Sweet Spot 75-300 zoom & Sharpness

[Nikon Kid]

I have noticed that I am shooting on Standard, and in Camera (450d) is set to 3
sharpness. I have decided to shoot only in raw and now I think I will change
to Neutral that has no in camera adjustments. I also notice that Faithful
is the same, is there any difference between Faithful & Neutral ?

I am off to Fineshade Wood Rockingham Forest to-morrow, and want to
know where the best sweet spot is in the lens, basically for sharpness anyone
any ideas as to the best f number at 300mm. I think I will be up in the
800 ISO or higher in the wood its self, last year I got a pair of crossbills
but deleted the wrong files, I am always doing that, the one I had left is part
of my Avatar.

And of cause would dearly like to get the Red Kites in Flight, been 3 times
last year only saw brief glimpse of a Red Kite for 3 seconds, so I better be
quick to-morrow...

Any comments welcome for this beginner

[tdodd]

As you're shooting raw you can try all the different picture styles within DPP or Zoom Browser's Raw Image Task add-on, on the same photo. See the attached screen capture for the dialogue to adjust picture styles in raw image files. Faithful is designed to be used under lighting of exactly 5200K, but there is no specific requirement to do so. It all really depends on what you like.

Nearly all raw processing software, other than Canon's own, is quite unaware of picture styles and will ignore them entirely. The same thing goes for all the other parameters, like sharpness etc.. There is one other piece of software - maybe Breezebrowser? - that does read the Canon settings, but as far as I know, that's it.

I always shoot in Neutral picture style and 0 sharpening. This gives me the most accurate histogram I can get, in camera, so I don't get false alarms about blown highlights(asterisk). My default first pass fix in DPP is to set picture style to Standard and sharpening to 3. I also sort out WB. Normally that's the extent of my editing, unless I've cocked up and need to fix something.

As for lens sweet spots, I don't know about your lens in particular and can't find MTF data for it on my usual reference site - http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/Canon%20EOS%20Lens%20Tests - but normally f/8 will deliver the goods with most lenses.

(asterisk) actually, to get a really honest histogram needs a special custom white balance as well, commonly refered to as "Uni-WB". Unfortunately it tints everything green, but gives an in camera histogram that very closely matches the true saturation levels of the RGB channels of the sensor. The WB is then easily fixed in PP.

[Nikon Kid]

Thanks for the reply Tim, I am adjusting my shots in DPP after download to the computer,
when I am happy. "Thats when I think it looks better" when I have done some adjustments in DPP. I make a jpeg and then a image resize for the forum, then some sharpening .... What about this Histogram, whats thew best shape you are looking for ?
I am basically talking birds with feathers the wife would not like the other ones.


BTW my lens is Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 USM IS I found the report now reading

I am a silly boy again I put 75-300 instead of 70-300 in subject line

Anyother comments welcome from all

[tdodd]

I sharpen in DPP and resize when I output the final jpeg all within DPP. This is the lazy way, but the results are acceptable. You will probably get better results by exporting a TIFF file to Photoshop and then resizing and sharpening there before final conversion to JPEG.

There is no one "correct" shape for a histogram. It depends entirely on the tonal balance within the scene. The things to watch out for, and potentially avoid, are a big spike on the extreme right hand edge of the histogram, indicating blown highlights, or an equivalent spike on the left, indicating lost shadow detail. An ideal histogram will just touch either edge of the histogram but no more than that.

Sometimes nature supplies too much extreme contrast and the camera can't capture everything fully from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights. In that case, unless you can wait for the light to change (clouding over or sun going down), you will have to decide whether holding highlight detail is more important (sunlit white feathers) or shadow detail (black feathers in a woodland with bright sky in the background). If you want to know more, Google will turn up plenty of results. Here are a couple....

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm

[Nikon Kid]

Thanks again Tim, I have gained a bit more experience to put into practice to-morrow.
I read the report on my lens, and have taken note on what I will adjust too.
But in the end it all boils down to light ..........

I remember walking round Rutland Water mumbling to myself not enough light.

[tdodd]

Well if it's a bright sunny day, f/8 and 100 ISO will get you 1/400, which is not a bad starting point. If it's not so bright then there's a lot of scope to bump the ISO before you need to open up wider.

[chewie]

I have noticed that I am shooting on Standard, and in Camera (450d) is set to 3
sharpness. I have decided to shoot only in raw and now I think I will change
to Neutral that has no in camera adjustments. I also notice that Faithful
is the same, is there any difference between Faithful & Neutral ?

I am off to Fineshade Wood Rockingham Forest to-morrow, and want to
know where the best sweet spot is in the lens, basically for sharpness anyone
any ideas as to the best f number at 300mm. I think I will be up in the
800 ISO or higher in the wood its self, last year I got a pair of crossbills
but deleted the wrong files, I am always doing that, the one I had left is part
of my Avatar.

And of cause would dearly like to get the Red Kites in Flight, been 3 times
last year only saw brief glimpse of a Red Kite for 3 seconds, so I better be
quick to-morrow...

Any comments welcome for this beginner


if you want greater flexibility i work to this workflow

Turn off all the in camera settings, take control of as much as what you are shooting and not let the camera take over!

- get the exposure right at the time of shooting (avoid shooting against white cloudy skies - ive had a 70-300 and it doenst handle CA at all well.
- shoot in RAW
- try to shoot under ISO400 (800 at a push) - forget ISO1600 - noise with becomes too apparent, especially if you need to tweak exposure in RAW
- use AV mode (you can control the aperture, camera deals with the speed)
- use partial metering (the camera will take a meter reading from the central 9% of the image area and use the av lock (*)

if you have photoshop, do your sharpening there using the unsharp mask filter, (view @ 100% and start with settings of Amount 100, Radius 0.1,Threshold 0

and slide up radius in small increments, doesnt have to be too much, but do it so u can see the diff until you hit that sweet spot.

also work in layers keeping a layer as "original" in case you cock up, and use adjustment layers, rather than doing permanent adjustments on the live layer.

this way you can turn them on/off and see what effect this has on your image.

anyway, the more you shoot, the more you learn. ive started from scratch 12 months ago, im from a design background so i know the basics, but improving these basics takes time.

i was shooting 400 shots a day, and keeping about 10 - now im a bit less shutterhappy, and shoot about 150 shots in a day

only other thing is, do it your way. theres no right or wrong way to shoot a subject. it depends what end result you are after at the end of the day, this is what i love about photography, its personal expression at its best!

[Nikon Kid]

Thanks chewie, its a month on now, and I have been learning fast, this forum has been
a invaluable source of information, and anyone that has helped in the past thanks.

[JohnZ]

If I remember correctly most, if not all, lenses had their sweet spot at f8. Mind you I am going back to the days of Amateur Photographer and the like.

[chewie]

another thing to bear in mind.

Distance and Depth of Field, size of subject, angle you're shooting side on to to an object then you can probably get away more with a wider aperture.

stopping down doesnt necessarily bring the object "sharper", it will simply bring into play a deeper DoF.

If the object if say 3/4 facing you, then stopping down will get more in "focus"

which is why i shoot primarily in AV mode & RAW - if there aint enough light, at you will at least see the shutterspeed in the view finder - remember, as a rule of thumb, shoot @ a speed to the max focal length of your lens eg. 1/300sec for a 300mm lens - having IS, or shooting on a monopod or tripod will at least help steady the ship further.

Also, i find (at least on the Canon 400D) that the AF is considerably a lot more accurate when it has an object is large enough to fill the frame.

A good thing to do is practice with a stuffed toy and play about with shooting from different angles and distances at different apertures to see what you get. that way you have some understanding for when you shoot for real.

theres nothing worse than bumbling about with settings on the camera and missing your opportunity! - birds wait for no one! o:D