My images are not sharp - please help

[mikeyru2]

Hi Everyone,

I am shooting with a Sea & Sea DX-2G with 2 YS-110a strobes. I have just recently bought the 2nd strobe and started shooting in manual (mostly TTL mode). I recently went on a trip to Cabo San Lucas where the water was cold, dark (~30 feet vis), and fairly heavy surge. I suspect my pictures were not sharp b/c I was moving the camera too much and my shutter speed was too slow but when I tried to change aperture down to allow faster shutter speed it did not fix the problem. Perhaps I should have also bumped iso up to allow even fast shutter speeds?

Anyway what are some tips for increasing sharpness - particularly in poor visibility or bad condition? Any suggestions for ideal ISO, aperture, or shutter speed to achieve best sharpness would be very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Imla]

It is difficult to help without examples and the info about the pictures. Post some, with the exif info and it will be a lot easier.

 

[wildlifephotog]

Pics would be helpful, but the biggest cause of losing sharpness underwater is water. Try diving with less of it - or try the more achievable aim of having less water between you and the subject

Use the widest lens you have and get as close as possible.

 

[fisheater]

Stopping the aperture down will lengthen, not shorten, your shutter speeds. Open it up to allow for shorter shutter speeds.

Also, beware of "trigger finger" jiggling. Just like shooting a gun, gently press the shutter release.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Interested to see the answers

 

[TSandM]

If you are using a strobe, shutter speed is largely irrelevant, unless it is very slow. This is because the light from the strobe so completely overwhelms the ambient light that you are effectively not having to worry about anything but what's illuminated by the strobe (this is in low light conditions, of course). However, if you open the aperture to allow a faster shutter speed, you are decreasing your depth of field, which means you have to be focusing very precisely on what you want sharp in the picture -- if the camera is looking at the dorsal fin of the fish, for example, instead of its eye, you will have the eye out of focus. In addition, in conditions with surge, you do have motion artifact, unless you are able to stabilize yourself very well.

I know all these things because I have struggled with sharpness in my photographs, here in Puget Sound, which is always low light/low viz

 

[Interceptor121]

It is very hard to give advice without seeing the pictures
However in essence there are two key problems: focus blur and motion blur
Motion blur is created by fast moving subjects or your own camera shake especially at high magnification or macro. This is cured by shutter speed increase compacts love to shoot at 1/60 but you really need 1/125 for close ups of moving fish and 1/250+ for macro
Focus blur depends on the inability to focus this can be because the depth of field is too little, or because there is too little light to allow the camera to lock focus
Generally depth of field with a small sensor camera is not an issue unless you are shooting a really small subject, in that case you use small aperture to allow most of the area to be in focus
Otherwise if subjects are larger and you are in dark places and you still get nowhere with small aperture means that the camera can't focus, a focus light cures the problem

Be especially careful with autofocus settings some cameras have poor intelligence and end up focussing on something that is not your subject, in that case disable any fancy feature and just focus In the center or use focus lock

 

[mikeyru2]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I have attached a couple pics from my Cabo trip so hopefully you can help me understand what I did wrong and how to improve. Not all of them are that interesting I just thought they were representative of my larger problems and could help determine why the results ended up like they did. I was able to save the seahorse pic a bit in lightroom & photoshop since I shoot in RAW but I'd like to be able to take better pictures before post-processing. EXIF data below and thanks everyone for your feedback.


Moray 1:
ISO 100
f/4.4
1/6

Lobster 1:
ISO 100
f/4.4
1/60

Seahorse 1:
ISO 100
f/7.9
1/6

Puffer 1:
ISO 100
f/7.9
1/8

 

[Warren_L]

Judging from the pictures, it looks like you have some motion blur due to the low shutter speeds. Lynn is correct about the strobe being the dominant light source in your shots, but I suspect that due to the low shutter speed and the relatively bright ambient light, you're getting some ghosting effects from the ambient light with the low shutter speed combined with a moving subject (or a moving photographer). My initial instinct is to increase the shutter speed to as high as is possible (and still sync with your strobe - this depends on your camera). What this should do is to reduce the effect of the ambient light. Your background should be darker, but your subject should also be sharper. Now if you want both a sharp subject and some ambient light, you might want to try opening up the aperature a bit and increase the shutter speed to something like 1/60 (to reduce motion blur), but you may have to play around with your strobe settings to get the right output (you might have to dial down the power if you open up the aperature). Focusing will be more critical if you do this since a larger aperature will reduce your depth of field.

 

[Interceptor121]

Those are close up shots clearly impaired by motion blur
You have two strobes that work with TTL there is no need to find a correct exposure before shooting and then fire away as those are close up the strobe will be able to expose correctly at this distance
You should start somewhere around 1/125 f/6.3 ISO100 strobe forced on change focus mode to spot
Don't worry that the camera tells you the Ev is -2 the strobe will take card of things and your pictures will be fine