What is a clear photo???

[LI Diver]

What is a clear photo? How much should I be able to zoom my image and still have a it be sharp? I purchased a strobe thinking that with the extra light I would be able to use a smaller aperture and get more depth of field but it did not seem to work. I rely on the auto focus in my camera but when I download the images a lot of them look "soft". In the camera they look great but on the monitor they lose sharpness and if I zoom and crop to fill the frame with my subject it gets worse. Help!!!!!!!!

 

[ce4jesus]

Hey LT,
I think you've got a lot of questions wrapped up into a bundle there. I usually don't crop over %50. If its a dead sharp image you might get to 100% but mine are usually not that crisp at 100%. One thing that's extremely hard to do is get a super sharp photo when you're suspended in the water column trying not move the camera. I usually compensate a little by upping my shutter speed to the maximum of my cameras ability to sync the flash (1/180). But I'm getting ahead of myself here and need to ask you a few questions first. What are you shooting? ie wide angle, macro, fish portraits?

 

[herman]

You also need to define "zoom". If you are using digital zoom (as opposed to optical zoom) on the camera you need to turn it off, if that is the only type of zoom your camera has, you need a new camera. If you are using optical zoom, then is should be sharp at any zoom assuming your focus is correct, you are not too close and you are using a fast enough shutter speed. What camera, modes and setting are you using?

 

[alcina]

And how about a couple of photos to show us, please. Much easier to trouble shoot when we can *see* the problem sometimes.

 

[LI Diver]

OK here goes. Canon g9 in a Ike housing with or without a Ike ds-51 strobe. I keep it in macro focus mode, digital zoom turned off, subjects 1'to 3' away,camera lense almost always at widest angle setting. Usual vis around here is approx 10' on camera days. But I've noticed same thing at clear water destinations. Herman what I meant was zooming when editing not when shooting however that is good info. I have stayed away from zooming during picture taking thinking that it would greatly lessen my depth of field.When the current allows I try to brace against a bare rock or other unadorned structure for steadiness. I've tried manually setting shutter and aperture to approx 1/125 and f5.6 or higher but seem to have best results in uw mode for some reason. I'll try to add photo's.

 

[LI Diver]

The last photo is my wall paper now and when enlarged to fill my monitor I can see that the tip of the claw is in focus but the body of the crab which is back an inch or two is a little fuzzy.

 

[friscuba]

There's lots of things to consider. The G9 tends to default to "evaluative" focus, looking at the whole screen and deciding where the focus point is. I like to force it into "spot" focus, then I can pick the focus point... in the case of your crab I would try to get focus on the eyes, then it really doesn't matter if the back of the crab or the tip of the claw is in focus unless you want absolutely everything in focus.

The goal should be to fill the frame the way you want it when you actually shoot, not afterwards in post production, if possible. I use zoom all the time, if I can't get close enough to the subject to be right on top of it, however in low viz situations that'll put you with more floaty riffraff between you and your subject so it's a tradeoff you may not want to make. The G9 is nice in that when you do use the zoom it'll tell you the minimum distance you need to get a focus and the focus square will turn orange/yellow, not green, if you aren't quite in focus.

Exposure is a whole 'nuther thing, can be somewhat of an art, to get down. Keep shooting and you'll start to learn what makes things work for you.

 

[Digger54]

What ISO setting did you use? Seems like I'm noticing a little "noise" in these that give it a little grainy, fuzzy appearance.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

You're way too far away from your subjects. In all of the shots. Get closer, closer, and then a little bit closer. The difference between two feet and one foot? HUGE!!! Seriously. You will see much improvement.
As far as focus goes, make sure the camera is set to center spot focus. The so-called evaluative AF or "smart AF", where the camera decides what to focus on was one of the most unfortunate ideas a camera engineer ever had and the person responsible still deserves to be shot. This function is bad on land, but underwater is about as useful as a flooded housing. Then, focus on the eyes of the animal, hold the shutter button halfway depressed to lock the focus and then recompose the picture and shoot. That way, next time you take a picture like the one on your desktop, the crab's face will be in focus. The pincers might not, but that's better than having the eye out of focus. Focus on an animal's eye gets first priority. Always. The only exception are nudibranchs, where you can focus on the cerata. And perhaps there might be the very rare exception in which you prefer to focus on something other than the eyes, but I can't think of too many situations. The "eye in focus" rule is a good one to start with.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Yup ... closer is better. I can only speak from the experience of someone who uses a point-n-shoot, but a huge factor in getting a sharp focus is good buoyancy control ... you've got to be able to frame the shot the way you want it and hold the camera still when you click the shutter. Even a tiny movement will show up as a "soft" focus when you view the picture.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)