Please critique this picture.

[Lyssa]

I have this picture, and quite a few others that look similar to it, in my Etsy store. Please critique.

The main thing I can't tell is if it's too blurry or if I'm just looking at it too closely. It's a somewhat brand new camera and I've done everything I can think of with the camera to make the images crisper, and now I've looked at the images so many times and so for long that I can't see the picture for the pixels, if you know what I mean.



Thanks!

[Mike Jordan]

It looks like you focused on the middle bead where the three peddles are and had a wide open shutter, which gave you a narrow depth of field, allowing the ends to go out of focus. In other words, the middle is sharp and the ends are fuzzy.

If you were to take the same shot but use a smaller fstop (say around f16) you would be in focus end to end. Of course you will need more light, a longer exposure (with tripod) or higher ISO to compensate for the smaller fstop. You can also add a bit more un-sharp mask (sharpen it more), which will help give the impression that it's more in focus. Add it until you start getting a grainy effect then back it off a bit.

You can also use a longer lens and move back a bit so that your depth of field isn't so narrow and keep the same fstop and shutter speed as you used for this shot. I sometimes shoot between 300 to 400 mm to get a must flatter perspective. I have to use a closeup tube though so I can focus closer than the lenses normal focus point. A longer perspective like that can sometimes do wonders since it reduces distortion that you can get from shooting real close. But you have to have a camera and lens you can do this with.

Mike

[Lyssa]

Thanks for the advice. Next camera will have to be a DSLR. I just have a point and shoot with a some manual settings and a macro mode for now. The instructions say I can increase the aperture, but the best I can do is f6.3.

Originally Posted by Mike Jordan

It looks like you focused on the middle bead where the three peddles are and had a wide open shutter, which gave you a narrow depth of field, allowing the ends to go out of focus. In other words, the middle is sharp and the ends are fuzzy.

If you were to take the same shot but use a smaller fstop (say around f16) you would be in focus end to end. Of course you will need more light, a longer exposure (with tripod) or higher ISO to compensate for the smaller fstop. You can also add a bit more un-sharp mask (sharpen it more), which will help give the impression that it's more in focus. Add it until you start getting a grainy effect then back it off a bit.

You can also use a longer lens and move back a bit so that your depth of field isn't so narrow and keep the same fstop and shutter speed as you used for this shot. I sometimes shoot between 300 to 400 mm to get a must flatter perspective. I have to use a closeup tube though so I can focus closer than the lenses normal focus point. A longer perspective like that can sometimes do wonders since it reduces distortion that you can get from shooting real close. But you have to have a camera and lens you can do this with.

Mike

[Alaska]

It would be unusual for a camera to limit an F stop to 6.3. To obtain a higher F stop try increasing the amount of light. Or the ASA speed from say 100 to 400 or so.

The image overall looks nice. Sharpness can be increased by decreasing the posting size and increasing the sharpness in a photo processing program.

[Dale M.]

I "lightened" it up a few degrees.... "Sharpened" it a tiny bit, .... And your depth of field is very shallow... Stuff in circle seems to be in focus, outside circle a tiny bit fuzzy...


(400 x 300 pixels)

Hint: Try keeping images to 64x480 for internet use as they display better and do not try to take over screen and force browsers into using scroll bars....

Dale

[Dott]

Originally Posted by Lyssa

Please critique.The main thing I can't tell is if it's too blurry or if I'm just looking at it too closely. Thanks!

Doesn't look to blurry to me. It might could use a slightly slower shutter speed at f6.3 to brighten up the whole image. Maybe a reflective white card to the left for fill light?

[demcc2]

Lyssa, I like how you have it. I personally LIKE the center sharp and the ends (or background) to be slightly un-focused.

Duane

PS......but I'm copying the tips that everyone else has said, too

[Lyssa]

Re: F stop limit, this is a "fancier than normal" point and shoot, but not a DSLR by any means.

Originally Posted by Alaska

It would be unusual for a camera to limit an F stop to 6.3. To obtain a higher F stop try increasing the amount of light. Or the ASA speed from say 100 to 400 or so.

The image overall looks nice. Sharpness can be increased by decreasing the posting size and increasing the sharpness in a photo processing program.

[PerfectDeb]

I find lightening or adjusting brightness tends to wash out colours, I use curve adjustment instead - tomorrow when I get my computer back (finally) ill play with it and show you what I mean

[Lyssa]

I just ordered two 85w full-spectrum white light bulbs from Amazon. That should help the light a bit. Help me melt during the Kauai summer months, as well.

Originally Posted by PerfectDeb

I find lightening or adjusting brightness tends to wash out colours, I use curve adjustment instead - tomorrow when I get my computer back (finally) ill play with it and show you what I mean

[Mike Jordan]

Lyssa, although full spectrum bulbs will help, you don't really need that kind. If you know how to do color balance in your camera or afterwards in your photo editing software, you can use about any light (as long as it's bright enough) and balance it so it looks the way you want.

Mike

[Lyssa]

Well, the light bulbs are already on their way, and my answer to "If you know how to do color balance" is a resounding, "tried, but it got me nowhere!"

I do appreciate your advice and help, Mike, but after trying to do the color balancing again and again, the implementation left much to be desired.

Also, I probably didn't explain that the reason I got the lights was mainly because I believe I can reduce the graininess of pictures with more light. I've noticed that in bright light, images don't turn out so speckled. When I use just my 25w full spectrum fluorescent bulb, and/or sunlight in the shade, I get a graininess that is reminiscent of using ISO 400 film on a cloudy day. I've set my ISO to 100, use a 25w full spectrum bulb, put my photobox in the east facing morning window so I get scattered sunlight through the bushes in front of the house, and use an exposure time of about 1/20. I've even increased the "exposure" setting on my camera (don't know what the equivalent of that would be in my old manual SLR which I do know how to use... if someone can tell me I'd appreciate it... or is it just a digital setting?) and all it does is make my pictures whiter, not crisper. That's what I want, crisp. I've been managing to fix some of my pictures with the "sharpen" filter in Photoshop, but I'm a true believer that post-processing is never as good as getting the picture right in the camera.

That's probably just my age showing, and I'm not even that old.

Oh, and I've checked and checked, both in the instruction manual I found online and with the settings on the camera, and my camera f-stop really does only go up 6.3. This is a brand new camera, purchased in March, so I guess I made a mistake when I bought it - I was wondering why it had only one setting for taking pictures of small, not-moving objects, and a million different settings for taking pictures of large, fast-moving objects.

Originally Posted by Mike Jordan

Lyssa, although full spectrum bulbs will help, you don't really need that kind. If you know how to do color balance in your camera or afterwards in your photo editing software, you can use about any light (as long as it's bright enough) and balance it so it looks the way you want.

Mike