What am I doing wrong???

[sparkie1263]

I have spot focus on iso 400 f/8 and pictures are not coming out sharp. Should I lower the contrast and sharpness back to 0 in the camera? I did crop and use curves in PS. Some of my other shots are coming out fine.
Thanks Frank

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn219/sparkie1263/Sony%20A100/Dragonfly1.jpg

[Rooz]

what lens ? post the original aswell.

[DonSchap]

Well ... I took the image below with the A100 w/ the TAMRON AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 LD MACRO, in MACRO mode, Spot focus @ ISO-1600, f/8, 1/60 sec., Sharpness & Constant +2

It is NOT a crop, just resized, straight out of the camera.

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Looks okay to moi. Maybe closing down the aperture might help, or going to a quicker shutter-speed.

[Rooz]

lol you do a good job selling the a100 don.
try the same shot with a black battery against a green background in the same sort of light at iso1600.

[DonSchap]

Look, the A100 is what he is working with, of course, with that same lens. Dragonflies and damselflies are not all that prevalent in Des Plaines, so I am a bit vexed in getting it as a subject.

The darn river is coming down from Wisconsin, though. They are getting creamed, up there. Lake Delton flooded to bursting, the dam collapsed, blew out a 100-yard long gash, gutted the road that straddled it, collapsed the sand bars these houses "were built" on and dumped five into the ensueing river. The "ensueing river" then blasted into the main flow of the Wisconsin River and drained the lake, leaving what used to be Lake Delton with only the barren sand bars sticking out.

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This used to be ten-feet deep!
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"What I did on Summer Vacation ... I moved ..."

Anyway, those houses and "lake remains" are heading downriver toward the mighty Mississippi, but all the Southeastern Wisconsin flood water is moving down the Des Plaines River, and we are right along the banks. They've spent quite a bit of money to kind of shore up the banks, through town ... and this will be the first major test of it. They say the housing market is in a slump ... personally, I'd say it is flooded and on the move. A whole new meaning to "scenic river view."

"Hey, remember that lake we used to fish on, up in Wisconsin? It got loose and moved away." :eek:

How in the heck do you explain this to your home insurance agent? Does it come under the heading of flood coverage ... or earthquake/landslide? I mean the houses were not touched by the water until they, literally, fell in. There just wasn't any ground underneath them any longer to support them, the draining lake took it away.

It kind of reminds me of the Salton Sea event, only in reverse, way back in the early 1900s. Another disaster ... man-made, when the "cork blew."

EDIT: (Image taken at 4PM, 6-10-2008) Yeah, our neck of the river is definitely higher.

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Looking at the new wall, they are just finishing up, though ...
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it looks ... normal?
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I suspect the water will look really cool when those perimeter lights get turned on.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled MACRO event ;)

[sparkie1263]

IO never thought it was the camera or lens. I just cannot figure out what was going on. Thanks Don and Rooz