Canon 550D pictures Not sharp

[romeo21]

Iv been using a 550d now for a few weeks, im totally new to the world of DSLR!

Well my problem is that my pictures don’t appear to be as sharp as I thought they would be, im started to think I have a fault with the body or maybe I’m doing something wrong.

Im shooting RAW + JPEG but when I look at the picture in DPP the RAW files are always much sharper than the jpegs and when I click on save and convert the jpegs still seem to be not as sharp as the RAW files

Can anyone advise me?

 

[shotokan101]

Hi - easier to suggest things if you post a couple of example shots - try to make sure you leave the EXIF data intact with the images when you export them from your editing package - also what lens are you using ?

JIm

 

[lunar524]

The pics from 550D are by default a little soft, and will benefit from some in camera sharpening.

Also the 18-55mm kit lens though a reasonable walkabout lens it's not the sharpest pencil in the box. Trying to avoid the extreme ends too will benefit your shots. The 550d with it's large pixel sensor does benefit big time by using better glass, why not treat yourself to the ultra cheap 50mm 1.8 prime lens, best bargain out there for around £75, and certainly recommended for it's dirt cheap price, if only as a interim measure.

I have few shots from my 550d here for comparison, the couple of closeups of my grand-daughter were with taken with the 50mm 1.8 using just the natural light coming in from the patio.

Canon 550D Amelia 2: lunar524: Galleries: Digital Photography Review

Straight from the camera as JPG's with no PP enhancements at all.
Be sure to open them up for best view/comparison.

 

[romeo21]

your pictures are alot sharper than mine and i'm shooting with a 17-55mm lens. maybe theres a problem with my body. here is a picture i shot but it does look at all sharp to me and i have even bumped up the shapness in the 550D's settings.

IMG_2819 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Noggin1980]

To me thats a lovely photo, it's taken at quite a low shutter speed of 1/50 in low light is presumably hand held and (the one we can view) is a pretty low resolution jpeg only 300Kb. The file size was probably 100times greater when it came out of the camera as a RAW.

If you want to check everything is ok you need to be using a tripod on one of those focus chart things

 

[jradley]

I have to agree, lovely photo and there doesn't look to be anything wrong with it in terms of sharpness either.

As well as the slow shutter speed it was taken at f2.8, which will be where the lens is at its softest and shallowest depth of field (33mm, f2.8 - if you were 3 feet away from the subject you have about 3 inches DOF).

I would be inclined to take some test shots in better light so you can use smaller apertures (eg. f4, f5.6) and faster shutter speeds (eg. 1/250) and ISO 100 and then see how sharp the pictures are. If you still think there is an issue post those and we'll take a looksie.

Cheers,

John

 

[TomQH]

Im shooting RAW + JPEG but when I look at the picture in DPP the RAW files are always much sharper than the jpegs and when I click on save and convert the jpegs still seem to be not as sharp as the RAW files

Can anyone advise me?

Lovely photo! Looks acceptably sharp to me, agree with comments above

I think there are a couple of things of other points to bear in mind:
1) DDP interface always shows RAW files clearer than JPEG equivalents in the small previews, not sure why. When you open them up full screen, there's no difference
2) JPEGs straight out of the camera I remember reading somewhere compressed at around 7 image quality. You will have lost some IQ, but not anything noticable unless you pixel creep imho. You can always convert RAW to JPEG yourself and choose a higher IQ compression.