Technique for sharp images

[gpiano]

Dear All,

I'm a long time photography enthusiast and have just joined the forum, and I am looking for a bit of advice please. As brief background, I have lots of general photography experience having used film in the past, and more recently digital: - p&s (ricoh grd, fuji f20, some kodak thing), rangefinder (Leica M8) and SLR (Pentax K10 and K20, lots of glass). Recently I have mainly been using Sigma DP1 and DP2. Generally i'm into urban landscapes, documentary and people. Following a recent trip to Richmond Park, London however, I found that my 40mm lens on the Sigma DP2 meant I was unable to take any photos of the lovely deer there. So I sold my DP1 and have bought a second hand Leica VLux 1 for £250 with 6 month warranty which I figured was a good deal.

So - to the question. The weather was nice today, I went to Richmond again to put the camera through it's paces. Basically I can't work out why some shots are very sharp and some less so. I have tried manual focus and auto focus, tripod mounted (some large manfrotto thing) or handheld. With and without polariser filter. Have also tried both stabilisation settings. Also tried with and without self timer. Shooting mainly at full zoom (88.8mm - 420mm efov). Being basically new to long lens use and photographing animals like this, I wondered if there was any trick or knowledge I was missing. Is it normal for it to be a bit hit or miss? - if above 1/125th shutter should that freeze motion, or does it need to be higher shutter than this?

I include a couple of photos from today, my first wildife outing - with toddler in tow! - All shot Raw and processed in Lightroom. One nice and sharp, the other slightly off sharp - the sharp one handheld at 1/400 sec and f 3.7, the non-sharp one tripod mounted at 1/50 sec and f5.6. Both iso 100, both with polariser.

Words of wisdom/advice etc... very much appreciated!

Many thanks

Gawain

[Bruce Williams]

Welcome to the forum Gawain.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of helpful advice from our our bird and mammal photographers (I'm almost exclusively macro). However, at 1/50s wind can create a softening effect on grass, leaves and hair. Subject movement may also contribute to a softer image even though you are tripod mounted.

Bruce

[John D]

Hi Gawain,
I don't know anything about your camera however -

for starters try increasing the ISO to say 400 so that in turn you can increase the aperture setting to around f8 and still retain a shutter speed of around 1/400sec.
The rule of thumb for shutter speed is based on '1/zoom length in mm' ie in your case around 1/400sec when hand held.

In order to have a reasonable depth of field the aperture setting would be better at around f8.

Obviously there are no hard and fast rules to what the setting should be several factors come into play such as, the amount of light,length of zoom,whether the subject is still or moving, just how steady are you when hand holding and the ability of the camera to accept higher ISO settings.

My advice is to practice be patient and and work towards having a full understanding of your camera's operation.

John D
Zenfolio | John's Wild World

[Lacerta]

Welcome Gawain

Looking at the two images and comparing against the techs, it looks to me like, as Bruce has mentioned, even though the camera is tripod mounted, there is a small amount of movement which is enough to give the impression of being out of focus. 1/50 is a relatively slow shutter speed.

In addition the focus point appears to be in line with the tree to the far right, therefore the Deer look to be just outside the area in focus.

You may want to close the aperture down a bit and raise the ISO to catch more of the Deer in focus, then take a series of shots so that you increase your chance of getting the Deer to look sharp.

Hope this helps.

regards

Heath

[gpiano]

Hello All,

Firstly thanks for the welcome!

It does sound like I'm expecting too much sharpness from relatively slow shutter speeds. I normally work handheld with 35mm or 40mm lenses, so am used to that.

John - I think that with the tiny sensor on my camera f5.6 should give me enough depth of field, but I'll certainly experiment with all the stops and let you know how I get on.

Lacerta, yes you're right, that tree is in focus, whoops! - still, had many with the problem. I think it's too slow a shutter speed that's doing it. I may also invest in a remote cord for the camera to eliminate all shake on tripod shots.

Thanks All! - I'll get practicing again and I'll let you know how I get on.

Gawain

[Bruce Williams]

Gawain - Just another thought.....and you may well already know this.....

I suspect that like most image stabilisation systems (both lens based or in-camera) the Leica IS should be turned off when the camera is used with a tripod. If it's left on then there could actually be a resulting loss in image quality, see:

Image Stabilization on Tripods

It might be interesting to run a few tests with your camera to see if there is any noticeable loss in quality when using IS on a tripod (particularly at slow shutter speeds).

Bruce

[Tobyh]

Hi Gawain,

Welcome to the forums.

Another point to consider is that although you may well have the camera on a tripod, that doesn't guarantee that it's not moving at all. As has already been pointed out, at 1/50s a slight breeze could cause some softness. I personally would also check that it's not mirror slap causing issues too. Even remotely triggering the shot, the movement of the mirror going up and down can cause vibration and slight movement that can soften an image. Manfrotto are a decent maker of tripods (the issue I describe is more pronounced on cheap tripods) but I still add extra weight to the tripod to make sure it's as solid as possible.

You can test this theory indoors so you eliminate all wind and movement and use remote release. I would manually focus ( I would do this to eliminate that option too) - take your image and if it's still soft then you can start to narrow down your options. I like to shoot at text so it's obvious how sharp / soft it is. You can print out sharpness test cards too online.

It may also be worth checking out sharpness test for your lens as many lenses have certain apertures and zoom lengths where they are at their sharpest.

Hope this helps, it's a very similar situation to one I had (and guess many had) which had me flumoxed for a while.

Good luck!

TobyH

[nightshade]

Some lightweight tripods will allow movement in a breeze, did you use aremote release or press the shutter release with a digit?
Auto on most cameras will focus on the nearest object to the lens, not much help perhaps but I have got it off my chest
When I get a new (to me) camera I set up on a tripod in good light and photograph a neighbours wall or chimney and run through the most used speeds and aperatures then check the results for sharpness. My old Spotmatic was invariably set at either 1/125 f8 or 1/250 f8

[Jim Ford]

Remember - all digitally captured images need sharpening, either in camera of in PP (but obviously this doesn't apply to postacard sized snapshots.)

It's not a 'kludge' or cheat to sharpen, and it's not for attempting to make good deficiencies in the optics - it's the physics of a sensor with discrete photosites.

There are lots of explanation as to why on the web, but this one is good:

Sharpening in Photoshop -- Part I

This subject is often misunderstood and crops up so many times, that it ought to be made 'sticky' in the Photography Forum!

Jim

[momji1971]

Just noticed something that might help. Get the polariser off the lens! You lose at least a stop of light having one attached. Unless it's a REALLY sunny day or you are shooting landscapes don't use one. Also depending on the quality of the polarisor, you could be losing sharpness too. It's just another piece of glass to shoot through

I might be speaking for myself but I've never seen another wildlife shooter use a polarisor with moving targets. As you move around the suns position you'll change the effect of the filter too.

regards.
Stu.