Canon 1000d OR Rebel XS depth of field sharpness problem: EFS 18-55mm

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	Forums > Photography Chat > Canon 1000d OR Rebel XS depth of field sharpness problem: EFS 18-55mm
J 3d Posts: 3 Joined: 30th Apr 2009 Location: UK	quotePosted at 12:18 on 30th April 2009 Hi, I am trying to take photos with as much depth of field as possible. I have a need for a nice sharp image for a photomontage project of this kind of gravel rocky terrain: Please take a look at this 5Mb jpg image: http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/stones.jpg Do you think it is possible to get sharper images with this lens over the depth of field that covers the gravel stone path in the foreground with this camera body and lens or is this as sharp as it will get with this zoom lens? Can you point me at any examples? This I think was taken with 100iso at F29 with at 250th of a second exposure in manual mode of the camera with image stableisation. The camera was on a lightweight tripod. I wasn't using a cable release. The camera didn't have a hood. Have just bought this Canon 1000d in the UK (called Rebel XS in some places) with the stanadard EFS 18-55mm IS zoom lens. I was shooting towards the sun too fit in the with the lighting required with my photomontage. Thanks for any advice. My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Paul Hilton Posts: 2605 Joined: 21st Nov 2004 Location: UK	quotePosted at 13:03 on 30th April 2009 Hi j3D, Shame you stripped the Meta data off your sample image, but still...... A few points-------with the camera on a tripod, switch off the lens image stabilisation; it's trying to correct for movement thats not there and will thusmake the image less sharp. F29----might get the depth of field you want but not sharpness due to diffraction; try using the hyperfocal point at F8 to F11 range. The image did improve with sharpening, so try increasing the Sharpness setting in the camera Menu , or with your image editing software; the file sie of your image is 1.98 megs, not 5,compressed down from its 10 meg original. For samples, try putting Canon 1000D or Rebel XS in Flickr's search box, and Flickr does have a camera model search feature as well. Edited by: Paul Hilton at:30th April 2009 13:08 My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Paul Hilton Posts: 2605 Joined: 21st Nov 2004 Location: UK	quotePosted at 14:26 on 30th April 2009 You can find lens photo samples here of the 18-55mm IS and also the camera test report on this site adds more images from the 1000D. http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/canon_18-55_3p5-5p6_is_c16/page5.asp More images from the 1000D can be found here http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos1000d/page35.asp Edited by: Paul Hilton at:30th April 2009 14:30 My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Peter Evans Posts: 3863 Joined: 20th Aug 2006 Location: UK	quotePosted at 16:36 on 30th April 2009 One other trick for extra sharpness is, with the camera on a tripod, turn on the ten second time delay. Then any shake instilled with the pressing of the shutter button will have stopped before the shutter fires. Simple, but it works. Edited by: Peter Evans at:30th April 2009 22:42 My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
J 3d Posts: 3 Joined: 30th Apr 2009 Location: UK	quotePosted at 13:10 on 1st May 2009 Thanks for the all the advice. With these: manual focus (focusing on the gravel nearer but in line with the red car.) turned of IS. Used 2second self-timer delay with Mirror lockup. Was at 28mm on the zoom. If you save it to your hard drive and right click it, properties, summary tab this shows most of the settings. Borrowed a heavyweight tripod instead of my lightweight one (windy place) I pressed down on the base of the legs of the tripod this seemed to help. Otherwise movement could be detected on the onscreen display when a distant object was magnified to get the focus. Have got it sharper than stones.jpg at f29. The camera is pointed slightly downwards as the path goes downhill. I haven't applied any sharpening to the image on my PC but in camera the "Picture Style is set to "Standard" "The image looks vivid, sharp, and crisp. This is a general-purpose Picture Style suitable for most scenes." With 293: f8 sharpest http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0293.JPG With 294: f11 a bit less sharp http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0295.JPG With 296: f14 less sharp http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0296.JPG with 297: f22 less sharper still http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0297.JPG It loses a little focus in the near foreground. Presumably if I moved the zoom to 18mm instead of the 28mm then more would be in focus. Thanks again for the help My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
J 3d Posts: 3 Joined: 30th Apr 2009 Location: UK	quotePosted at 14:15 on 1st May 2009 Thanks for the all the advice. With these: manual focus (focusing on the gravel nearer but in line with the red car.) turned of IS. Used 2second self-timer delay with Mirror lockup. Was at 28mm on the zoom. If you save it to your hard drive and right click it, properties, summary tab this shows most of the settings. Borrowed a heavyweight tripod instead of my lightweight one (windy place) I pressed down on the base of the legs of the tripod this seemed to help. Otherwise movement could be detected on the onscreen display when a distant object was magnified to get the focus. Have got it sharper than stones.jpg at f29. The camera is pointed slightly downwards as the path goes downhill. I haven't applied any sharpening to the image on my PC but in camera the "Picture Style is set to "Standard" "The image looks vivid, sharp, and crisp. This is a general-purpose Picture Style suitable for most scenes." With 293: f8 sharpest http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0293.JPG With 294: f11 a bit less sharp http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0295.JPG With 296: f14 less sharp http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0296.JPG with 297: f22 less sharper still http://www.graphics3d.plus.com/stones/IMG_0297.JPG It loses a little focus in the near foreground. Presumably if I moved the zoom to 18mm instead of the 28mm then more would be in focus. Thanks again for the help My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
Paul Hilton Posts: 2605 Joined: 21st Nov 2004 Location: UK	quotePosted at 14:46 on 1st May 2009 I only downloaded pic 293 and you're moving in the right direction. The immediate thing to notice is the exposure metering is off---under exposed---if you still have the images on the card and look at the histogram with hardly anything on the right side of it. Corrected, the image perks up quite a bit. It will sharpen up noticably more as well, post processing. In your Picture Styles, you might try using Landscape and tweeking its setting for sharpness a bit, and contrast too above its default setting. With the crop factor of the sensor, 28mm is about 44mm in 35mm terms and 18mm is 28mm in 35mm terms, and 18mm would be a better choice for your objectives. On a full frame camera such as my D3, with a 14mm lens giving a true 14mm, virtually everything is in focus without too much effort. My favourite: Pictures \| Towns \| Attractions
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