WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!?

Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 254

Hey everyone...

I have a Nikon D50 camera with an 18-55mm lens. I took this shoot today... I was standing about 15-20 ft from the subject.

This photo was taken at F5.6 and shutter speed of 1/1000

The photo IS NOT sharp..and the exposure is not right...the camera read this as a correct exposure but it's not right...

Can someone enlighten me as to what I'm doing wrong???

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:02 pm

The exposure looks perfect to me. And it is just as sharp as I would expect it to be, as I have a D50 as well. The f/5.6 assures that the girl, as well as the wall behind her is in focus. Are you sure your monitor is accurate? Try looking at it on a different monitor.

I actually really like this photo. The wall gives it a very urban feel, while the dress with the jacket makes it unique and stylish.

Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 55 Location: Illinois, USA

I agree with James, it looks fine to me also.

Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 175 Location: Midwest

At the size you have it, it looks good to me too. Is it soft/out of focus when you zoom in?

Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 254

Thanks for all the feedback...

It is a little soft when you zoom in on her face...I was expecting a more SHARP photo...I feel like overall it's a little soft.

I think (after thinking about this all night) ..that maybe what I wanted was a SLIGHTLY blurred effect on the background so the girl pops out a drop from the photo...I know the colors in the background are strong and force attention which is what I wanted but I didn't want her to fall and get lost in it.

I think to solve that, I may have needed a wider aperture ..maybe a longer lens? (am I right about that?)

Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 63

I longer lens and a wider aperture would blur the background. But you're going to need some distance between the girl and the background as well to get a blurred background.

This site will help you figure out your Depth of Focus at any givern aperture and distance.
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 254

Thanks Shane

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:32 pm

realworld28 wrote:

Hey everyone...

I have a Nikon D50 camera with an 18-55mm lens. I took this shoot today... I was standing about 15-20 ft from the subject.

This photo was taken at F5.6 and shutter speed of 1/1000

The photo IS NOT sharp..and the exposure is not right...the camera read this as a correct exposure but it's not right...

Can someone enlighten me as to what I'm doing wrong???

Given the info... your Depth of Field is at least 7 feet. This is worst case at 17' at 55mm. Either way, plenty to get her and the gate in focus.

Like the others, this shot looks fine at this size. However, at full size, you will be a better judge of the sharpness.

One thing you did not mention is how the shot was captured. If you are shooting JPG then the sharpening setting on the camera.

All digital shots need to be sharpened. There is no way around it. Either the camera does it (part of the process that creates the JPG) or you do it in post process. It has to be done to offset the digital capture.

My suggestion is to set the camera sharpening to the lowest setting if you are shooting JPG. I would then sharpen in PS. The amount will vary with all photos, but that's another discussion.

Based on the shot, I would guess that is the only issue.

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:42 pm

I have the D50 and have found that it chronically underexposes by about a stop or so. I tested it with a gray card. It's worth taking your exposure to the left of your centre line, OR look at your histogram and expose so that everything pushes a bit more to the right.

Also, if you're using the kit lens, you might now get super sharp. It's a decent lens, but I upgraded to the Sigma 17-50 f/2.8 and get sharper images than I did with the original lens.