need help with sharpness/focus

[ff151]

Hey guys,

When I took these pics, the bird was in sharp focus, yet the finished product is soft focus. Any help would be appreciated, here are a few pics taken from the same bird. I am not after a critique of each individual shot, but rather on the technique to improve focus or sharpness.

[jiminyClickit]

ff151,

What told you they were "in sharp focus?"

[ELAY]

It's hard to tell without the EXIF, but the last shot looks like a depth of field problem maybe, while the others maybe camera shake/subject motion.

It is always helpful to post settings etc -- both to help with the critique (especially when you are asking for help with technical flaws), and to help the rest of us understand your thinking and learn.

I don't know how much we can help without the settings -- the fix for a depth of field problem is to close down your aperture; the fix for the other is to increase your shutter speed.

EL

[ff151]

Hey Guys,

My eyes told me they were in sharp focus, as well as the little white circle in my viewfinder. (I wondered if my diopter was off? but I found a fixed object, had it focused to my eyes, and the camera found it to be in focus as well - little white circle)

Here is the exif data, sorry for not posting before

1/250 shutter
f 7.1
ISO 400

[ELAY]

I take it you were shooting at the long end of your 80-200?

[ff151]

Yes Elay, full focal length of the 80-200

[ELAY]

Alright.

I'm not sure the same thing is wrong with all those photos, but in some you have obvious motion blur (wingtips for example). I suspect you would be OK with that (would be a neat effect probably) if the head/eye were not softish.

I wonder if your shutter speed is the problem -- at 200mm, panning the camera to catch a flying heron, you might get enough of a motion blur/camera movement combination to produce the softness you see. My first thought would be to get to 1/500, either by going to 800 on your ISO (noise reduction later if you need it), or by dropping to f/5.6.

I also wonder if it something to do with your autofocus. I don't have a D200 (if only...) but i recall that they offer quite a few options in autofocus. You may want to have a look at the various modes, to ensure that your AF is optimized to pick up a moving object. (There was a long thread last month about autofocus problems shooting a leaping dog -- think the camera was a D80. Don't remember the member though -- somebody else might.)

EL

[kirbinster]

Take a look at my "Bee in Mid-air" thread Bee in Mid-air

I have a similar issue there. I too was shooting at the far end of my 55-200 lenses range. I pushed the ISO up to 400 so that I could shot fast (1/640th) and have a small aperature (f/11.0) yet still did not get as crisp a shot as I had hoped. I used single servo auto focus and lay in wait for motion.

[ELAY]

I don't know that your bee and heron problems are the same. Much more likely to be DOF on the bee shot.

I went back and found the thread with the jumping dog -- don't know if it will help, but here it is.

EL

[Nai no Kami]

The EXIF data on your last photo tells me you that it was shot at a 300mm (eq.) focal length with an aperture of f/2.8 and shutter speed of 1/320.
There is written somwhere a rule that the absolute minimum to avoid motion blurred photos is to shoot at the reciprocal speed of the focal length.

In this particular case, the speed appears to be just the bare minimum to avoid movement (and you are shooting a very movement-prone scene).

Additionally, you are shooting with the maximum lens aperture, which surely will render a very shallow depth of field (maybe some feathers or the nearby water is focus, while the rest begins to blur).

I suppose the clock on your D200 is wrongly set (or my EXIF reader app likes jokes with time or you live on the North/South Pole) because the time stamp of your photo is about 9 pm. Maybe shooting (if you can, of course) that close to midday, with more light, faster shutter speeds and stopping down the lens will get you the effect your are looking for.

You may also try some continuous focus function on you D200 and (why not) experiment with controlling the focus point.

Good luck!