Family Portraits - Too soft...what happened?

[Olivia Price]

I rented the Canon 17-55mm and used it to capture some family pics for a friend. I thought the lens was great while I was using it, but when processing the photos I was really surprised at how soft and noisy the images were. I know some (like the one attached) were underexposed, was that my problem? I have underexposed a photo before and was able to bring it up in PP with no problems. I'm wondering what I did wrong?

Camer: T3i
Focal Length: 35mm
Mode: Aperture-Priority
Tv: 1/100
Av: 4.5
ISO: 100
Spot Metering, Single Shot, Center-Manual selection focus point

[edbayani]

yes, it is a bit soft. the sharpest area is the area of the shoe of the mother and the jeans. it is a bit underexposed but can be corrected in levels or curves. the only problem in adjusting the exposure is the shirt of the father that gets blown out when you lighten the image. you can select the shirt and inverse the selection and adjust the image without adjusting the shirt. inverse again and adjust the shirt a little bit. you can also remove the dried leaves that clutter the front area. sharpen before saving.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by Olivia Price

I rented the Canon 17-55mm and used it to capture some family pics for a friend. I thought the lens was great while I was using it, but when processing the photos I was really surprised at how soft and noisy the images were. I know some (like the one attached) were underexposed, was that my problem? I have underexposed a photo before and was able to bring it up in PP with no problems. I'm wondering what I did wrong?

Camer: T3i
Focal Length: 35mm
Mode: Aperture-Priority
Tv: 1/100
Av: 4.5
ISO: 100
Spot Metering, Single Shot, Center-Manual selection focus point

I don't have experience in group (two or more human subjects) photos, but I would assume if you shot this at a smaller aperture like f/8 or f/10 maybe? That would increase the sharpness on all subjects and if you want to blow out the background I'd shoot at a max focal length, and with your lens it would be 55m not 35mm. I would also have shot it in 1/40th or 1/50th shutter to bring in more ambient light to compensate for the underexposure that would be added on from the smaller aperture.

You can see the sharpest is the middle (the child) and fades away as the aperture is f/4.5, but on a web resolution or viewing on the screen you can't tell without zooming, but should see the softness in print, like 8x10s or bigger. As you can see the male and female adults' eyes are a bit soft mostly compared to the rest of their body.

[RLucas]

It's underexposed, the white balance is off, plus there is no contrast in the scene. that will introduce noise and softness. It's easily fixed with a curves adjustment, local contrast adjustment, color balance and a very slight final sharpen.
Hope this helps!

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by RLucas

It's underexposed, the white balance is off, plus there is no contrast in the scene. that will introduce noise and softness. It's easily fixed with a curves adjustment, local contrast adjustment, color balance and a very slight final sharpen.
Hope this helps!

Totally agree with Luke, his edit compared to the original photo presented, is by far much more interesting and appealing to look at.

[Olivia Price]

Thanks everyone, I should've mentioned the image was sooc. I was concerned the problem was the lens, but I'm now guessing it was a combo of bad settings.

[autofocus]

Olivia, it's rarely the lens. However, even expensive lenses have their sweet spots as far as aperture and focal length. More often than not it's the user and camera settings that cause the problems. Concerning your settings below:
Camer: T3i
Focal Length: 35mm
Mode: Aperture-Priority
Tv: 1/100 this is fine, I would not recommend a slower setting when photographs include children who move
Av: 4.5 maybe stop this down a little for more DOF-f/5.6 - f/7
ISO: 100 probably could have bumped this to ~ISO200 to compensate for the aperture adjustment noted above...or a little fill flash would have helped
Spot Metering, Single Shot, Center-Manual selection focus point All this is fine, but one shot will lock focus, and you need to be aware that any movement after it's locked in on either you, or the subjects will throw off focus somewhat. And I prefer to dial in one of the focus points as opposed to using the center/recompose method

I also played with your photo a bit. Used various layers adjusting curves, selective color, high pass, did a slight re-crop and unsharp mask. Here's what I wound up with. Hope you don't mind

[BK553]

The real problem is the lighting. There is no light on the subject, so the contrast in the scene is low. You need at least some fill for this, from an off-camera speedlight or reflector. All of the comments about specific exposure settings aren't helpful, because (1) it's too late now and (2) it changes with every image, every situation, and every subject.

Light your subject. You'll see that it makes a huge difference.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by BK553

The real problem is the lighting. There is no light on the subject, so the contrast in the scene is low. You need at least some fill for this, from an off-camera speedlight or reflector. All of the comments about specific exposure settings aren't helpful, because (1) it's too late now and (2) it changes with every image, every situation, and every subject.

Light your subject. You'll see that it makes a huge difference.

Yes, her lighting/exposure is off, however, all correctable in post. Her complaint is that her image was soft...no amount of light will correct a mis-focused image. And my suggestions noted above are dealing with the focus issue, not the lighting, so they are applicable..and you will note that I did suggest some fill flash
Tv: 1/100 this is fine, I would not recommend a slower setting when photographs include children who move
Av: 4.5 maybe stop this down a little for more DOF-f/5.6 - f/7
ISO: 100 probably could have bumped this to ~ISO200 to compensate for the aperture adjustment noted above...or a little fill flash would have helped

[BK553]

yeah, you covered the focus/blur, I was talking about this part:

"I know some (like the one attached) were underexposed, was that my problem? I have underexposed a photo before and was able to bring it up in PP with no problems. I'm wondering what I did wrong?"