This is not about composition or the artistic side of what we do, it’s more seeking technical advice, but any and all suggestion would be GREATLY appreciated.
I have been trying without success to get wire sharp images/prints with proper contrast and color for quite a while. The images are sharp yet not wire sharp. I have to wrestle with Photoshop (Elements 14) and print multiple proofs to get the results I want and even then I am not getting the detail and crispness that I see in images by others.
Over time I have tried many things to correct this: Different versions of Photoshop (Elements) different monitors, my last attempt was a different camera (D7500) and lenses (Tamaron 70-200 and a Nikkor 35mm 1.8) and still only mediocre results.
I look at the work on this site and see every nuance of a bird’s feather or scale of a reptile or leaf of a tree and thought I might enlist your help in going step by step and seeing what I need to change.
I figure that there are several categories in the process: Getting it right in the camera, downloading and storage, viewing, post processing and printing.
Getting it right in the camera;
I have taken literally thousands of shots, until recently with my D80. Some are good but seldom as crisp as I wanted so I bought a D7500 and a couple of lenses with more or less the same results. On a recent trip with the D7500, I tried going back and concentrating on the basics: Increasing shutter speed to prevent camera shake, using smaller apertures to give me greater depth of field, even manual focus in some cases to keep the autofocus from taking control. I shot a lot of landscapes at a 200[SUP]th[/SUP] or faster and often used Manual Mode with Auto ISO to keep at f16 or above most of the time, occasionally swapping lenses just to see if I had a lens issue. I have tried all my lenses including the Nikkor 18-200 3.5 5.6 VR (my favorite walking around lens) and a Tokina 11-16 2.8 (a gorilla should get sharp pictures with that lens given the huge DOF). I use the lowest ISO I can get away with to keep noise down (ISO 100 whenever possible). I review the images and check the histogram afterwards. My thoughts are that those are about the ideal camera settings to get the sharpest results possible. They look pretty good in the viewscreen but are disappointing later on my PC. So let’s assume just for a second that I am getting it right in the camera. I make that assumption based on hundreds of images. You would think that I would get lucky once in a while and have one that was crisp. So my issues may be in the way I am handling or reproducing the files.
Downloading:
I use a good quality SD card and format it between shoots. I use a cord (Nikon, supplied with camera) to link the camera to my PC (laptop when traveling) I use Windows File Explorer to copy the files from the camera to my PC or a thumb drive to get them from my laptop to my PC, both are running a current version of Windows 10. In other words, I handle them like any other type of file, or document. The monitors for my PC are nothing special, just cheap HD (1080 x 1920). I also have UHD, 54” OLEG TV that I can plug a thumb drive into to share pictures with others. I was excited to look at images on the UHD screen but they were not the breathtaking sharpness and color I expected. BTW none of the monitors have been calibrated, I am not sure if they even can be. I don’t understand how it could be a monitor issue because on the same displays, other people’s images are sharp.
So I will stop here for now as I have probably lost everyone’s attention. Depending on what kind of suggestions I get (hopefully a lot), we will see what the next step to correct this.
I have not posted any images on this site yet because I am reluctant to show junk. I have reviewed the posts about getting the EXIF properly included and will post anything you all want to see in an effort to improve my image quality.
Thanks in advance.
Todd
By the way… I am pretty thick skinned so fire away!
I have been trying without success to get wire sharp images/prints with proper contrast and color for quite a while. The images are sharp yet not wire sharp. I have to wrestle with Photoshop (Elements 14) and print multiple proofs to get the results I want and even then I am not getting the detail and crispness that I see in images by others.
Over time I have tried many things to correct this: Different versions of Photoshop (Elements) different monitors, my last attempt was a different camera (D7500) and lenses (Tamaron 70-200 and a Nikkor 35mm 1.8) and still only mediocre results.
I look at the work on this site and see every nuance of a bird’s feather or scale of a reptile or leaf of a tree and thought I might enlist your help in going step by step and seeing what I need to change.
I figure that there are several categories in the process: Getting it right in the camera, downloading and storage, viewing, post processing and printing.
Getting it right in the camera;
I have taken literally thousands of shots, until recently with my D80. Some are good but seldom as crisp as I wanted so I bought a D7500 and a couple of lenses with more or less the same results. On a recent trip with the D7500, I tried going back and concentrating on the basics: Increasing shutter speed to prevent camera shake, using smaller apertures to give me greater depth of field, even manual focus in some cases to keep the autofocus from taking control. I shot a lot of landscapes at a 200[SUP]th[/SUP] or faster and often used Manual Mode with Auto ISO to keep at f16 or above most of the time, occasionally swapping lenses just to see if I had a lens issue. I have tried all my lenses including the Nikkor 18-200 3.5 5.6 VR (my favorite walking around lens) and a Tokina 11-16 2.8 (a gorilla should get sharp pictures with that lens given the huge DOF). I use the lowest ISO I can get away with to keep noise down (ISO 100 whenever possible). I review the images and check the histogram afterwards. My thoughts are that those are about the ideal camera settings to get the sharpest results possible. They look pretty good in the viewscreen but are disappointing later on my PC. So let’s assume just for a second that I am getting it right in the camera. I make that assumption based on hundreds of images. You would think that I would get lucky once in a while and have one that was crisp. So my issues may be in the way I am handling or reproducing the files.
Downloading:
I use a good quality SD card and format it between shoots. I use a cord (Nikon, supplied with camera) to link the camera to my PC (laptop when traveling) I use Windows File Explorer to copy the files from the camera to my PC or a thumb drive to get them from my laptop to my PC, both are running a current version of Windows 10. In other words, I handle them like any other type of file, or document. The monitors for my PC are nothing special, just cheap HD (1080 x 1920). I also have UHD, 54” OLEG TV that I can plug a thumb drive into to share pictures with others. I was excited to look at images on the UHD screen but they were not the breathtaking sharpness and color I expected. BTW none of the monitors have been calibrated, I am not sure if they even can be. I don’t understand how it could be a monitor issue because on the same displays, other people’s images are sharp.
So I will stop here for now as I have probably lost everyone’s attention. Depending on what kind of suggestions I get (hopefully a lot), we will see what the next step to correct this.
I have not posted any images on this site yet because I am reluctant to show junk. I have reviewed the posts about getting the EXIF properly included and will post anything you all want to see in an effort to improve my image quality.
Thanks in advance.
Todd
By the way… I am pretty thick skinned so fire away!