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Still struggling with focus. (1 Viewer)

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BackGardenMoths

Well-known member
Hi all, Well after purchasing my 7D to go with the 100-400mm lens, I went out and testing it today. I still seem to be struggling with focus or is it me and am I expecting to much. Please see the attached images and could you give me your thoughts? I think they're off but I was very careful with focusing etc. The data in embedded in the JPG if it helps point me to what I'm doing wrong. My images always seem under exposed which I guess can't help. Can you please advise me. Thanks..

Simon
 

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I think I'm just still slightly moving the camera and have to work on my exposure etc. It's probably lack of experience unless you can see anything glaring obvious. I'm also perhaps pushing the distance of my lens as well.
 
No Exif in the Redshank, Simon.

I agree that they look underexposed - you can help that: that's what EC is for, and better exposure can - will - often improve the the apparent sharpness of an image.

Some questions:

Are these heavy crops?
Although the shutter speeds are high, was the light as flat and grey as it appears to be?
Where was the light relative to the subjects?
Are you certain about the placement of the AF point on each picture?

I'll be honest and say that my initial reaction isn't of a lack of sharpness per se, but a combination of other issues such as under underexposure, heavy cropping, poor light and - maybe - something about your conversion/post processing.

You're certainly not expecting too much of the 7D/100-400mm set-up though - it's what I use, and I think I do OK.

The attached Lapwing for example (one of the very first images I took with my 7D): it's a hefty crop too, but you can see from the catchlight (I work at getting catchlights! ;)) and the definition in the plumage that I'd made sure that the light (such as it was) was in the right place.

More recently, the Whooper swan is hardly a crop at all, but I still worked to position myself properly so that the bird was in good light.

I really think that's the main issue with your shots, Simon.
 

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How much did you crop these, it's hard to tell on such small images, but the first two seem to be slightly front focused, the focus looks ok on the third, just a bit under exposed.
 
The Lapwing to me looks to be perfectly focused on the wing -- of course, that also means that if you look at the head, that is a little out of focus thanks to the small DOF with a long lens.

Niels
 
Even a slight adjustment of levels & contrast in PS, and the third image comes up ok.
 

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njlarsen said:
The Lapwing to me looks to be perfectly focused on the wing -- of course, that also means that if you look at the head, that is a little out of focus thanks to the small DOF with a long lens.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's why I'm asking about AF point placement - I've got umpteen images where the AF point has been bang on some part of the bird other than the eye, and as a result the rest of the bird has been really sharp but the head has been just that little bit out because of the DOF.
 
Keith Reeder said:
No Exif in the Redshank, Simon.

I agree that they look underexposed - you can help that: that's what EC is for, and better exposure can - will - often improve the the apparent sharpness of an image.

Some questions:

Are these heavy crops?
Although the shutter speeds are high, was the light as flat and grey as it appears to be?
Where was the light relative to the subjects?
Are you certain about the placement of the AF point on each picture?

I'll be honest and say that my initial reaction isn't of a lack of sharpness per se, but a combination of other issues such as under underexposure, heavy cropping, poor light and - maybe - something about your conversion/post processing.

You're certainly not expecting too much of the 7D/100-400mm set-up though - it's what I use, and I think I do OK.

The attached Lapwing for example (one of the very first images I took with my 7D): it's a hefty crop too, but you can see from the catchlight (I work at getting catchlights! ;)) and the definition in the plumage that I'd made sure that the light (such as it was) was in the right place.

More recently, the Whooper swan is hardly a crop at all, but I still worked to position myself properly so that the bird was in good light.

I really think that's the main issue with your shots, Simon.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Keith. Pity you don't live near Northants - I could learn a lot from you me thinks. Yes, all the images were slightly under exposed and they were fairly heavy crops except the lapwing which came close to the hide. As you mention - most of my shots seem to be flat / grey so it maybe my post processing in Aperture. I assume PS is the norm, so I might try the demo.

I'm pretty certain about the placement of the AF point, although maybe I need to be more precise. I have just been playing around in the garden with the camera mounted on a tripod taking photos of Goldfinches 5-6 meters away with some good results. One thing I have noticed is that when I take them as JPG's they are much clearer and crisper the RAW. I know there is some camera sharpening on JPG but it is quite apparent.

I take it you guys usually shoot in AV mode and allow the camera to adjust the shutter speed. If then to low - bump up the ISO setting to get above 1/640th?

Keith: What's EC?

Out of interest, what do you guys call a heavy crop?

Simon
 
Higher iso's 400 and above plus a crop will take away some of the fine detail also the focus point will be quite large compared to the birds head in these shots this could be why the head is not so sharp .
I dont see much wrong with your shots at all taking into account settings ,distance, iso .
Rob.
eddit a big crop to me would be if the bird only takes up about 4mp of the 18 mp but it does depend if its a scenic type shot then 3mp could be fine .
 
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Out of interest, please see the images below. The fluffed up Goldfinch was shot in raw about 4 meters away. The other Goldfinch was about the same distance but shot as a JPG and the Green Finch and Collared Dove were also JPG's and quite heavily cropped from about 10 meters away up in a tree.

Any comments?

Simon

EDIT: Sorry, all were tripod mounted..
 

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Try using the neutral picture style and about -2/3rds of exposure compensation for a starting point then see what they are like after processing
 
BackGardenMoths said:
Out of interest, please see the images below. The fluffed up Goldfinch was shot in raw about 4 meters away. The other Goldfinch was about the same distance but shot as a JPG and the Green Finch and Collared Dove were also JPG's and quite heavily cropped from about 10 meters away up in a tree.

Any comments?

Simon

EDIT: Sorry, all were tripod mounted..
Click to expand...

you may need to apply a little more sharpening in postprocessing to get the image you like when you are using RAW.

Niels
 
a little PP and thers nothing wrong with your shots.
Rob
IMG_1540203.jpg
 
OK, thanks for all your comments and help. I took your advice and went back to my original RAW files and did some more post processing. I think these look a lot better now. What do you think?
 

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