I'm Guessing my Technique Is Not so Good?

Hi guys,
I'm just starting out with my new camera and get the feeling it's really my technique letting me down right now but wanted to pop up a few images for your thoughts.

Below are 3 different images taken at the weekend (sorry but don't know how to get the exif from them).

The first was just taken indoors whilst messing with the shutter speeds and the second two were taken with the onboard flash up.

All on my Canon 40D and with my new Sigma 17-70 F2.8 lens.

I've not got the greatest eye but i think that the first two look pretty sharp, especially with the crops but the third looks soft to me. I've had many others that have been soft too, infact most of my images to date so i'm guessing my photographic knowledge needs improving... what do you think?

Original No1

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They look plenty sharp to me. However, the shots of the little girl would benefit greatly from an external flash (such as the 580EXII) which would allow you to bounce the light off of a wall/ceiling. This would eliminate the shadows from direct flash as well as make the light much more pleasing.

They look plenty sharp to me. The EXIF was intact and I get the third shot to be 1/160s, f/4.5 @ 62mm, and ISO 500. the Sigma 17-70 is a great lens and you are wide open on this shot. If will be slightly soft here, but stopped down a little it will sharpen up nicely if that is what you are looking for.

As mentioned above you could get much more pleasing results by using an external flash bounced off of a wall or ceiling. This also allows you to use a lower ISO and/or stop down a little which can yield more favorable results as well.

Yep. Some more light would really help each of these shots.

Also, how are you focusing the lens? Don't use the "all focus points" setting because that'll let the camera focus on whatever it wants to. Change it to use only the focus point you want (start with the center) that way you can tell it exactly where you want it to focus.

krb wrote in post #6318862
Also, how are you focusing the lens? Don't use the "all focus points" setting because that'll let the camera focus on whatever it wants to. Change it to use only the focus point you want (start with the center) that way you can tell it exactly where you want it to focus.

That was one of the things I was struggling with. Please accept my apologies as I haven't the manual with me right now but when I focused I could see the 9 focusing dots of which most times there appears to be one or two that changed to red and never once were they the cenre ones, normally around the edge of the nine dots... maybe that's something as it may be focusing outside of my expected target. How do I go about changing this?

Easiest way to try it out is to press the button on top right rear of the camera, (next to the * and has a grid looking icon) and the LCD on top will show the pattern. Also the reticles in the viewfinder will all light up red. Use the wheel to select an AF point then press the grid button again.

The better solution IMO is to use the custom functions to select the mode that lets you use the joystick thingy to select the focus point. But I have neither my camera nor a manual at hand and can't remember the exact steps to select that. Using the joystick makes it very fast to select the focus point you want.

Yeah, with the shallow DOF of a DSLR, you REALLY have to pay attention to which focus point you select. My 40D is at home, but the manual should go over how to select the focus point.

But your next purchase should be an external flash. Good luck!

Thanks guys. That helps a lot. I do have an external flash (Canon 430EX) so i'll be popping that on next time indoors. I also seem to suffer with the softeness outside too for all my handheld shots I tried at the weekend. Like I say, i'm just learning but I think i'm comforted in the fact that the odd one comes out sharp. At least that's telling me I don't have a duff lens as is the normal thought process when it goes pear-shaped. I just want to achieve a much higher "keeper" rate

Sorry, but one other thing whilst it springs to mind and i've got your attention

I've noticed that when I change the apertures they appear to go from 4.5 to 32 yet my lens is F/2.8 to 4.5... is this something to do with the lens being made for a full SLR camera but mine is a crop so it's showing a strange conversion ratio for the apertures?

The f/xx part of a lens description states the maximum aperture size. On a zoom lens where the description is f/xx-yy, it means that the maximum aperture changes depending on what focal length it is zoomed to. You are still able to "stop down" to a smaller aperture.

The aperture is a ratio of the focal length so the crop factor of the camera is not a consideration.

tuttifrutti wrote in post #6319009
Sorry, but one other thing whilst it springs to mind and i've got your attention

I've noticed that when I change the apertures they appear to go from 4.5 to 32 yet my lens is F/2.8 to 4.5... is this something to do with the lens being made for a full SLR camera but mine is a crop so it's showing a strange conversion ratio for the apertures?

The lens spec is the widest aperture you can get (smallest f-number) through the focal length range so when you are at the widest focal length the lens can open up to f/2.8, and when you're fully zoomed in it opens up to f/4.5. The f/32 you get when changing apertures shows that f/32 is the narrowest that the lens aperture can go (not something printed on the lens).

From the first shot, I'd suggest that this lens is not very good at f/32. Doing close-up and macro shooting does require pushing apertures, I know, but for the first shot to be pleasing, I'd say you need to really apply some generous sharpening!

Very few lenses are good at very small apertures (any number larger than say 20) and most lenses are not so good at their widest setting. The general rule is that the sharpest images will come 1 or 2 stops down from the widest setting. For this lens that would mean the "sweet spot" should be somewhere in the range of 5.6 up to 8 or maybe 11.

I've found the 17-70 to be a good lens for both my 300D and now my 400D. You should find it equally as good for your 40D. I nearly always use the lens at f/8, occasionally drifting up to f/11 or down to f/5.6 if the shot warrants it. Bear in mind that I'm just an enthusiastic amateur so would be more adventurous with settings if my hobby involved a more professional or experienced approach. I only ever use the centre focusing spot and have transferred the focusing option to the * button (custom function 4) as I find this gets me better results (another tip I picked up from POTN!).

I think the photos of the little girl are good and sharp although I take note of the comments offered by others on the use of flash. The still life is, as you say, a crop so a little more sharpening in post processing might be worth trying.

I have also learned not to be so worried about higher ISO numbers with the 400D as it seems to handle noise very well. The expression I read was "better a noisy sharp photo than a clean blurred one (through low shutter speed and resultant camera shake)". I'm assuming the same approach might be appropriate for the 40D.


Taken in the early morning sun using a Kenko 12mm extension tube with the 17-70.

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Pugwash wrote in post #6319371
I've found the 17-70 to be a good lens for both my 300D and now my 400D. You should find it equally as good for your 40D. I nearly always use the lens at f/8, occasionally drifting up to f/11 or down to f/5.6 if the shot warrants it. Bear in mind that I'm just an enthusiastic amateur so would be more adventurous with settings if my hobby involved a more professional or experienced approach. I only ever use the centre focusing spot and have transferred the focusing option to the * button (custom function 4) as I find this gets me better results (another tip I picked up from POTN!).

I think the photos of the little girl are good and sharp although I take note of the comments offered by others on the use of flash. The still life is, as you say, a crop so a little more sharpening in post processing might be worth trying.

I have also learned not to be so worried about higher ISO numbers with the 400D as it seems to handle noise very well. The expression I read was "better a noisy sharp photo than a clean blurred one (through low shutter speed and resultant camera shake)". I'm assuming the same approach might be appropriate for the 40D.

Taken in the early morning sun using a Kenko 12mm extension tube with the 17-70.


Taken on a dull day in the open with just the 17-70 lens on. Ideally I should have opened up the lens a stop to get the shutter speed up a bit more.

Why?
Shutter speed is 1/100” which is more than enough for the focal length being used (28mm) and the subject is not moving.

tuttifrutti wrote in post #6318984
Thanks guys. That helps a lot. I do have an external flash (Canon 430EX) so i'll be popping that on next time indoors. I also seem to suffer with the softeness outside too for all my handheld shots I tried at the weekend. Like I say, i'm just learning but I think i'm comforted in the fact that the odd one comes out sharp. At least that's telling me I don't have a duff lens as is the normal thought process when it goes pear-shaped. I just want to achieve a much higher "keeper" rate

Are you shooting stationary objects or moving objects? When shooting moving objects you should be using AI Servo for auto focus so that the camera "tracks" the subject. Using one shot with moving subjects could be causing an issue of you allow even the smallest amount of time between focus and clicking the shutter.

Also, thin DOF could cause your object to be soft if you miss focus.