Feeling like I cant get sharp pictures

[John Braden]

I know it's a different model, but on my D5300 there is an image sharpening setting with every shooting mode. You can manually set the sharpness and other settings in the shooting menu. I hope it helps (or that you have that option)!

 

[Horoscope Fish]

If you're shooting in JPG go into your cameras menus, go into the "Shooting Menu" (green camera icon) and highlight "Set Picture Control".
From Picture Control click right one time.
Here you'll see different options for "Standard", "Landscape", "Vivid" etc.
Drop down and highlight "Standard" then click right one time.
You'll see options here one of which is "Sharpening". Highlight this option and adjust the slider to +7.
Press "OK" and exit the menus.

What these steps do is increase the in-camera sharpening done on your JPG photos automatically. Nikon cameras, for whatever reason, come from the factory with this option set really, really low. This one adjustment should make a big impact on how sharp your JPG's look right out of the camera. My instructions also assume you're using "Standard" in the Picture Controls menu. Each one of those controls (Vivid, Landscape, etc.) has their own set of menus so each has its own "Sharpening" setting. If you're using something other than "Standard" (I use Landscape personally) you'll need to adjust the sharpening in the Picture Control you actually use.
....

 

[picturegirl]

I don't shoot in JPEG I shoot in raw. Thank you all so much for ur help much appreciated

 

[BackdoorArts]

If you're shooting RAW then you have to sharpen. There are lots of ways to do it, and using Lightroom/ACR defaults isn't one of them. It's one of the most important lessons I learned and it made a huge leap in the quality of my images. The most important thing to learn is that you don't want to sharpen until the very end. Sharpening a full size image and then resizing can not only undo the sharpening work, it can actually over-emphasize it and make your image look horrible. Your images don't look unsharp, but they do appear unsharpened.

There are various methods and techniques for sharpening your images, and all of them have their place (including the wastebasket), and it's important to experiment with various methods to know what works for an image. I tend to bounce between using hi-pass filters and Unsharp Mask. My brother is a huge disciple of Photoshop's Smart Sharpen tool. Regardless, learn them and learn how to use them.

Here's a pretty good overview. There are many others.

 

[picturegirl]

Thank you I was just looking up how to sharpen in elements and will def put that into my work flow I have taken a few classes and am not done with one yet and I'm assuming this will be covered in it but seeing all the ways I will def test out and see where I get thanks again

 

[BackdoorArts]

Most of the techniques shown in PS will work in Elements. I don't remember if it has Smart Sharpen, but it definitely allows for the others.

 

[picturegirl]

I watched a really good video on it will be testing out tonight and will post results here

 

[Scott Ramsey]

Thanks BackdoorHippie for the video, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. One question, I didn't understand what the presenter meant by "output" and "regular workflow." He uses smart sharpen (which I generally use) for output but the other methods such as sharpening masks in his general workflow. Not sure of the difference. Thanks

 

[PaulPosition]

Can't watch the video right now, but I think what he *might* mean is that he uses a bit of sharpening, by default, in his workflow but that he does the most of it at output time, with values that fit the output size and type (screen, print, ...). You wouldn't use the same radius and strength values for an image that will be 800px x 600px as you'd use on an image that's 6000x4000px or you'd create halos (high-def values on a low-def image) or it just wouldn't sharpen much if at all (low-def values on a high-def image).

 

[picturegirl]

Ok so I took this picture did my raw edits, brought into ps and did color curves and sharpening. Hoping it looks less flat and sharper than previous pictures and not bad lol

 

[equuleus]

Fixing Unsharp Images

try this link....very practical advice on determining sharpness problems.

 

[BackdoorArts]

Thanks BackdoorHippie for the video, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. One question, I didn't understand what the presenter meant by "output" and "regular workflow." He uses smart sharpen (which I generally use) for output but the other methods such as sharpening masks in his general workflow. Not sure of the difference. Thanks

I'd have to rewatch to catch the specific reference, but I'm guessing that he does a certain amount of sharpening as a part of his normal processing (i.e. workflow) to bring out the most in the full size image, typically using masks to control the amount and location of the sharpening, and then re-sharpens on output to JPG to make sure that the resized image is optimally sharpened. I do this myself, but don't discuss it much as everyone has different theories about how and when to sharpen. Suffice it to say that I tend to use a hi-pass filter with either an Overlay or Vivid Light blend modes as a part of my normal editing, and then resharpen output files as required.

 

[aroy]

What settings are you using for Auto Focus. From your images I feel
. The AF is in auto, that is it is choosing what it thinks best.
. The background is sharp in the first few images.
. The grass is sharp in the last image, that means the AF is on grass and not on the face.

Try the following
. Focus Mode : Single Servo
. Area Mode : Single Point
. Metering : Centre Weighed
. Mode Dial : Aperture Priority
. ISO : 200
. Aperture : F4

Now use the centre point to focus on the face/eye and shoot. You should get sharp focus on the face, and reasonably blurred background.

 

[picturegirl]

I don't have it in auto focus I have it in single servo this one was a running kid at me didn't have time to really get the focus correct lol

 

[kamaccord]

I have a nikon d7000 main lens I use 17-50 2.8 and I just feel like I cant get the sharp pictures that I am striving for, I shoot in manual setting my own aperture, shutter and iso, I know I must be off and I just need some guidance

I too shoot with the D7000 and the 17-50mm f2.8 in manual mode and get sharp images right out of the camera with very little post processing. To eliminate the possibility of user error, you may want to visit a local camera store and try the lens on another body to see whether the lens is faulty.

 

[Dave_IL]

This has not had any action since late July, but might I suggest you review your Auto Focus (AF) settings? Also see the link http://nikonites.com/d7000/24967-depth-field-auto-shooting-mode.html and read to the end. There are various settings, particularly in the "Custom Settings" menu, that might help you.