Blurry pics at 100%?

[amy m.]

I'm going crazy. I started taking family pictures for some friends, and all of my pictures are blurry at 100% when they're in Photoshop. Aren't they supposed to be crisp at 100% if they're in focus? I can get crisp/focused pics of the kids when I do close-ups of their little faces and they look great. But any time I do a full body shot of a person or a group/family photo, the people are blurry and the background isn't.

My question is what the heck am I doing wrong? I'm shooting at f/8 at the largest, mostly f/11 and the SS is a minimum of 1/250, ISO is 200 or 400 depending on the sun/light. I'm shooting with a D70 and either a 50mm 1.8 or the 18-70mm that came with the camera body.

I've totally confused myself with what my focus setting should be (AF-S, right?), and I'm wondering if I won't get clear group shots because it's only a 6.0MP. I do the thing where I focus on one person, hold the shutter down 1/2 way to lock it, and then take the pic. Is there something wrong that I'm doing there?

I'd love to start my own photog business relatively soon, but this has frustrated me for the last few weeks and I'm ready to call it quit!

ANY help would be appreciated. I'd love to blame it on the camera, but deep down I know better. How can I get a crisp, focused at 100% picture of a group?

(Thank you!!!!)

[Mr Guy]

Oh boy, I'm not going to address the underlying issue and make speculation on your desires to go pro and to be so easily frustrated or to be so easily flustered by your equipment. Those ballpark figures help rule out SOME likely causes, but they don't prevent all the common errors. There's lots of different kinds of fuzzy. A short list:

1. Improper focus target (eg AF chooses incorrectly)
2. Improper focus on target (eg Front or back focus)
3. Motion blur
4. Poor choice of depth of field
5. Camera shake
6. Badly done noise reduction
7. Soft focus
8. Poor lens quality
9. Poor resolution
10.Chromatic Aberrations
11.Glare
12.Cheap Filters
13.Dirty Lenses
14.Improper Focus and Recompose Technique

There's probably more I haven't thought of. It's impossible to say what your particular problem is without seeing examples.

[nathanbarlow]

what he said ^

Plus "AF-S" is a type of lens, not a type of focus setting.

Since you are using f8 or f11, DoF shouldnt be an issue. Same for SS which is more than enought to stop camera shake or subject movement. On principle I would try get ISO down to 100 if possible - but you complain of blurryness, not noise, so this shouldnt be causing the problem you descibed.
It aint the 6MP either, as I shoot 6MP, and hae no problems. All the MP does is tells you how big the file will be and subsequently how big you can print it at high quality.

conclusion: you aint focusing the camera right - either manually or automatically. If you are shooting auto focus, I would say you need to take a look at the focus points you have selected, and use the right one for the right situation. If focusing manually, you just need some practice.

[inkista]

Plus, nothing really ever looks good, crisp, and sharp at 100% crop. With today's megapixel counts, that's a much higher magnification than we used to look at film.

[amy m.]

Thanks Mr. Guy; I typically don't get so easily frustrated but I've tried a bunch of different settings, only to get the same blurriness and I've had great shots up until 2 weeks ago. Don't know what changed/happened.

Here's a shot SOOC: f/10, 1/200, ISO 800 (higher than I thought) 46mm on my D70 DSC_9200example.jpg (image)

A second shot SOOC: f/4.5 (too large for five people?), 1/2000, ISO 800, 62mm DSC_8937example.jpg (image)

I'm frustrated because I see all of these great shots from other photogs and in magazines that are totally clear and crisp and I can't seem to get that. And now I realize I sound like a whiny third grader who can't have the snack she wants. Sorry. I'm just having a hard time figuring it all out.

[amy m.]

So maybe my problem is too much noise in those photos I posted? With the ISO at 800 I know I'll have more noise....hmmm....

But then again in other pictures with the same blurriness/fuzziness the ISO was at 200 (lowest my D70 will go).

(and thank you inkista & nathanbarlow for your comments too! I do appreciate any help and every idea of what I could be doing wrong.)

ETA:
Nathan -- the focus points you mentioned. Dumbest question, but those are the little brackets inside the viewfinder, right?

I'm wondering if maybe I'm recomposing incorrectly. Can you only recompose using the center bracket? Or can any of the brackets be used for recomposing the focus? I rarely use the center bracket when recomposing. (And if any of you know any tutorials or other sites I'm okay with that... )

[lputman]

Those photos that you see by other photogs and in magazines have probably had post work done on them. Additionally, equipment is a factor too. The second shot posted doesn't seem to need to be at ISO 800 though. Shoot with the 50, start your ISO at 200, aperture at f8 for your groups and get a good meter reading. Choose your focus point and fire away.

[k9mom]

Are you using a tripod? If not, try one, along with a remote shutter release and see if the results are any better. If a tripod is not an option, learn the various hold and breathing techniques used to steady the camera while you are shooting. Also, explore your lenses to define their "sweet" spot, i.e., the f stop and focal length at which they yield the sharpest photos. As for AF points, try experimenting using the D70's different five autofocus points...try using the AF locking feature as well -- this might help in achieving better focus.

And as lputnam suggested, lens quality does matter. Some inexpensive lenses are simply "soft" and are not going to give you the sharpness you'd expect from an L series lens or its equivalent.

And I agree with the others: no need to shoot at ISO 800 for outdoor shots with good and ample natural lighting.

Lastly, according to some reviews, there are some performance problems related to the D70. However, whether these performance drawbacks are in any way related to your focusing problems is probably unlikely.

Some performance issues to be aware of. Moire, bright light blooming, and bright light grid noise can rear their ugly pixels if you're not paying attention. If you go above 1/250 shutter speeds, be aware of what triggers the latter two.

Link: Nikon D70 and D70s Review by Thom Hogan

[nathanbarlow]

shutter speed is 1/250, so unless she/he is shooting with an insane telephoto lens, a tripod isnt necesaary - nor will it be due to camera shake.

[Pen]

my guess is that you are using the camera's autofocus points and they are not focusing on the people, or if they are, perhaps just a titch behind the people, this is why i use manual focus almost 100% of the time, there are very few instances that i switch back to autofocus, now if i had a USM or equivalent lens with full time AF i would leave it there but sadly i dont , anyways, if that is not the problem then perhaps your lens' are simply soft, or you are trying to use to large a DoF, at small apertures, this thing called diffraction limiting starts to come into play and robs your images of sharpness, each lens is different but normally around f/16ish i would say is when this becomes a problem.