Lens issue ... I think

Bub

Senior Member
I have a D3400 and recently picked up a second hand Sigma 17-50 f2.8 EX lens, I took it up north and took photos of the family and I have to say I'm not very impressed. Now I'm a novice at best but I do try and shoot in manual and learn through error as best I can and these photos didn't come out nearly as sharp as I had hoped. I'm looking for some feedback and what I did wrong or am I expecting too much out of this set up. Thanks in advance

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For the outdoor ones it looks like a overcast day. So rather dull and flat. A lot of that could be handled better in post processing. If you will resize the photos to 1000px on the long side before you upload the EXIF data will show for us to see how you shot it. If you could tell us how you shot it and we can help you more.
 

nickt

Senior Member
When you say manual do you mean exposure or focus? Or both? What were your settings? These shots do look soft. I just got this lens and I don't have much experience with it, but its very sharp. So you have something going on here. Shutter, aperture, iso and focal length will be helpful to know. Also if you shot raw or jpg. Probably jpg since you are new.
 

Bub

Senior Member
I'm working on fixing the links now, the outdoor shots were done, ISO 100-200 f2.8 and shutter 1/320 IIRC
 

Bub

Senior Member
When you say manual do you mean exposure or focus? Or both? What were your settings? These shots do look soft. I just got this lens and I don't have much experience with it, but its very sharp. So you have something going on here. Shutter, aperture, iso and focal length will be helpful to know. Also if you shot raw or jpg. Probably jpg since you are new.

I'm working on fixing the links now, the outdoor shots were done, ISO 100-200 f2.8 and shutter 1/320 IIRC

first post updated. also shot in raw format, only thing I do when I upload is use Adobe to convert the .NEF to .DNG because for whatever reason Lightroom wont read my .NEF
 

nickt

Senior Member
Your settings look good. Are you doing any sharpening in LR? They could use a little sharpening if you didn't add any already. If you have the light, you could raise the aperture a bit. Maybe the others will have more thoughts.
Its not your problem, but you need LR 6.7 or 2015.7 cc to open your d3400 nefs.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
In my opinion, shooting any lens wide open will decrease sharpness a little bit, specially when the overall picture is white, it seems to show more.

When taking photos of more than one person, one needs to have enough depth of field so that all are in focus. In this case, this could explain your dissatisfaction.

Third, a bit of fill-in flash would have helped to fill the dark eyes.

So, all in all, I don't think that the lens has a problem, but you could have improved these shots by:
Using a higher iso and closing the aperture to at least 5.6, and using a bit of controlled fill-in flash to balance the light on the faces.

Practice makes perfect and a picture is never perfect :)

Enjoy your Nikon!
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
As Marcel points out... shooting wide open (all your shots are at F2.8) probably isn't a good thing for sharpness... and that may be compounded by that lens... Goto DXOMark and search for that lens/camera body combination to find the sweet spot for that lens. I'll bet it isn't at F2.8...
 

LouCioccio

Senior Member
Bub,
A long time ago when we bought lenses they actually came with a piece of card board that gave a DOF (Depth of Field) calculations at the different aperture. No longer is that given plus most new lenses no longer have a DOF scale. If you have a smart phone you can find some free/99¢ apps that will give you some information what is in focus in front of the subject and behind. Group shots around F/8 (depending on the lens and distance). Portraits probably one stop below the max and definitely a tripod or high shutter speed as you want sharpness.
Not sure if you used an external flash but a reflector (one of those 5 in ones) for the couple shot just to get a little brightness in the face. Just my 2¢.
PA042217.jpgThis one is taken with a an umbrella and flash using a Sekonic Flash meter to give 30%Flash and 70% ambient.
Lou Cioccio
 
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