Fuzzy Pictures..

I'm a budding hobbyist and have been shooting on and off for around 5 months now. I just picked up a 55-250 and my photography bug bite has become infected .

I've been editing my shots in photoshop (both outdoor natural light and indoor studio lighting) and have noticed that at 100% my pictures are kind of fuzzy. I have experimented with many different possibilities and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or if its the lenses I have in my arsenal. I always shoot at 100 ISO, if I use my tripod I turn IS off, I use the timer when I can so I'm not touching the camera when it shoots and I've experimented with the different focal points and manual / auto focus.. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

For my DIY studio I have 4 fluorescent daylight bulbs (2 75w and 2 100w) and I try to shoot in the late afternoon when I shoot outdoors.

Here is a pic of the diy setup. Any helpful suggestions to make these lenses work would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise direct me to the ones I should start saving for

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That pic is jacked! do you shoot in raw or jpeg(though it shouldnt matter)?

I shoot in RAW except for sports.

Hmmmmmm, why don't you post some of the fuzzy pics you say your getting, that would be a start. Also post the setting used in the shots as well along with any filters used like uv nd and what not.

Sevan

Let me be the first to point out that looking at 100% is ... well ... not particularly fruitful. That is an extremely tight crop, and while it can be useful at times I wouldn't consider it the nromal way of viewing images.

But, as others said how about posting what you're seeing and maybe we can tell you what's going on.

Combatmedic870 wrote in post #10508218
That pic is jacked! do you shoot in raw or jpeg(though it shouldnt matter)?

wait...what's so jacked about it?


o.p. post some sample shots that you are not happy with...it could just be a DOF thing if you are that close to your subject

This is the one I took today (in the setup shot I posted before). I sized it down to fit on here but if you zoom in 100% the soil and flowers are a little soft.

This was taken with a tripod:

f/25
1/5s
18-55 @ 55
ISO 100

I did some slight editing in photoshop to the bulb and the background but I didn't touch the soil or flowers.

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don't shoot at f25...i wouldn't go past f16

f/25!
Diffraction softening.

Mike787 wrote in post #10508327
This is the one I took today (in the setup shot I posted before). I sized it down to fit on here but if you zoom in 100% the soil and flowers are a little soft.

He he hee...

Do you have any filters on the lens? i.e. "protective" UV filter?

If so, try the same setup without the filter on and see if you get the results your looking for.

As I said, I'm new. What is diffraction softening? f/16 didn't seem to focus the whole thing but it could have been my mistake. Is there a chart or something to see how deep the "field" is for each aperture stop?

As mentioned above, you will be getting a little diffraction softening coming into play at that aperture.

You could also be seeing a little camera shake due to the shutter speed, if your tripod isn't good and solid and you aren't using mirror lock up (I see you are using remote release or the self-timer which is good, but mirror slap can cause vibrations too).

A filter might be an issue too, if you have one fitted.

I wasn't using a filter. How would I lock my mirror?

Mike787 wrote in post #10508448
I wasn't using a filter. How would I lock my mirror?

Mirror lock up is in the custom functions section of your camera.