Unhappy with photo quality: Fellow Hoggers, I respectfully ask that you give your opinions of what I am doing wrong with the example photos that I am submitting here. To me, they...

Dziadzi Loc: Wilkes-Barre, PA

Fellow Hoggers, I respectfully ask that you give your opinions of what I am doing wrong with the example photos that I am submitting here. To me, they appear washed out and have a yellowish tinge. Shot with a D7100, I normally use either a 70-200mm or 18-400mm Tamron lens for my sports photography. I usually use shutter priority (around 1000/sec) or manual setting with the same shutter speed so I can capture the action and not have blurry shots. Hopefully, the metadata that comes with the examples will help you help me. When I see similar photos taken by photographers with Canon cameras who have a cleaner, crisper and more vivid colors, I cringe that I can't get the same results. Especially when one of the fellow photographers of the same subjects have asked my opinion on the gear they use to take the same shots. Your assistance is appreciated. Thanks

example 1

(Download)

example 2
example 2...

(Download)

example 3
example 3...

(Download)

ialvarez50

Dziadzi wrote:

Fellow Hoggers, I respectfully ask that you give y... (show quote)

Hello friend, I dont know which lens you used to capture these shots, I can see that the images are not sharp. Forget the color rendition, you can always correct in lightroom or photoshop, but the sharpness, that you need to improve yourself. In the focusing system you have to use continuous focusing. This way the lens will continue to focus even if the subject moves closer or farther away. If that is not helping, you have to consider Nikon lenses and not Tamron. The focusing motors inside the lenses are far superior from Nikon, focusing immediately on the subject. This are my recomendations and good luck.

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Ditto to jalvarez50

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I am not seeing a focus issue, nor do I see why calls for considering new equipment are in order. The images are uniformly soft, and there is no motion blur, or not much that I can see. ISO and white balance are things I would look at (I can't view the EXIF data on this machine, so I don't know what the ISO or wb is.)

Mike

ialvarez50

Blenheim Orange wrote:

I am not seeing a focus issue, nor do I see why calls for considering new equipment are in order. The images are uniformly soft, and there is no motion blur, or not much that I can see. ISO and white balance are things I would look at (I can't view the EXIF data on this machine, so I don't know what the ISO or wb is.)

Mike

Well, since you don't see any problems with his images he should be happy with what he is getting. I sure hope you have more than 25 years of teaching photography and almost 40 of photographer. If not, I do.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

They look pretty noisy. What is the ISO? Are these cropped heavily from a larger original?

traderjohn Loc: New York City

ialvarez50 wrote:

Well, since you don't see any problems with his images he should be happy with what he is getting. I sure hope you have more than 25 years of teaching photography and almost 40 of photographer. If not, I do.

Whoops. I guess someone hit a nerve. No difference of opinion allowed. I have spoken, therefore it is.

Linary Loc: UK

Dziadzi wrote:

Fellow Hoggers, I respectfully ask that you give y... (show quote)

My observations are:

The first two images show excessive noise, the second image has an ISO of 5000. Sharpening with a High Pass filter will improve the picture immensely. Reducing the noise also helps a lot. I have no idea what the Out of camera image looks like, but I suspect under exposed and you have brought up the image in your PP program.

The third image has a depth of field issue. (400mm at f/8 gives a DoF of about 6 inches at 30 feet). Shot at 400mm, less noise (ISO 200) and I think a little camera shake.

Put the camera on a tripod, lowest ISO and shoot some test shots at various focal lengths in varying lights. This will determine the quality of your lens. I have never been disappointed with Sigma or Tamron lenses once I understand their limitations.

For example, I have a Tamron 16 - 300mm lens which does not get rave review from the critics. This is a very sharp lens at 240mm with very little distortion. Once opened up to 300mm the image is rather soft.

biry

traderjohn wrote:

Whoops. I guess someone hit a nerve. No difference of opinion allowed. I have spoken, therefore it is.

Bill

Dziadzi Loc: Wilkes-Barre, PA

Thanks to all of you who have commented. I always use AF-C, center spot for sports shots. The ISO for example 1 was 5000, #2 was 3200, and #3 was 200. I normally use Auto white balance. This has been going on for years with the camera. Could it be that the camera is faulty? I would appreciate any suggestions on how to improve the clarity and brightness of my shots. With Easter coming, I need to have the camera be one with me. Do any of you think that I should be using a light meter for the white balance?.....if so, can you recommend one? Though I know that post-production will help fix some of the problem, it really should not be happening.As my age increases, so does my frustration with the low quality of my shots. Thanks again!

Would it be better if I were to submit the RAW files of these shots for analysis. ? I am attaching a better quality photo here with similar settings on a very bright day.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Dziadzi wrote:

Fellow Hoggers, I respectfully ask that you give y... (show quote)

Bring these down to the Sports Photography section. Some really talented people, some who shoot sports for a living there.
In my opinion, in addition to others previous comments about softness, you are not close enough to the action and are stretching the limits of the lenses on the far focal end. This also makes very hard to hold steady, which will show even the slightest shake at 200-400mm.
What focus mode are you in? d9 should work well. As for the noise and color cast, shoot RAW and fix that in post. Youth gyms and fields are notorious for poor lighting. If memory serves, the D7100 may not automatically adjust for the recycling of halogen lights which can throw WB off.
I find that I have to shoot as tight as possible on 2-3 players, and use as low a shutter speed as I can get away with and as wide an aperture (usually f4 - f5.6) as possible. It takes practice, but you need to get all the light you can to the sensor. yes, you will have a very small DoF, so you have to nail that focus! Catch-22, perhaps?
Good luck and keep shooting! It is a learning curve.

agillot

could those pictures be slightly under exposed ?

Dziadzi Loc: Wilkes-Barre, PA

agillot wrote:

could those pictures be slightly under exposed ?

That's what I was thinking, but I don't know what causes that.

berchman Loc: South Central PA

ialvarez50 wrote:

Hello friend, I dont know which lens you used to c... (show quote)

Agree, not sharp.

photog11 Loc: San Francisco

I have a D7100, and never use an ISO over 800. I suspect that is part of your problem. As others have suggested, shoot in RAW so that you can change white balance in post processing.