Self Teaching and need help please

[magda_s]

So, I admit, I have virtually no clue how to use ISO, Aperture or Shutter Speed. I know how they're SUPPOSED to work... or at least, what they're supposed to do when you know how to use them but for the time being, if I want a shot to work, I go with the Auto mode.
Ok... so WHY are my photos not sharper? Are my photos fine but my expectations too high???
But then... why is a photo I took with my P&S Pentax... at night... with a flash SO much sharper than anything I'm taking with my D5000 with plenty of light??

Image 1 (of baby holding my hand) is the one taken with my Pentax, with the flash, at night.
Shutter: 1/125
Aperture f/4.0
Max Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length: 4.4mm
ISO: 100

Image 2 (of baby sitting up) is the one taken with the D5000 with plenty of light and no flash.
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture f/4.0
Max Aperture f/3.7
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO: 560

Ah... image 1 was also taken using a tripod as it was dark after all and I was using a little P&S. Don't know if that's what makes the diff all other things considered. Can't test it by taking a shot with the D5000 on a tripod as haven't got one for it yet.

Thanks so much for any advice. Am going nuts as I have virtually no really sharp photos of my little girl and she's growing every day and there's no going back!!!!!

[windrider86]

Part of it may be that you have your iso on D50 on so high. I rarely have mine over 400 and that would be in a very dark situation. Try lowering it to a hundred on brighter days and see what you come up with

[RubyT]

It does like a noise issue in the second picture. I can see her eyelashes, which means the focus is sharp, but noise will soften the overall appearance of an image. I would brighten it up a bit in post processing; that will make a better print.

Also, f/4 on a P&S is going to give a deeper plane of focus than f/4 on a DSLR because the smaller sensor naturally has greater depth of field.

[OsmosisStudios]

A compact camera (like your Pentax) has a considerably more aggressive editing and processing algorithm and in many cases will oversharpen artificially. THe D5000 is considerably more conservative, allowing you to do it yourself. If you have photoshop or something similar, consider applying a High-Pass filter on the D5000 image and see.

[panheadz_rock]

Read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I read it before I bought my DSLR and it helped me understand aperture, ISO, ect soooo much better! And it wasn't very hard to follow and understand. This will help you to know how they all work together. I need to buy my own copy of this book, I only borrowed it from the library. Best book I've read yet.

[magda_s]

Thank you all but I can't help thinking there must be something else to it. Forgive me if I'm being stubborn but...
Photos taken with my Pentax during the day, without the flash, look just like image 2 (the one of my little girl taken with the D5000). And yes, it does seem to be noise rather than the photo being out of focus. But never, with either camera, do I get the detail I see in image 1... I can see the pores of my skin! And it wasn't taken THAT close up... I cropped it to post.
As for the ISO being high in image 2... again, that was Auto Mode which, in fairness, is what I normally use and is what I used for image 1 as well.
Any thoughts??

[OsmosisStudios]

As I said, compact cameras apply a considerable amount of sharpening to the images that dSLRs dont, regardless of settings and lighting. You can adjust the sharpening used by the dSLR in the menu, if you'd like.

[sk66]

Whatever lens you are using on the D5000 is almost wide open and almost all lenses need stopped down to perform thier best. The kit 18-55, which I assume you are using, is known to be soft below F/5.6.

Additionally, I would consider the second image somewhat underexposed which causes a loss of detail/clarity/contrast.