Focusing/softness issue, need your help please.

C

Caymia

Senior Member
Hi everyone
My photos using the D3200 ad kit lens 18-55mm are soft at full res. I want sharp images. I get sharper photos on my compact camera!
I don't think I am doing anything wrong.
Can you show me some examples at full res using the same equipment so I can compare, and I can see if it's me or a problem with the equipment.
Any advise, thoughts, help etc would be appreciated.
Here's my example:
 

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C

Caymia

Senior Member
Oh, not sure you can see this at full res, so I cropped the flower which is what I focused on.
 

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C

Caymia

Senior Member
Hi Mike, Sorry, new to the forum, so not sure how to do this! I hoped you could retrieve all the info from the image.
OK, shot in jpeg and raw. This is the jpeg. f/5.6, 1/160sec, ISO 200, 6000x4000 pixels. Is that enough info?
(Having tech issues with typing, soz for short rples and spelling, arh,not my day!)
 
M

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Caymia said:
Hi Mike, Sorry, new to the forum, so not sure how to do this! I hoped you could retrieve all the info from the image.
OK, shot in jpeg and raw. This is the jpeg. f/5.6, 1/160sec, ISO 200, 6000x4000 pixels. Is that enough info?
(Having tech issues with typing, soz for short rples and spelling, arh,not my day!)
Click to expand...

I take it you haven't set the in camera sharpening then,nikon cameras leave the factory with the settings too low,i will let some one else come along and explain as i dont shoot jpeg and dont want to tell you wrong.
 
C

Caymia

Senior Member
Thanks mike, I've had a look but can't find what to change on the camera. Hopefully someone else can help. This could well be the problem.
 
C

Caymia

Senior Member
Arr, ok. So it doesn't really change anything before photographing? I'm just so disappointed with this rubbish clarity. I know it's only a kit lens, but reviews say it's sharp and my pentax kit lens was super for sharpness (hated everything else about it lol!), and as I say my canon SX50 HS is much sharper. Something mst be wrong if I can get better photos on that!
 
J

John Thomson

Senior Member
Another post, "Horoscope Fish" Could be several things but if you're shooting JPG you may want to adjust the Sharpness setting in the Picture Control menu.

To make this adjustment...
Press the Menu button.
Highlight the Shooting Menu (camera icon)
Drop down to "Set Picture Control" then click right one time.
(This menu contains all the Picture Controls (Stanadard, Vivid, Landscape, etc. and each one has it's own set of Quick Adjust menus)
Highlight the Picture Control you're using, probably "Standard" and click right one time to enter the Quick Adjust menu.
Highlight the "Sharpening" setting and increase it from the oddly low default to +6 or +7.
Press "OK" to exit the menu.​

This one adjustment will have a significant impact on the overall sharpness of your JPG photos.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
jet2004uk said:
Another post, "Horoscope Fish" Could be several things but if you're shooting JPG you may want to adjust the Sharpness setting in the Picture Control menu.

To make this adjustment...

Press the Menu button.
Highlight the Shooting Menu (camera icon)
Drop down to "Set Picture Control" then click right one time.
(This menu contains all the Picture Controls (Stanadard, Vivid, Landscape, etc. and each one has it's own set of Quick Adjust menus)
Highlight the Picture Control you're using, probably "Standard" and click right one time to enter the Quick Adjust menu.
Highlight the "Sharpening" setting and increase it from the oddly low default to +6 or +7.
Press "OK" to exit the menu.​

This one adjustment will have a significant impact on the overall sharpness of your JPG photos.
Click to expand...
The above steps should fix the problem. From looking at your photo's you're shooting JPG and those photos do look soft to me. The in-camera sharpness setting should solve the issue. Another thing to keep in mind is keeping the shutter speed at twice the focal length. If you're shooting at 50mm the shutter speed needs to be 1/100 or faster for the sharpest photos.
 
C

Caymia

Senior Member
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I changed the setting to +7 and now I am getting what I would expect from this lens.
Do I undestand right that for raw files I would have to do this in post processing to achieve the same result?
You guys are great :)
 

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Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Caymia said:
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I changed the setting to +7 and now I am getting what I would expect from this lens.
Do I undestand right that for raw files I would have to do this in post processing to achieve the same result?
You guys are great :)
Click to expand...
In short, yes... RAW files bypass all the in-camera processing JPG files receive automatically; and that's a LOT of processing, sharpening included. On the flip side, what you gain by working with RAW files is an *immense* degree of control over the final product.
 
C

Caymia

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
Another thing to keep in mind is keeping the shutter speed at twice the focal length. If you're shooting at 50mm the shutter speed needs to be 1/100 or faster for the sharpest photos.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I'm trying to take time out to learn how to get good shots, instead of just point and shoot, so I really appreciate it :)
 
N

nickt

Senior Member
Caymia said:
Do I undestand right that for raw files I would have to do this in post processing to achieve the same result?
Click to expand...
Nikon software like ViewNX2 (there might be something newer??) should show your camera jpg settings applied to the raw file as a starting point.
 
L

Love Nikon

Banned
Nice one Mikew daring to mention sharpening ....go to menu ..the little camera symbol ..then to picture control Ok,Ok and you get the sharpening bar move the cursur right ..Personally I go for a full +9 .Also check you are in large but it matters little if you pick basic normal or fine for the compression.
What you view the images on can make a difference I use Microsoft picture viewer ..the basic picture viwer in windows is a bit soft or of course a MAC
 
C

Caymia

Senior Member
Well, I've been playing and experimenting and even though the in camera sharpening made a big difference I'm still not happy.
I am pretty sure it's not me. Either the lens is faulty or I'm expecting to much from it.
I'm shooting in raw now, nudged on by you guys :)
Thanks again.
 
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