For some reason my shots are not crisp. I have a D80 and didn't have this problem before. I've recently switched to RAW and manual and have no idea what my issue is. Anyone have any suggestions?

TIA

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Serena Thomas

It could be the aperture. While a large aperture will let in a lot of light it will also limit the depth of field and that can cause unexpected blur. This happens a lot with longer lenses. What lens are you using?

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LaWanna Desjardin,
Owner, Desjardin Digital Designs, featuring regular articles and tutorials.
Contact Me Here


Snag my blinkie!

I have my 18-135 on it right now. With the weather here in Western Washington getting light is often an issue.

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Serena Thomas

Best advice is to look at the EXIF details... that the beauty of digital that you had to do manually with film. In the "old days", we used to have to write down our setting in a field journal whenver we snapped a photo if we wanted to learn from our sucesses and mistakes. Nowadays, just grab a bunch of photos and examine the built in data to see what you are doing correctly and incorrectly.

Aperture, f-stop, ISO all tell a story about your photos.. As LaWanna mentions, perhaps you were using too small an aperture and therefore you didn't allow enough light to come in leading to camera shake from a slow shutter speed. What was the ISO set to? Lower isn't always better so if you are getting long shutter speeds at say F10, and you want to maintain F10 instead of moving down towards F2.8... you can increase the ISO which will allow you to get a faster shutter speed.. thus less shake.

I highly recommend the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. A well done book that provides lots of info about what I'm talking about.

Thanks for the input. I do have the book and just finished it a while ago. I did change my ISO and a couple of things and and getting less blur. It doesn't help that I'm trying to take pictures ot he kids who won't stay still long enough to eat a cookie. Just frustrated with the lack of progress/quality since making the switch. I guess I'll just have to work on patience too.

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Serena Thomas

Just a quick question I should have asked... what lens are you using? Keep in mind that f2.8 lenses will work much better in low light and therefore allow a faster shutter speed at lower ISO's... I'm a bit of a lens snob and always have my 17-55 f2.8 on the lens for general shots.. even family photos. Sure.. it's a $1200 lens but my shots are generally sharp and well focused.

Note: if you are taking shots of the kids running around a lot, you should switch to Shutter Priority mode and set a high shutter speed.. adjust ISO as needed to get a decent aperture setting, and don't forget to check your auto-focus mode. If you are still getting blurry photos, you might think about a monopod which will help you stabalize things more.

Thanks for the info. I thought I had the problem licked but seem to still be having issues. I think some of that is due to the low light that I have in my area (WA, gloomy) and the fact that the the kids instantly want to pop up and see what is on the screen and may not even wait for the shutter to go. Frustrating but I know it's fixable with time and patience. I'd love to get that lens but I think I might have to ask for that as a "I made it through your deployment, the kids are alive and the house didn't burn down" sort of present.

ETA: I hav eto check which lens I had on since I put everything away and am too tired to think. Could you give me some other lens recommendation?

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Serena Thomas

Well... I think you can beat most of this by upping the ISO to begin with. I would try setting the ISO to 800 and see how that goes. You'll want your shutter speed to be 1/150 or higher to avoid shake and blur. You should be able to achieve this without any fancy lenses. However, you might want to get a 50mm f1.8 lens. It is a great all around lens that can work well in very low light given its 1.8 effective aperture... and it only costs around $100 used/new.

Also, the easiest way to get faster speeds is to use a fill flash... perhaps you can get a SB600 flash unit to help bump up the shutter speeds. It will help fill in the shadow spots and give you the boost needed.. use indoor and outdoor.

For lenses - I highly recommend the following:

18-70 "kit" lens - ~$200 used
17-55 f2.8 - ~ $975 used
18-200 f4.5-5.6 - ~$550 used
70-200 f2.8 VR - ~$1475 used -> amazing lens.. fast with VR.. but heavy and $$$$$
50mm f1.8 - ~$90 used -> great lens for low light situations .. and great price
60mm f2.8 macro - ~$375 used -> great portrait lens along with macro ability (1:1)

Tamron
90mm f2.8 macro - ~$350 used -> one of the best macro lenses - also great for portaits