 MaryMcGrathPhotography.com - Mary B. McGrath  Contact Mary B. McGrath Mary B. McGrath's Gallery |
My digital images seem a bit soft compared to film
Does anyone else have this problem?
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Jon Close |
Digital images need post-processing to bring out all the detail, sharpness, and color saturation possible. The sensor has a "low-pass" or "anti-alias" filter over it to counteract digital artifacts like moire and jaggy stair-step diagonal lines. In doing so the initial image is softened. The default settings of DSLRs tend to do little post-processing, leaving it to the user to do with an editing program on a computer that is much more powerful than the camera's little processor. You can, however, punch things up in-camera by adjusting the Parameters (Contrast, Saturation, Sharpening,...) to your liking.
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MaryMcGrathPhotography.com - Mary B. McGrath Contact Mary B. McGrath Mary B. McGrath's Gallery |
How do I adjust the Parameters? I'm not sure where this is in the menu? Many thanks! You may have saved me LOTS of post-shooting time!
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
Awwww mary, thats half the fun....lol Actually, are you shooting in jpeg mode? because if you arent shooting in RAW we will have to come take your camera away... its in the rules in your manual.. go see if you dont believe me. lol just kidding, but seriously, if your not shooting raw, you should try it, you gain so much more control over you images this way. I would suggest though, if you dont have one or another version of Adobe Photo Shop, go download the free version of raw shooters essentials.. (google it) and learn to post process your files. you will see things totally different from then on AFTER you get the hang of it that is. good luck! Craig-
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MaryMcGrathPhotography.com - Mary B. McGrath Contact Mary B. McGrath Mary B. McGrath's Gallery |
I was shooting raw, but it took up so much space for each image. I adjusted the parameters, and the images now look so much better!
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
thats good, at least you got it straightened out. What do you shoot in? full automatic or "P" or tv or av?
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MaryMcGrathPhotography.com - Mary B. McGrath Contact Mary B. McGrath Mary B. McGrath's Gallery |
I shoot mainly in the program mode, but also TV and AV. I still think the images are better with my Elan, but the hassle of scanning and storing is a drag. Wish this shot like my Velvia stuff. Now I can't get my images to sharpen on Elements. Another problem to conquer, although the other filters seem to be working.
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David A. Bliss |
Your digital pictures will shoot like Velvia, it is just a matter of processing. When you shoot Velvia, the film oversaturates, and tends to have higher contrast. If you shot the same scene on different film, it would have different characteristics. These are things that you need to process yourself with digital. P&S digital cameras do most of the processing in camera, but this leaves very little control later. Shooting RAW on a DSLR gives you an amazing amount of processing control, but you do have to do it yourself. There are trade offs no matter which option you choose, film, P&S digital, or DSLR. I am extremely happy with the way my 10D performs. I find it to be very similar to shooting slide, and with a good shot (correct exposure, good lighting, etc...) there is very little processing necessary to acheive the same outcome I used to get with Velvia.
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
i have an action in photoshop to achieve the velvia or even provia look. Im not sure though if elements uses actions or not. I have #3 at work, just installed it today and I didnt see the actions window. My cs2 I have at home is loaded to the gills with different actions. Craig-
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Sharon Day |
I had my DSLR a year before I had my first print made. I thought my images were softer as well. With me it was just the monitor making them look that way. When I had an 8x10 printed at Christmas it had fantastic sharpness, clarity and detail. I was very happy!
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Steve Fels |
I just sold my 350D for exactly that reason. I tried everything I could but just couldn't get the results I was used to with film. I replaced it with a Nikon D50 and the results are fantastic.....straight from the camera!
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Craig m. Zacarelli |
dont forget also, the lens youre using has allot to do with sharpness as does your aperture settings. Most lenses ar sharpest at about two stops below their max aperture. Usually around F8 or so. And forget the 18-55 Kit lens, its a good one for the right conditions, bright sunlight and stopped waaay down. I think since the canon 50MM f1.4 is so cheap, it should be included in the kit instead of the 18-55. Craig-
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MaryMcGrathPhotography.com - Mary B. McGrath Contact Mary B. McGrath Mary B. McGrath's Gallery |
I just found this thread again. I notice that when I shoot straight on with my Digital Rebel XT, that the images are much sharper, like shooting a fence where there's lots of texture. But when I take other types of shots, they still seem soft. I notice this even more so when I enlarge the image to its maximum capacity. Maybe I'll switch back to Raw again, but those images take so much memory!
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Tom Leckwart |
Mary, I went from an Elan IIE shooting Velvia to a Digital Rebel as well, and found the same softness. I post process anything I plan on printing, and I almost always have to sharpen a bit, and play with the contrast to achieve results I can live with. Considering the substantial increase in the amounts of shots I can now take (due to cost of course) I have no complaints. Velvia was awesome, but I'll take close enough for alot less investment. I shoot in TV and AV for the most part, but P when I'm feeling lazy. TV is great for action/sports/kids, and since the trial and error part was free I am very comfortable with the right shutter speed pretty quickly now. Yes RAW gobbles up memory, but I think you can use a 4GB card in your XT, so grab a couple of those, they are cheap. If you do sports, a faster card is helpful. And last, I have been told by several photographers, the Canon "L" series lenses have no equal. That's my next purchase for improvement in sharpness and overall picture quality. Even used they lighten the wallet big time, but those that use them swear by them. Hope that helps a bit.
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MaryMcGrathPhotography.com - Mary B. McGrath Contact Mary B. McGrath Mary B. McGrath's Gallery |
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