Easter on the Muskeg

Hello,

The weather here in Southeast Alaska finally caught up with the calendar. My daughter and I spent the morning on a muskeg picking 'flowers' and looking for the easter bunny.

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She is so sweet!And those blue eyes!!

Both photos seem a bit soft though.

Svetlana,

Thanks for the comments and observation on these pictures. I am new to this hobby and I am looking for insight and ideas. I was crawling around on my hands and knees taking pictures of moss with my macro lens on manual. Saw these chances for a couple of candids and took them. I wil slow down more and pay more attention to fine focus. I am pleasantly happy with what the 100mm macro did as a mini tele though.

Thanks,

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I heard so many good things about 100mm macro! It's on my list... I'm not an expert by any means but I know it's really important that eyes are sharp in portraiture, I love your composition though!! Keep shooting away!

Svetlana and others,

I am looking for some ideas on improving my chances of a sharper image next time. I am guessing that soft refers to lines and contrast that are not sharp. I replayed the situation in my head. There seem to be three variables at play; equipment, technique and setting. I am sure that a combination of all three led to softness. Any help here would be awesome.

Can I expect a sharper image? Should I have switched to autofocus? Should I have changed the lens setting to 0.43-infinity on the 100 mm macro? Is this kind of shot asking too much of a macro lens? Should I expect to need a tripod for these types of shots? The lighting was very good. I was in manual focus and in a supported kneeling position. There were 3-4 other images in this series that were way worse. The shot was taken as follows: Tv-1/200, Av-5.6, ISO-100, Focal Length-100mm @ 0.43-infinity. The image was cropped to about 75% I believe. I did sharpen the image in PS 7. Attached is a smaller copy of the jpeg w/o being cropped.

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