Out of Focus and Flat Photos

Nikkie

I have been shooting with my first DSLR camera for over a year and half now. It's a Nikon D3100 and no matter what I do or what settings I try I am just getting out of focus flat photos. I am a member of a forum here in Australia and they are a nice bunch of people who are very helpful. I have tried everything and nothing seems to help, no matter which settings I use (even auto). The best lens I have is the 105mm. All the photos I've seen with this lens are fabulous, but mine have no punch at all. I am starting to feel that my forum buddies are getting sick of helping me even though I did exactly what they told me, but still no improvement. I am feeling frustrated and almost bought the D3200 when it came out, but was convinced other wise not to. They say I need to focus, and I have tried to focus manual and auto. The little green dot or dots come on in viewfinder, or the green square comes on in live view and beep when the shutter is pressed half way down and I shoot.

Using a tripod makes little or no difference in the quality of the photos I am getting. So I ask, is it possible that I may have bought a lemon? Could there be something wrong with the sensor or something not working right? I did just get my sensor professionally cleaned, thinking or hoping this might help, but no it has made no difference.

Riddelske

Nikki,
Sorry if this is a short reply, but do you have any photos posted on Flickr or another site? I would like see what the quality is like. It would be great if they are on Flickr as I can see the EXIF data.
If you could post a link that would he fabulous.
Regards

Nikkie

This is my flicker site. I have never really taken good photos. I have started using aperture priority and some photos are not bad. I used View Nx 2, and after yesterday's shoot I looked to see where the focus point was and it seemed out of whack. You may need to go into a few pages to see what I am talking about. Thank you so much, and sorry I didn't respond, I was out all day yesterday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandycom/

Riddelske

Nikkie,
I've looked at the pictures in the provided link, and to be honest from a non professional point of view they look reasonably ok. I don't think it's the camera as I've had the same results using the kit lens on some of those portrait shots. The photo in the candid album is good. Some macro work you have done could be improved but it still is good. I couldn't remember if you used it, but flash at that distance is not really advisable.
Can you pin point any pictures that you feel are not good?
Regards

Nikkie

Thank you for taking a look at my photos. One image you may not have seen so I just just reposted it for you. It's a landscape called LS. Here are some replies I got from the photography forum I go to. It's pretty much the same with just about every photo I post there; they are out of focus. After a year of following their advice and settings I can only guess it could be the camera. I have been using my 105mm for a few months now. Here are a few replies I have received and they all pretty much say the same thing:


1) I like the composition and the crop. The leading lines of the trees on the left and the crops in the center are spot on.
How did you process it? I looked at it full size on Flickr and there is a huge amount of detail smearing. It's almost like you used a watercolor filter or something similar in Photoshop. You also just need to crop a little bit more on the left. There is something against the left edge all the way up the photo (door frame of car?).

2) I was going to say earlier that I thought it was not in focus,
but I didn't want to sound like a broken record with Sandy's photos so I didn't post. Because no one else had said anything about focus I was starting to doubt my own eyes. How can a landscape photo like that at f/10 possibly be out of focus?

3) To my eyes, the nearest field appears to be in focus, but not the rest. I'm going to have a wild guess at something. Could it be heat haze? If you look at the edge of the yellow field (below the tree line on the right of frame) it looks a lot like heat haze.

Riddelske

Nikkie,
For someone like yourself who has only been shooting with the camera for year and a half, they're being too picky.
Unless of course you like the criticism and you are determined to improve, then those details that they're talking about are good points. I don't think this is how someone should be taught when its all new to them.

Personally this is how I would have taken that shot:
Lens: wide angle, so 20mm or less.
Camera mounted on tripod (this is a must when shooting landscapes)
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 100 (depending on light)
Shutter speed: 1/30 to 1/125th (depending on light)
Focus mode: AF-S
Focus point: single point
Metering: matrix
Note: when using a lens with VR turn it off if on tripod.

Not sure it's heat haze but then again you can't rule it out. We don't get much heat over here so I wouldn't know if it picks up.
Regards

Nikkie

Thank you so much for having a look and thank you for your advice. Where I live is hard country, almost the center of N.S.W. in Australia. It's flat, dry and very hot. The day I shot this was getting hot and it was the wrong time of day. I think at times they except me to have the same skill or at least have the same quality images as they do. They are very nice and have taught me a lot as well.

But yes, I also feel they are quiet picky. I am not a landscape shooter, but I do like to get out and about with my camera. I mostly look for wild flowers on the side of the road, which is why I only had my 105mm with me. I would say heat haze would show up in photos like this, but everything else I had was pretty much spot on. I have dropped back to A mode due to a lot of their suggestions. To do so I have been getting much better results. I get to pick the f/stop and let the camera decide on shutter speed. You went to a lot of trouble to help me and I am glad you were able to.


As for the slight possible reason there could be something wrong with the camera, I have decided to test it myself using a dart board and writing down the information and using different focus points on different number on the board. Then I will look at that in NX software to see if any of the focus points are out of whack. I will be using a good solid tripod as well, so thanks again, it's so very kind of you to help me.