers have more definition to them? So you do have some that are sharper - just not the ones you wanted. I don't think its shake.... I think your yellows are just blowing out.

You would be surprised how much proper exposure influences perceived sharpness.

shake could also be contributing some.... is the IS on your 70-200 turned on?

Croasdail wrote in post #18849473
The colors and highlight areas in your shot (the yellow in particular) look very hot . . . I think your yellows are just blowing out.

They look like that, but the histogram shows plenty of space to the right.

OhLook wrote in post #18849477
They look like that, but the histogram shows plenty of space to the right.

The histogram is full spectrum. An RGB histogram might shed some light on the issue. To my eye on my monitor, it looks like the magentas are blown in spots.

Here are the histograms for the red and blue channels from Photoshop. The green channel doesn't show clipping.

It's interesting to note that the full spectrum histogram in Photoshop shows clipping. I wonder why it's different from the one in the post.

joedlh wrote in post #18849664
The histogram is full spectrum. An RGB histogram might shed some light on the issue. To my eye on my monitor, it looks like the magentas are blown in spots.

The same thing happens with my in-camera histograms and makes them unreliable. The B&W one that I can see while shooting seems to be an average, not a sum, of the three RGB ones. It can show a curve that stops short of the right edge when the red, it turns out later, is climbing the wall. A different way of constructing histograms would produce a better guide to exposure.

Yeah, some of the highlights are blown. The affected areas are small and therefore might not show very well (or at all) in an in-camera histogram. Many photographers urge folks to check the histogram when shooting. But that won't help in many cases where the clipping is just in a tiny part of the frame. Instead I would look at the blinkies. And I think I recall that the blinkies might not be reliable either if only one or two channels are clipping, so experience comes into play too.

As far as sharpness is concerned, it is affected by many variables including camera/subject motion, depth of field, sharpness of the lens, and focus accuracy, besides the rendition of the highlights. A bunch of flowers possibly waving in the wind and at different distances is not a good subject for checking sharpness. How are the results with other subjects?

As Joe's post shows, your highlights in your red and blue channels are clipped; lightly in blue but severely in red. I've found this fairly typical when trying to shoot flowers in the red/orange/purple ranges w/ Canon sensors; you've gotta underexpose ever so slightly to avoid clipping those to get the colors to turn out just right. The result posted in the original also looks like a fairly heavy highlight recovery was attempted in LR...that's pretty difficult to do properly with LR in my experience. As Archibald indicates, you can go off the blinkies *somewhat* on the LCD, but it really just takes some time to gauge for yourself what the results will be once transferred off the camera. Roses, tulips and crocus are all typically problematic for this in my shooting.

I dunno...image looks pretty good to me.