Sharpening Landscape Photos

[squeemu]

I have had my new Canon Rebel T3 for about 4 months now, and am loving it. It takes fairly sharp pictures of almost any setting, but one thing I have noticed is a lot of my landscape photos just do not turn out as sharp as I'd like. Some situations seem to create even more noise than usual (i.e. tree branches and leaves in front of an overcast sky or trees, bushes, and mountain edges several miles away).

I know that my camera isn't the most top of the line camera, but I'd like to believe that at least some of these problems are fixable without having to shell out for a brand new camera, which I definitely can't afford right now.

My question is, which is most likely the biggest cause of this problem: My camera, the fact that I'm still using the kit lens, or my technique/settings? I'd be willing to upgrade my lens, but looking through the list of potential lens upgrades is overwhelming for someone new to photography! Like I said, most of my pictures come out very sharp, it's just certain landscape situations that end up looking bad. What do you think?

p.s. I recently bought a tripod, and while it helped my night time photography, I still can see almost no improvement in my landscape photos. Help please!

[RichardTaylor]

Would it be possible to post an example along with Exif data?

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by RichardTaylor

Would it be possible to post an example along with Exif data?

This is gonna be necessary; you're not likely running into sharpening issues, but other issues with settings or other image effects.

[JryStone]

I agree with the other comments. I don't think that the problem is with your equiptment. Always use the tripod for all exposures, 100 ISO, use a cable release, shoot in camera RAW. These guidelines will get you started on great landscapes.

[AdrenoJunkie]

If you don't have a cable release or remote shutter then use the self timer.

[suntoryjim]

I bought my Canon T3 last December and took it with me on vacation in Hawaii. While the picture quality is good, I wouldn't go so far as to say it is great. I feel that the camera could use a bit more sharpness and produce less noise, as I find myself habitually reaching for the sharpness and noise reduction sliders in DPP. My friend actually loaned me her T2i (with Tamron lenses) for a week a month earlier, so I have a fairly good idea of what to compare the T3 to.

I'm following the same upgrade path as you, and actually just ordered a Sigma 10-20 f/4 wide angle lens in the hope that much of the shortcomings with this camera has to do with the kit lens. I'll let you know what improvement I see.

A few words of advice:

1.) f/8 seems to be the sweet-spot for the kit lens, as it produces the sharpest landscape images for foreground subjects, but at the cost of the background.
2.) Shoot in RAW and tweak in DPP. Get familiar with the sharpness and noise reduction sliders. Play around with color and white balance until you are satisfied.


Here is a sample photo from my T3 taken on a very windy night in Waikiki. I was surprised to see that I got the sunstar effect with the spotlights using such a large f-stop. Not sure if that is any indication of the lens quality.



f/5.6
6 sec.
ISO-100
18mm

[squeemu]

Hey all,
Sorry for the late reply, I've just been so busy this week. I'll try to upload some photos soon, but first I'd like to try out some of suntoryjim's suggestions. Does anybody know a good tutorial online for shooting and editing RAW? I have never done any shooting in RAW, so I'm not sure what to expect.

As for DPP, was that program supposed to come with my camera? I am not sure I ever received a disc with that program on it. Thanks again for the help!

[cyber3d]

You can download the program from the Canon site.

Canon U.S.A. : Consumer & Home Office : EOS Rebel T3i 18-55mm IS II Kit

Choose your OS
Download DPP and the EOS Utility

I believe you do not need to have DPP installed previously for this to work. It's worth a try anyway.

[Krusty79]

Originally Posted by squeemu

Hey all,
Sorry for the late reply, I've just been so busy this week. I'll try to upload some photos soon, but first I'd like to try out some of suntoryjim's suggestions. Does anybody know a good tutorial online for shooting and editing RAW? I have never done any shooting in RAW, so I'm not sure what to expect.

As for DPP, was that program supposed to come with my camera? I am not sure I ever received a disc with that program on it. Thanks again for the help!

Go to YouTube and search for "canon digital photo professional tutorial".