why is this blurry?

[EmmaR]

This image is at 100% in photoshop and it's not as crisp as I need it to be.

Can anyone tell me why?

I've got a sinking feeling it's my lens - its a kit lens. All details are below. The image has had no processing, not even a crop.







EXIF:
canon eos 1000D
shutter speed: 0.6 sec
Program - Aperture priority
F stop: 22.0
ISO - 100
focal length - 109.0mm
lens - EF-S55- f/4-5.6 IS
no flash
pattern metering mode

[Digidave]

Hi Emma : Your first problem is your Aperture. Anytime you go beyond f/11 or f/16 your lens loses quality. That's with any lens, but the cheaper lenses are even worse. By being in Aperture Priority, you forced your Shutter Speed down to 6/10's of a second. That's pretty slow for being hand-held at 109mm. Here is a scale of f/stops.

http://www.cinemagraphica.com/tech/stop_scale.html

By enlarging your Aperture to it's largest amount available(f/5.6), you would gain 4 stops. That means your Shutter Speed would have adjust 4 stops to compensate for the difference in light availability.

Your speed - 1/60th of a second
1 stop - 1/120th of a second
2 stops - 1/250th of a second
3 stops - 1/500th of a second
4 stops - 1/1000th of a second

Now, that would take out any chance of camera shake. Give it a try & I think you'll find that your "Kit Lens" isn't quite so bad after all.

[kencaleno]

Did you use a tripod?

Why f 22,when f 8-11 would have done?

Why 1/60 seconds shutter speed?

99.9 percent of blur problems are due to user error-kit lenses are very good, once you learn how to get the best service from them-Find the "sweet-spot" where focal length and f stop combine to give the best results (The sweet-spot on my 18-55mm zoom kit lens is at 45mm and f 5.6) Ken

[EmmaR]

sorry, I used a tripod and a remote.

I believed that the higher aperture I used would put more in focus. In saying that though - I took this same shot at every single aperture and this one turned out the crispest.

and the SS was set automatically in the AV mode.

Was my focal length the wrong choice?

[sybren]

The focal length is fine. The shutter speed is a little fast, as the photo is under-exposed (I assume you intended to have a white bear on a white background, not mucky grey).

The sharpness of the photo looks fine to me. Perhaps if you give us the original we can judge it better (Flickr only gives us access to a scaled-down version).

[EmmaR]

um, I have no idea how to put the original on here?

[sybren]

Zip it (7-Zip for instance) and attach the ZIP file to a reply. Zipping the photo will prevent the forum from scaling it. Or get a Flickr Pro account and give us access to the original format.

[EmmaR]

is this file any good

[sybren]

yeah, that looks good. The photo is still rather sharp, I must say. It's indeed a bit soft, and with F/22 that's to be expected. Please take another look at the range F/8-16 to see if they can give a sharper result. Another thing you may want to try is to enable the mirror-up function. The movement of the mirror can also cause motion blur. As you're using a tripod, be sure to turn off the IS in your lens, as IS on a rock-solid camera can also cause blur.

[EmmaR]

thanks, I'll turn the IS off and see how we go. Like I said in previous posts, I tried a single image at every f stop and this one was the clearest. I'll do it again with both my lenses with the IS off and see what happens.
I know it's still pretty sharp, but I am looking to refine my technique for stock photos for alamy, and they need it clear at 100% so I need to work out how to get it like that before I go and take more photos.

Thanks everyone for your time to take a look and respond - it is very much appreciated!