Harley

[sallie]

learning....I can't seem to take sharp photos. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I took this one hand held, no tripod.

[xd40c]

Get yourself a tripod, if you don't yet have one. Also a remote shutter release helps. The D90 does not have "mirror lock", so you need not worry about that.

I'm still learning myself (with a D90), but those two things helped me.

[IABoomer]

If you look at the face around the mouth, it is sharp. There's clear definition of the fur there. You have a very shallow depth of field, which would be the result of your 1.8 f-stop. If you want more of the dog to be in focus, you'd have to stop down a bit to create a deeper depth of field, which would then require you shorten the exposure time to keep things properly exposed. Search for info on the exposure triangle and how those items interact.

[DivotMaker]

I agree with the earlier posts.

First, your photo is sharp right around the face. However, since you are using a focal length of 50mm, and Aperture of 1.8, and guessing you were about 4.5 feet from the subject.. this gives you less than 1/2 of a foot for depth of field. If you would have opened to f10, it would have given you about 1.5 feet DOF (about the length of the dog) and you would have been able to speed up your shot (and/or lowered your ISO) if you wanted...

Second, a tripod will do wonders. While it might not have been necessary for this shot, it would have allowed you to look at all the settings and not felt pressured to click until you were ready.

(If you have an iPhone, you may be interested in this post...the app helped me learn about DOF, and has helped me with composing a number of times.)

DOF Calculator app

as always, just my 2c's.

Divot

[tan2sie6]

The face is sharp....but u diden't captured the angle ok...u can see his face only half...because of the shadow.

[Laurenbiz]

I don't mind the shadow from the natural lighting - I like it, in fact.

The blur here is not a result of an exposure time of 1/125. That is a very fast shutter, and if you simply hold it still, you won't see camera shake at a 1/125 shutter speed. A tripod will always help, but I don't set my camera up on a tripod for a 1/125 exposure. At an f/stop of f/1.8, you will have lots of blur in the photo, and that could be why you feel like it is not crisp.

It IS crisp in specific areas - so the aperture is doing what it's definitely supposed to do with the DOF!

Keep experimenting with your camera to understand the different a wide and a narrow aperture will make!

[sallie]

Thanks for all the great comments/advice. I love this sight. I will keep practicing. I wish I had an iphone for the DOF app, it sounds very helpful.

[IABoomer]

While not a mobile application, there are online DOF calculators that you could use. This was the first thing that popped up on a Google search.

Online Depth of Field Calculator

[I_A_N]

Originally Posted by xd40c

Get yourself a tripod, if you don't yet have one. Also a remote shutter release helps. The D90 does not have "mirror lock", so you need not worry about that.

I'm still learning myself (with a D90), but those two things helped me.

Custom menu D10: "Exposure Delay" This delays the shutter release until about 1 seconds after the mirror has raised.

Ian

[Pete Beverley]

I agree with everything above. The only thing I would add is try to get the eyes as sharp as you can... makes for a whole new photo and draws the viewer in.