{"id":751,"date":"2009-10-13T09:36:37","date_gmt":"2009-10-13T13:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=751"},"modified":"2011-02-24T14:25:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T18:25:56","slug":"problems-with-sharpness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2009\/10\/13\/problems-with-sharpness\/","title":{"rendered":"Problems with Sharpness?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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This classic BAA image was created at a shutter speed of 1\/30 sec. If you think that your equipment is the cause of your usharp images, please keep reading. Not sure who said this but I do agree: "Most lenses are sharper than most photographers." This print will be offered as a limited editon canvas print in several months. See the Bulletins or the BAA store here: https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/category.aspx?catid=31 for details on this print series.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

BASIC SHARPNESS TESTING<\/h2>\n

I receive several e-mails each week from folks who state that this or that camera does not focus properly or that this or that lens is not sharp. \u00a0In 99% of these cases I am sure that operator error rather than equipment malfunction is the cause.\u00a0 That said, on rare occasion, folks using quality equipment from Canon or Nikon do experience real problems with focusing accuracy.\u00a0 If you are handholding, please do not complain about unsharp images. \u00a0( Handholding telephoto lenses can be done successfully only be a very few highly skilled folks.)\u00a0 I was walking around in Sabine Woods late yesterday afternoon. It was cloudy dark. I was working at ISO 800 with shutter speeds of about 1\/60th second and even slower at times. There were two folks walking around handholding 500 f\/4 lenses; they might as well have gone fishing as there was no way that they could create a sharp image without a tripod in those conditions.\u00a0 For most folks it is best to work on a tripod at all times when using your longest lens (unless you are handholding for flight or for action).\u00a0 Another factor to consider is that most of the folks who write complaining of unsharp image are using cameras with 1.6X or 1.5X multiplier effects.\u00a0 They need to realize that these cameras multiply vibrations and movement caused by operator error by the square of the equivalent focal length!\u00a0 So using a 500 lens with say an EOS-50D you are really working at an effective focal lenght of 800mm, not 500mm.<\/p>\n

If you are using a tripod you need to check and note the shutter speeds of your unsharp images. I had one guy on an IPT complaining that none of his images were sharp. I checked his set-up and saw that he was working in near darkness at ISO 100 with shutter speeds in the 1\/8 to 1\/15 second range. Making sharp images with a long lens at such slow shutter speeds is simply not possible 99.99% of the time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When working at long effective focal lengths I am confident that I can make sharp images down to 1\/60 second as long as I have time to lock the tripod head and provided that the bird does not move during the exposure. \u00a0With the prime lenses alone, I can usually get down to 1\/30 second. With the relatively new Canon 800mm lens and its new 4-stop IS system, I have made some sharp images at shutter speeds as slow as 1\/6 sec. Here\u00a0are two simple tests to determine if you have faulty equipment.<\/p>\n

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  1. Tape a sheet of newspaper to a sunlit outdoor wall on a relatively still day. Make sure that it is as taped down as flat as possible. (A magazine cover with fine print or a plastic or cardboard test chart are of course better options.)\u00a0 Mount your telephoto rig on a tripod. Lock down the tripod and the lens collar. Make sure that you are beyond the minimum focusing distance of your lens and that the distance range switch (if your lens has one) is set to full.\u00a0 Make a few images at the wide open aperture using both One-Shot and\u00a0AI Servo AF with Canon gear or Single (S) or Continuous (C) AF with Nikon.\u00a0 Then do the same thing at f\/8. As long as the wall is sunlit you will have more than enough shutter speed to know that your focusing issues are not caused by too-slow shutter speeds.\n

    Now download your images and check them for accurate focus.\u00a0 If all of the images are sharp, then you can be sure that your unsharp images were being caused by operator error.<\/li>\n

  2. Stand well off a somewhat busy road with the sun angled so that the approaching vehicles are coming right down sun angle. Use the wide open aperture and choose an ISO that results in shutter speeds greater than 1\/2000 sec.\u00a0\u00a0 Choose AI Servo (Canon) or Continuous (Nikon) and select the center AF sensor.\u00a0 \u00a0As the cars approach, place the central sensor on the license plate.\u00a0 Once focus is acquired,\u00a0hold the shutter button down. and\u00a0make a series of images.\u00a0\u00a0Even this simple task requires some practice so be sure to take lots of images.\u00a0 Download the images and sort them into two groups:\u00a0 sharp on the license plate and unsharp on the license plate.\u00a0 Now using an application that allows you to see the position of the active focusing sensor, in this case the central sensor, note the position of the sensor in the unsharp images.\u00a0\u00a0 If the sensor is consistently on the license plate and the images are unsharp, then you likely have equipment problems.\u00a0 At this point you will need to send both camera and lens to the manufacturer along with a CD of the images.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You can repeat this test with various camera bodies and various lenses in an effort to determine the cause of your\u00a0problem.\u00a0 Again, when and if you are pretty sure that you have an equipment problem it is best to send the gear to the manufacturer along with a CD of the test images.\u00a0 In the great majority of\u00a0cases, folks will learn that their equipment is perfectly fine but that\u00a0poor sharpness or panning techniques, slow shutter speeds,\u00a0or incorrect AF settings\u00a0\u00a0are the cause of the unsharp images. \u00a0Do also realize the importance of subject movement.\u00a0\u00a0 While working at the Cozad Ranch probably well more than half of my images were unsharp. This was due in most cases to subject movement. In other cases, the unsharp images were a result of the AF system being unable to maintain sharp focus on the tiny songbirds as they leaped off of their perches.\u00a0 It is important to understand and to realize the limitations of our equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    ngg_shortcode_1_placeholder This classic BAA image was created at a shutter speed of 1\/30 sec. If you think that your equipment is the cause of your usharp images, please keep reading. Not sure who said this but I do agree: "Most lenses are sharper than most photographers." This print will be offered as a limited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88,14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-88","category-photography-tips","category-product-info-and-tutorials","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}