Need help in taking photograph of scenery

[devpriya]

Hi folks,

I need to learn how to take crisp and sharp photographs of scenery. I am posting few of pics taken by me, please help me out in identifying where am I going wrong.

[devpriya]

Oops! Posted under the wrong section. Mods please move it to appropriate section

[sybren]

Do you have the EXIF information for us?

By the way, the resizing algorithm of this forum isn't the best on the planet. It always makes the photos a little fuzzy, so when sharpness is a concern it's better to upload to Flickr and give us links to the original.

[devpriya]

IMG_0956 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_0950 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Here are the Flickr links and the EXIF data is there with the pics.

[sybren]

For one thing, your sensor wants some cleaning. You can see spots in the sky on IMG_0950 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The photos were taken at 55mm and 18mm, my bet is that you're using the 18-55mm kit lens. All zoom lenses lose quality at their extreme zoom setting, so try to avoid that. The 55mm photo was taken at f/5.6, the widest aperture at that zoom, which also won't give you the sharpest results. Experiment a little with smaller apertures and stay within roughly 20-50mm, and I'm fairly confident the results will be sharper.

[steinr98]

I have to agree with Syben- use around f/8 as this is usually the sweet spot of your lens. f/8 to f11 is usually best and also, if you are losing light, you need a tripod- If you boost the ISO, you will get more grain depending on your camera. I took some photo classes way back and our teacher would throw you out if you didn't not use a tripod. and lastly, did you sharpen as your last step in processing?? This is a must in digital photography. Just be careful not to over sharpen!!
steinr98