Sharpness, just not getting there!

dnme

Hi all,

I am having issues getting sharp images with a Canon 60D and it's 18-135mm kit lens. I recently bough this camera and have been out in the field trying it out. I am mainly taking landscape shots. Here's my typical shot setup

• ISO 100
• F16 or 22 to achieve large DOF
• Evaluative metering. - This usually meters up slowish shutter speeds anywhere from 1/20 to 200th sec. I use a very sturdy Manfrotto tripod for most shots.
• I usually use auto focus and am always aware of it. Sometimes I will dial in a particular AF point and sometimes I will dial them all in (auto).
• I use 2 second timer drive so I am never touching the camera when the shutter is released.

Here are some shots from a recent outing. These are exported straight from Lightroom raw files to 1024px on the longside exports with jpeg quality set to 95, No PP whatsoever so little flat but what I'm really concentrating on here is the sharpness. If anyone wants to see an original, I'll try and upload one somewhere but they're 40-50MB. When I zoom into these 1:1 in Lightroom, they just look soft as do all my shots.

Where and how do I start to improve sharpness ? Is it the lens? Is it technique? Is it the camera?

5uspect

Bear in mind that digital.images tend to be naturally soft, and flat. Some sharpening will always be needed. Also as you stop down to f/22 you're going be see diffraction effects. When you're focused at infinity your dof will be infinitely deep. You need to stop down to the sweet spot of your lens which may be closer to f/11 for example.

Also lock up your mirror.

DaireQuinlan

What are you focusing ON ? Doing landscape stuff it's often easier to manually focus, and if you're going wide and stopping down that much it's considerably easier to just use the hyperfocal distance. For example, given customary figures for just how 'in focus' you think 'in focus' actually is, with the 18mm lens at f/16 if you focus it at 4 feet everything from 2 feet to infinity will be acceptably in focus.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html is a good tool to mess around with these figures.

Also, sharpness. Meh. Overrated. It's about the last thing I worry about in a shot. Some of my favourite shots have been out of focus, or motion blurred, or taken with an old Helios 44 which can't, under any stretch of the imagination, be called sharp when shot wide open (which is the only way I CAN shoot it, having broken the aperture mechanism )

Snowie

Is it the lens? Is it technique?

Land Scape is best at F11 next time, spot meter on your mid tones, and don't worry about the tripod to much weight to be carrying, don't be afraid of a little noise if you gotta boost the iso up..Work from your histogram and adjust accordingly!

As for your lens its a kit lens don't expect clarity of something like the 24 usm2!

dnme

I dunno fellas,

I'm just not impressed by any of these images I'm getting. I will say that sharpness is somewhat important to me. I'm always hoping to see a bit of quality coming off the camera into Lightroom. But I am always left thinking, my point and shoot can do just as well. I am always left feeling a little disappointed.

From the last image above, I used the camera to show me where it focussed. I then blew it up 1:1 in Lightroom and took a screen grab.
I was standing on the road taking this. I used a heavy duty Manfrotto tripod with the heavy ball head. I took it at 18mm, f22, ISO 100 @ 1/4 second.

Here's the screen grab. Now be honest. Considering my setup, camera, lens and tripod. Is this normal? / acceptable?

5uspect

Your lens is probably sharper at f/8 or f/11 than it is at f/22. Sharpness s not a linear function of f-number.

gloobag

dnme wrote: »

Now be honest. Considering my setup, camera, lens and tripod. Is this normal? / acceptable?

I would say that it probably is normal for that particular lens, at 18mm and stopped all the way down to f/22 to be that soft.

Kit lenses are just not very good unfortunately. As others have said, you need to find the sweet spot. Do a test taking the same photo at all apertures and then compare all the images at 100% to find the highest quality. It will probably be in the f/8 to f/11 range. Make sure to engage mirror lockup and use a cable release/timer when shooting to ensure minimum vibration.

But also be aware, this lens will never be all that great. If you can afford to, sell it on and get yourself something like the 17-40mm L if you want to shoot landscapes.

dnme

Thanks to everyone contributing to this thread. It's very much appreciated. I have a Sigma 10-20mm on the way from ebay, Meanwhile I will try this kit lens at carious f stops and see what I come up with. Glad to hear that the IQ is "normal" enough.

Adrian.Sadlier

Does your lens have IS (Image Stabilisation)?

If so, make sure you turn it off when using a tripod otherwise it can cause blurring of shots.

dirtyghettokid

Adrian.Sadlier wrote: »

Does your lens have IS (Image Stabilisation)?

If so, make sure you turn it off when using a tripod otherwise it can cause blurring of shots.

i was just going to say the same thing. always turn IS off for long exposures.
different lenses have different sweet spots, have a play with different f-stops and compare @ 100%

dnme

Adrian.Sadlier wrote: »

Does your lens have IS (Image Stabilisation)?

If so, make sure you turn it off when using a tripod otherwise it can cause blurring of shots.

dirtyghettokid wrote: »

i was just going to say the same thing. always turn IS off for long exposures.
different lenses have different sweet spots, have a play with different f-stops and compare @ 100%

Never knew that, something I'll bear in mind in future.

Mjollnir

dnme wrote: »

Never knew that, something I'll bear in mind in future.

Here's your problem, graphically.

http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1292/cat/11

Your lens was never designed to go anywhere in the same postal code as F22.

b318isp

I assume you are shooting RAW, not JPEG too?

For well lit scenes, 100% USM is often needed, with selective sharpening.

Stopping down to high f-numbers is only necessary when you have a close foreground interest as well as the distance. The cheaper lenses tend to struggle when stopped fully open or closed - as many have said, f8-11 should suffice. You have shot at the wide end of the zoom and minimum aperture - avoid the extremes with non L glass!

Also try a different lens, some come out of the box with problems.

I'd finally point out that zooming in 100% on an image will never be crystal clear, it's the sharpness at the screen or print size that you wish to use the picture for is what is important.

brokenarms

Check out the link for this lens on SLR .com .
http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1522/cat/all

AnimalRights

Not a landscape shooter but a nice informative thread.

frozenfrozen

An aperture such as F22 will become soft because of a phenomenon called maximum resolution, which is discussed here > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_resolution (see lens resolution)

LGD42

Thanks for all the information contained in this thread folks. I've learned more reading this than I ever knew, in all the years of amateur photography.

Probably explains a lot of poor shots I was expecting more from, over the years.

magicbastarder

is there focus calibration on your camera? not something i know a lot about because i've never had to worry about it, but some cameras allow you to fine tune the AF in case the camera is focussing just past or just short of the desired focus point.

LGD42

I'm just not sure about that. I'm using a new Canon EOS 550D with the 18-135 EFS Kit lens and I'm not having this trouble myself at the moment. However, in the past, I've used different cameras with longer lenses and it was my inclination to get as near to f.22 stop for sharpness. Through use I discovered f11 provided better results but always assumed it was the lens. Never knew about turning off the IS either!

You live and learn.

Thanks all.

Promac

I've had some great results with this lens on a 450D but I never ever went below f16 with it. As people have pointed out, you can lose sharpness at smaller apertures but you also lose light and have to simply increase the exposure time to compensate, introducing more time for the wind and whatever to add a little more softness.

And don't be afraid to up the ISO a little bit. Even if you're only going to 160 or 320 you'll get a noticeable drop in exposure time for very little trade-off. ISO100 is for sunny days or better gear.