Home > Digital Camera Blogs > > Soft images
Gail's Blog
Soft images
Like many compact digital camera users moving to a digital single lens reflex camera for the first time, I expected images from my Canon XSi/450D to come out of the camera tack sharp.
I was in for a rude awaking. Images appeared soft, especially when viewed at 100 percent on my computer monitor.
We novice DSLR users may think soft, unfocused looking images are caused by a faulty focusing system. However, this usually is not the reason. Soft images are often caused by using a large aperture that results in shallow depth of field.
Find the lens "Sweet Spot"
Each lens has what photographers refer to as "sweet spots," a small range of aperture sizes that produce the sharpest images. The actual sizes can vary from lens to lens, but they are typically found in the middle of the aperture range.
For example, the range for the XSi kit lens seems to be between f5.6 and f.11. These apertures work particularly well for landscape scenes containing foliage. For the Canon 55-250mm the sweet spot is between F8 and F11.
The actual sweet spot can vary depending on the focal length used and distance the lens is from a subject.
Sharpen during post-processing
Images taken with a DSLR need more post processing than compact digital cameras. An important, usually last step in the editing process is sharpening. I use unsharp mask and XSi images sharpen nicely revealing fine detail.
Incidentally, sharpness in a DSLR is turned down by default so images can be edited with no sharpening artifacts. If editing images are not something you fancy, increase the sharpening setting.
