EOS 6D with Canon EF 50mm prime lens: images not sharp

[sbnighut]

Hi Community,

I have been using a Canon 6d from the past 6 years. I am not a professional photographer but I enjoy taking quality photos of friends and family along with nature. 

I am observing that the images coming from the Camera through the nifty fifty prime lens are not as sharp as I am expecting. And I am not sure whether it's the fault of the camera body itself or prime lens or is my expectations to high from the prime lens. 

Here is the RAW photo I clicked using the 50 mm primes on f/3.5 aperture. I 100% made sure that the focus is on the eye of the subject. 

Can anyone shed some lights on what might be wrong. Should I upgrade my camera body from Canon 6D to R8 instead or should I invest in better EF lenses to correct this issue. 

[sbnighut]

Here is the RAW image file: https://jumpshare.com/s/sYQwEqckLHnDy17emMVJ

[normadel]

Have you tried this at smaller apertures? What was the distance to the subject?

One photo does not make for a real diagnosis. It looks like the face and anything else on the same plane are focused, closer and farther are not. Looks like depth-of-field at work.

[FloridaDrafter · Accepted solution]

IMO, for the aperture you are using the image is plenty sharp and detailed. You may need to adjust aperture to get a deeper DOF for this particular shot. Keep in mind, distance will effect DOF at any given aperture and in this instance, DOF starts to become unacceptable, to me anyway, about half way to the animals nose and near the ear.

I brought your RAW file into DPP 4 and this is a screen shot at 100% zoom. I didn't add any edits, so it is whatever you may have applied in camera.

The black box is your focus point.

As mentioned, distance will play a part in DOF, but just guessing at how far you are from the toy, this is what I would expect at the aperture you used, f/3.5.

Newton

 

[sbnighut]

The distance was close to 2.5 feet. Lower apertures were even worse than this for some reason. The only way I can get slightly crisp and sharp images is via using flash in the background or backlighting. Other than that it seems difficult to capture sharp images under low light.

[Waddizzle]

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@sbnighut wrote:

The distance was close to 2.5 feet. Lower apertures were even worse than this for some reason. The only way I can get slightly crisp and sharp images is via using flash in the background or backlighting. Other than that it seems difficult to capture sharp images under low light.

Here is the RAW photo I clicked using the 50 mm primes on f/3.5 aperture. I 100% made sure that the focus is on the eye of the subject. 

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If by “lower apertures” you mean smaller numbers, then that is how lenses work.  Get your hands on a depth of field app.  They are invaluable when you are shooting at close up distances.

Your DOF at a distance of “almost 2 feet” and an aperture of about f/3.5 creates a small DOF, smaller than the head of the subject most likely.  Notice how smaller aperture values decrease the DOF.

Which version of the 50mm lens are you using?  Does it have a plastic or metal bayonet lens mount?

[sbnighut]

Thank you so much for the chart, Waddizle. I am using a 50mm f/1.8 STM lens and it has a metal bayonet lens mount. I followed the chart and took the same subject's photo, but this time from a distance of 8 feet (instead of 2.5 as earlier). This definitely provided me with a wide depth of field for capturing more area of the subject, but I am still somehow not super happy with the results. The image still looks soft and less sharp I feel.
Here is the link to the raw image of the same subject at a distance of 8 feet with same aperture of f/3.5: https://jumpshare.com/s/VWgRWb3s4yB12YVTXwLQ

Here is the zoomed in view of the subject:

I am just wondering if you guys feel that there's nothing wrong with the image in itself. Or do you feel I can improve the quality of image by upgrading a camera body from 6D to R8 or should I invest in better lens. 

Best,

Swapnil

[sbnighut]

I also took the same subject's photo but this time under the shade, on a bright sunny day.
Here is the RAW file: https://jumpshare.com/s/I2uMuWOvUnErc94UzzQa

It definitely looks slightly better compared to the others but may be that's because of low ISO. But I still don't know how you guys manage to take high quality photos, like this one for example: https://www.flickr.com/photos/202295121@N03/54736864724/in/pool-ef50stm/ or this one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kageeka/54360051168/sizes/3k/
I have learned more and more to respect photographers each day with every photo I take from my Canon. 

Here is the zoomed in view of the subject:

[Waddizzle]

Are you shooting handheld?  If so, take a few shots using a tripod, or just setting the camera on a table and using the shutter delay timer.

[sbnighut]

I am keeping my camera on a table. I tried using the 10 second timer too but the quality is still the same.