Not getting sharp picture...any suggestions??

[photomom2008]

I am slowly learning so please bare with me if this is a stupid question? I have noticed that in some pictures I can get the eyes and face to look pretty sharp and in others they look like they have fog or something over them. I have checked the lens and it is clean I assuming this is some kind of noise in the photos. Sometimes you can see the colored noise but othertimes it just looks hazy or not sharp. Can someone explain this to me. In the 1st picture you can see the little girls eyes are sharp. In the second picture you'll notice the eyes are not sharp and show some noise especially in the little boys eyes. It is not the best picture but I was trying to show an example of what I was talking about. Any help or suggestions on what I am doing wrong and how to fix it would be appreciated. Thank you!

From jordon & johnson

From 2009_09_08

Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/320 sec
Aperture: 3.2
Focal Length: 50mm

[Murtasma]

What was your EXIF info on these images? Was the second image cropped if so how much?

Originally Posted by Murtasma

What was your EXIF info on these images? Was the second image cropped if so how much?

Filename: IMG_1313.JPG
Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/200 sec
Aperture: 2.0
Focal Length: 50mm
Flash Used: Yes

[sybren]

From the top image I'd say you picked the wrong point to focus on. With F/2.0 you have a wafer thin depth of field, and it'll be very important on what area you focus. When left to its own device, the camera usually picks the thing nearest to the camera to focus on. In this case it seems to have been the girl's arm. Try selecting a focus point manually and focus on her eyes, that'll probably fix things.

[photomom2008]

Originally Posted by sybren

From the top image I'd say you picked the wrong point to focus on. With F/2.0 you have a wafer thin depth of field, and it'll be very important on what area you focus. When left to its own device, the camera usually picks the thing nearest to the camera to focus on. In this case it seems to have been the girl's arm. Try selecting a focus point manually and focus on her eyes, that'll probably fix things.

Thank you , sorry I did forget teh exif information thank you Maxharvard for posting it. Sybren, I actually did chose my focal point and I always focus on the eyes. I thought the top one was pretty sharp the second one seems to be not sharp. I did crop the second one a little bit just to take out some of the blown out sky but it looked noisey before I cropped it. Would that have made a difference?

How did you save it? that's probably your problem.

[sybren]

To me it appears as if both are vague due to a bad focus. In the top one the hairs on the girls arm are sharper than her eyes. In the bottom image the grass behind the girl on the right seems sharper than the people in the foreground.

Maybe Why Focus-Recompose Sucks is interesting to read for you. http://blog.duncandavidson.com/2008/...e-exposed.html also covers the subject.

[photomom2008]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

How did you save it? that's probably your problem.

Maxharvard, I shot the picture in jpeg and then saved it in jpeg. I have shot some in RAW but then when I save them they look terrible. I am not sure why on that either but this one is jpeg.

Originally Posted by sybren

To me it appears as if both are vague due to a bad focus. In the top one the hairs on the girls arm are sharper than her eyes. In the bottom image the grass behind the girl on the right seems sharper than the people in the foreground.
Thank you for the links I will be reading them. The only thing I can think of is when I focused on her eye I tried to recompose a little and messed it up? Thanks again for the links.

Maybe Why Focus-Recompose Sucks is interesting to read for you. Focus and Recompose Exposed - James Duncan Davidson - James Duncan Davidson also covers the subject.

Originally Posted by photomom2008

Maxharvard, I shot the picture in jpeg and then saved it in jpeg. I have shot some in RAW but then when I save them they look terrible. I am not sure why on that either but this one is jpeg.

No.. what quality do you save it in?

[photomom2008]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

No.. what quality do you save it in?

I am using the largest file on the camera possible which shows a L symbol on the camera.