sharpness in portraits

[jcuknz]

Another bit of navel gazing ... wheel spinning?

"I never look at 100% images ... it is too dissappointing"

[pnodrog]

Paul,
I'll go to an f8 for the wide shots. I'm never sure what a good aperture is for full body shot portraits.

Providing your shutter speed is fast enough to avoid any camera movement f8 to f11 will probably be the optimum aperture setting for the lens and should not be contributing to any softness.

[Alison Johnston]

Don't view your image at 100% to see what the final product will be ... old time rule of thumb ... view at 100% for sharpening and 50% to see what it will look like in print.

[xpatUSA]

I do try and increase my f-stop to 8 when I'm wide out and do more around 5.6 or smaller closer up.

Some lenses are a bit sharper at f/5.6 than f/8 (that's not a rule). Your lens might be even sharper at f/4 and it might not.

So I would be inclined to re-try the unsatisfactory shots at lower f-numbers, just to see.

[Colin Southern]

Some lenses are a bit sharper at f/5.6 than f/8 (that's not a rule). Your lens might be even sharper at f/4 and it might not.

So I would be inclined to re-try the unsatisfactory shots at lower f-numbers, just to see.

Whilst it's very true that all lenses have a "sweet spot" in terms of sharpness, unfortunately, one usually has to pick their working aperture for portraiture based on depth of field considerations (and even shutterspeed considerations) - sharpness comes in a distant 3rd (ie no point in choosing the sharpest aperture for the lens if it results in the back row of a group shot being out of focus or a background being in focus when we want it to be out of focus).

[Colin Southern]

Don't view your image at 100% to see what the final product will be ... old time rule of thumb ... view at 100% for sharpening and 50% to see what it will look like in print.

Alison gets my "This person gets it" award for today

I'm not saying that one should ignore an obvious problem that's only visible at 100% magnification, but folks need to remember that what you see at 100% magnification has little bearing on an image that's down-sampled for internet display (or printed at a small or medium size) (assuming one is shooting with a modern/typical resolution sensor - where typically around 95% or information is ultimately discarded).

Don't ruin an image trying to save the pixels!

[xpatUSA]

Whilst it's very true that all lenses have a "sweet spot" in terms of sharpness, unfortunately, one usually has to pick their working aperture for portraiture based on depth of field considerations (and even shutterspeed considerations) - sharpness comes in a distant 3rd (ie no point in choosing the sharpest aperture for the lens if it results in the back row of a group shot being out of focus or a background being in focus when we want it to be out of focus).

Good advice, of course. I was responding to the OP's apparent desire for sharpness - no more than that.

. . I just can't seem to get sharp pictures from farther away . .

[Cparoyan]

Thanks Everyone! This has all been really helpful. Since I'm teaching myself it's been hard figuring out what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong and I don't have anyone to show and ask. This forum has been a huge help and I've learned a ton on this site. I'm so glad I found it. Thanks again!!
~Cheryl