Sharp Shooters

Hi,

Im always looking to improve and find better ways of doing things, so i though what better way than to improve my photography skills than to ask what seems rather decievingly, a simple question. Im sure the feedback would aid all those hoping to improve their sharp shooting with G cameras.

If your like me, youll have come across days where your shots are near SLR quality and then there are shots where you just wonder if you did something wrong despite taking the extra effort to focus as carefully as is needed.

Just experiences on what yields crisp sharp photos, for different scenarios (landscape, portrait, nightshots, how you deal with bad lighting to get crispness etc). If you have any general procedures you follow, let us all know.

This is a very good post and I think a lot will learn from it. Funny, I was only thinking of posting a similar thread to this...I will explain bellow after I share my way of taking photos.

Nightshots I take with this settings since I've achieved better results with them so far...Aperture I think it is the most important in nightshots because it helps the lights not to look artificial (my opinion after testing), funny thing but most of the time I have used Auto Focus but lattely I have been trying to get use of the DOF calculator...The aperture I try to limit from 4.0 to 5.6 and the shutter speed I put in use with different settings so I get different results. The flash I try allways to keep it off and try to make as many shots of the scenery, including horisontal and vertical shots. WB I set it to custom because I allways keep a blank white paper with me. I shoot RAW. I don't think it is neccessary to mention the use of tripod here...:p

Landscape I try to use the smallest aperture here eventhough I almost allways end up with f/5.6 ...I just think the photos are clearer...and allways use a tripod, allways! MF is very good to master for this kind of photos....I am trying... . Read in this forum bout Hypefocal Distance...try this links:

http://www.marcjutras.​com/ehyperfocal.html
http://homepage.hispee​d.ch/flowe/digifoto/hf​d_dof.htm
http://www.dofmaster.c​om/hyperfocal.html

Portrait I try to use the largest aperture possible and zoom in the cases I want the background blurry, I put Manual Focus in a lot of use here and get very sharp photos of the model. I use f/2.0 unless the camera changes it automatically, I think when I zoom... , but If I have an interesting background I again use f/5.6 so everything from close to far is clear...Oh and I use Manual in all of the above mentioned, sometimes Av priority and sometimes Tv priority but mostly Manual.

With Bad lightning I think I could learn from someone because I allways feel I loose especially if there is action in the photo, because if there is still photo I use the nighshot technique abovementioned...I don't have a off camera flash to use so...I have read about a setting though and I had very good results but I lost the setting when I reset my camera and now i can't find the post...but I will figure it out......
I get noise in my badlight photos and I get some noise on Raw too, so a little help here...

oh...also, keep shooting because you allways can erase and reshoot.

Now about my thread that I wanted to post...I wast taking portrait photos yesterday and when I was focusing Manualy on the zoomed section the face was very clear, but when I was half pressing the shutter the face was getting blurry and when I took the photo the photo was blurry too...WHY?
While doing this (using wide aperture f/3.0) the day was sunny and trying to review the photo the camera restarted and got back to its old settings I was shooting RAW...why?

Maybe cause I was using wide aperture on bright sunny day? or....

Thanks,
Artan.

It sounds like your cameras auto focus system was not able to lock focus on your subjects face. This can occur for lots of reasons. One trick i find that works for me is to rotate the camera so you are taking the photo vertically, try focusing and you will find less contrasty or hard to focus situations are almost always perfectly focussed (assuming you are withing focusing range of lens) then with shutter button still depressed, recompose shot (turn back to horizontal, and shoot. Give it a try.

As to answering your second question, no idea why your camera restarted.

Ill let others post their experiences regarding the main topic of this thread and look at responding to my own queries later..

A tripod is the single most important thing to address this issue. Buy one (any one will do) and use it. If you are hand holding remember that ideally you want to be shooting faster than 1/60s. 1/125s will freeze most action including camera shake. Bright sunny days can make it difficult to check focus on the LCD but I find wearing a peaked cap help as you can use the peak to shade the screen and still see what is going on (assuming your eyesight is ok). I also find the focus bracketing feature useful for times when its difficult to tell for sure whether the subject is in focus (the screen can be a little difficult to see in some cases).

Hi there Nabil,

I hav'nt been a member of this forum for long but since joining it has opend my eyes, with tips looking at other peoples shots and taking note from alot of people like RAW, who seems very informative with alot of links for more in depth advice.

Take a look at what i have uploaded at present, there is'nt aolt but will soon be uploading more...? http://www.karlsphotog​raphy.pwp.blueyonder.c​o.uk/

Good luck and lets see some work soon............

I agree with Digidog, the tripod is the most important thing. I must be getting old and shaky because I get blur sometimes at 1/125. I have to go to 1/250th of a second to ensure crisp handheld shots. In low light that just isn't always possible.

I always start in Manual mode and adjust to 0 on the exposure meter. Depending on the shot, I will be interested in a certain shutter speed (like handheld medium light) or aperture setting (where DPF is important). I adjust the primary first then the secondary. In extreme cases I may have to adjust the ISO or turn on the ND filter to get the range I need.

After I set in Manual, if I need to take quick shots, I will switch to either Av or Tv. The main thing is to set the primary parameter and ensure the secondary has enough range to be able to adjust to different light. For instance, if I set the shutter at 1/400 and then need to set the aperture at 2.0 to get a 0 meter reading, I will run into trouble when I set to Tv because the aperture has run out of range and if I focus on a darker spot it can't adjust any more.

Remember, in Av or Tv, exposure is a SETTING. in M exposure is a READING.

Another note: for normal indoor photography, you might as well use Program mode. If you do (with onboard or external flash), you will notice the camera will select 1/60th for the shutter speed and adjust the aperture accordingly. I've been told 1/60th is the right speed to sync with the flash. Unless you are trying for an effect, either use P or Tv at 1/60th, which is the same thing. The camera manufacturers can't be all wrong. Since I've done that, I've had much better success with flash photography (420ex doesn't hurt)

One other thing about white balance and RAW. Apparently white balance is a post shot thing that is done in the software. In the RawShooter Essentials manual it suggests you just set the white balance to AWB and adjust in RSE. I've dont that and rarely have to adjust it.

Does any of that make sense?

Nabil-A wrote:
It sounds like your cameras auto focus system was not able to lock focus on your subjects face. This can occur for lots of reasons. One trick i find that works for me is to rotate the camera so you are taking the photo vertically, try focusing and you will find less contrasty or hard to focus situations are almost always perfectly focussed (assuming you are withing focusing range of lens) then with shutter button still depressed, recompose shot (turn back to horizontal, and shoot. Give it a try.

As to answering your second question, no idea why your camera restarted.

Ill let others post their experiences regarding the main topic of this thread and look at responding to my own queries later..

Nabil...the thing that confused me is that I had the focus on manual and having that in mind I thought the camera doesn't apply Auto Focus...right??? Anyhow I will try your tip...thank you.

When I have the time to fix my tripod I allways use it...allways...and also I set the camera on 2 sec. selfshooting mode so there will not be movement when I press the button to shoot.

Tip for protrait photos...when in daylight try to shoot against the sun but not so it hits the lens...just so the sun won't hurt the models eyes...and

the best time for photos all the pros agree is the dusk and dawn.

Regards,
Artan.

I was referring to the autofocus system. Manual focusing using the LCD can be very difficult. When fully zoomed out large depth of field for acceptable sharpness enables easy manual focusing (as being slightly manually out of focus would still lie in acceptable sharpness range), but i would imagine that when you have a relatively open aperture setting as you would say F2.0-F3.0 your depth of field can become quite small. This again i would imagine would be exasberated with zooming, in conjunction with F2.0 -F3.0. In this scenario, depth of field can be small enough that manually focus ing becomes quite tricky (being slightly manually out of focus would in this case result in being closer to acceptable sharpeness range barriers or even out of range).

Something that i recall from the G6 manual that would help would be to manually focus as close to or as accurately as you can, and then press the set button on the camera while maintaining the subject / focus point framed correctly. This will force the camera focus system to select the closest focus point.
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Mannytkd wrote:
Hi there Nabil,

I hav'nt been a member of this forum for long but since joining it has opend my eyes, with tips looking at other peoples shots and taking note from alot of people like RAW, who seems very informative with alot of links for more in depth advice.

Take a look at what i have uploaded at present, there is'nt aolt but will soon be uploading more...? http://www.karlsphotog​raphy.pwp.blueyonder.c​o.uk/

Good luck and lets see some work soon............

Karl,

I've seen your photos and I really like them...keep on doing what you do ...

Bellow I will post one of the photos that I took that day...(a photo of my wife)...unfortunately she was against the sun so you can notice some squinting...

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Mannytkd wrote:
Hi there Nabil,

I hav'nt been a member of this forum for long but since joining it has opend my eyes, with tips looking at other peoples shots and taking note from alot of people like RAW, who seems very informative with alot of links for more in depth advice.

Take a look at what i have uploaded at present, there is'nt aolt but will soon be uploading more...? http://www.karlsphotog​raphy.pwp.blueyonder.c​o.uk/

Good luck and lets see some work soon............

My photos are all over this forum.. just do a search by user name and you will find links
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=65215
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=66121
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=70647
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=67348
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=65531
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=65769

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=59638



Theres more but that should give you an idea.
Cheers.

in my experience, tripods really help you get a sharper image in many cases compared to handheld. For those times when I'm in a crowd of people, a pro quality MONOPOD (I use a Bogen/Manfrotto unit) is quite convenient and helps to steady the camera.

In my experience with the G6, I've managed to get it to produce the absolute best quality images with the best sharpness when the subject was relatively close, and the shutter speed was high, my best results were with a flash, bouned off the walls or ceiling.. the JPEGs out of the camera required absolutely no sharpening or PP except for a little color balance. I sometimes find that far away subjects, such as trees, etc, don't turn out so crisp.