Can't get the focus right?

[altrezia]

Hello!

I'm hoping that you guys can help me with this.

I am wondering why I can't get the focus right on my photos. Everything I take seems to be a bit grainy and slightly out of focus. It really makes me dislike the photos I take, and feel like I am incapable of taking a good shot.

It's always been the case with my photos, but the ones I took yesterday are really bad, and have prompted me to make this post.

Here's a couple of pics I took yesterday,

www.dorkish.com/albums/Motorsport%20And%20Shows/2006/Pistonheads%20Nov%2006/IMG_1255.jpg

www.dorkish.com/albums/Motorsport%20And%20Shows/2006/Pistonheads%20Nov%2006/IMG_1252.jpg

And one by Rhubarb to compare them to.

www.kantryla.net/images/virginia_water/DSC_3963.JPG

Can anyone offer any advice on how to improve my photos? I use a Canon 350D, in Av mode, usually 400 or 800 iso speed during the day, and switch between auto and manual focus. I use a canon 28-200mm lens, and sometimes a canon 75-300mm.

When using manual focus I find the viewfinder hard to see through, almost like its too small - is this just the case on the 350D, or am I doing something wrong? is there an add-on I can get or anything to solve it?

Cheers,

Alex 'all the gear, no idea' Ball.

Edited by altrezia on Monday 13th November 12:07

[Gemm]

Unfortunately you've omitted the EXIF, so it's difficult to analyse the images, but it looks like a camera shake to me rather than out of focus.

And I think the 2nd shot might benefit from a bit of sharpening.

Edited by Gemm on Monday 13th November 12:21

[TonyHetherington]

In the first picture it looks like it's focused on the people in the reflection; i.e. a fair way behind the point of focus I assume you were looking for!

The lens you mention, do you get zoom creep from them? Do they have a lock to stop the zoom moving? This could be a source.

Also, why are you using up to ISO800? Seems high for during-the-day stuff and this would cause a bit more noise than is necessary?

Let me stress, my comments should be viewed as a newbie's comments - not an experienced person's comments, but those are my initial thoughts!

Tony

[TonyHetherington]

Ah, and one other thing. What form of auto-focus are you using? I can't remember the terms they use now but there are different settings as to whether it focuses on a selction of the nearest things closest to the lens, or spot-focusing which is a specific (user-definable) point. If it's the former, perhaps it's changing forcus point to that which you desire?

[doodah]

gemm is right i feel.

the sceond one is sharp - on the grill.

on a normal day you should be able to comfortably work at 100 iso, so why so high?

the higher the iso the more noise. could contribute. also what aperture? stopping down on cheaper lenses could be also contributing...

try some tests at 100 and wide open, see if that helps...

edit to add th is on the money.

Edited by doodah on Monday 13th November 12:23

[altrezia]

Sorry about the exif - I can upload an original tonight.

I dont know what zoom creep is, but there's no locks that I know of.

Dont know anything about cameras, so just use what seems to work.

I use the regular autofocus - nearest object deely.

Cheers guys, I will have a play later / tomorrow and see what happens.

Thanks for spending the time to reply to my post

[Gemm]

I think Tony meant whether you used centre focus area only or multi-spot (camera chooses the focus area out of 7 points (?) in 350D?) Also the focus mode can make a difference in accuracy, i.e. AI Servo vs one shot. Using AI Servo for static subject can cause focusing errors.

[TonyHetherington]

Yup that's what I meant! So the result would be that something in the picture would be in focus, just not necessarily what you intended.

By zoom creep I mean that, as an example, your zoom lens moves in and out to go wide > telephoto. If you focus, and then inbetween focus and taking the photograph your hand moves the zoom in or out slightly, then that would be zoom creep - i.e. zoom changes after focusing has occured.

[altrezia]

Ah, sorry. The camera flashes little red dots on a few points of focus after it has autofocused, so thats the mode I use. It's set to one shot, not servo (I use servo for my trackday pics)

Gotcha, my lenses are pretty stiff, so I don't think the zoom moves at all after I've Manual Focused.

I'll get my tripod out tonight and have a go at taking some pics of random crap around my house, see what I can come up with. I didnt use a tripod yesterday, I didnt really think I'd need it during the day. Perhaps my arms are more wobbly than I thought. heh heh

Thanks again for the advice.

[TonyHetherington]

altrezia said:

Ah, sorry. The camera flashes little red dots on a few points of focus after it has autofocused, so thats the mode I use. It's set to one shot, not servo (I use servo for my trackday pics)

That's multi-point focus which may not be helping your cause (depending on what you are trying to do). Take a look in the instruction manual tonight when you get home and look at the spot-focus versus multi-point options, it should explain the differences and you'll be able to understand what's happening.

I tend to use spot-focusing 99.9% of the time. Normally focused in the centre but you can use the little joystick to choose a different part of the picture. If you use the centre, use 'focus lock' which is where (using your pictures above as an example) you would look at the black Enzo in the foreground with the camera, focus it, keep the button held down and move the camera to frame the picture as you wish, and then take the photograph. So it would be focused on the black Enzo in the foreground but the centre of the picture would be somewhere else.

Hope that all helps!
Tony

[altrezia]

It does - very much so.

Appreciated,
Al.

[Altrezia]

Right then. I spent 10 mins or so playing with my camera tonight.

I've uploaded the results for you to see, and to tell me if this is the best my camera can do, or if I am really rubbish.

They're huge files (as they came out of the camera)

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1322.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1322.JPG

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1326.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1326.JPG

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1328.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1328.JPG

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1329.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1329.JPG

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1336.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1336.JPG

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1339.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1339.JPG

www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1341.CR2
www.dorkish.com/camera_stuff/IMG_1341.JPG

Please ignore the subject matter, I was only using it to vary the colours and what-not.

If anyone wants to mess about with the pics in photoshop and see if they can clean them up or whatever, then post their results, that'd be great - might show that my post processing is wrong too.

Cheers
al.

Edited by Altrezia on Monday 13th November 19:46