The Ever Hated Grainy Photo

[samkusterbeck]

To begin I have a CANON REBEL T7 with a 24-70 mm CANON lens. 
I have taken quite a bit of time scouring the internet for the do's and don't of photography. All my images are RAW files and I shoot in Manual mode and use the auto focus mode (which I feel like is what the issue is) 
ISO is 100 f/28 1/320 I think I was set at AL SERVO 
I point the red dot on the face and then I open the files and some/most of the pictures come out "annoyling" grainy. I don't know what to do!
Is the AF Point Selection just no good? I heard the center one is the best to use, but the face or subject I want in focus isn't always smack dab in the center.

Is it the distance I am shooting from? If so could someone explain to me in simple terms what and how the best  shooting distance is determined?

Is my camera no bueno and its just not capable sometimes of getting crisp shots?

Do I need to use manual focus and if so HOW> it seems like it would make photo taking take forever trying to make sure you get the right focus? 

[samkusterbeck]

The top photo is what I would like my photos to look like as far as the crispness. The bottom photo is the orginial photo on my post. The "graininess" bugs me. I have not yet taken my camera out to try some of the advice given - once I do that in a bit I will post again. 

[jrhoffman75]

I don't see graininess, but the bottom image (-0722) is out of focus. Look at the eyebrows and eyelashes in the two photos. The top image looks to have good focus.

As a start, comp[are the camera settings for the two images.

[samkusterbeck]

I just took some photos and again I am having the issue getting most of the images to be in focus...these two have the same settings, and as far as I know I am doing the same thing when taking them but one is obviously more in focus than the other

[ebiggs1]

Again you have underexposed the bottom photo. Do you see your histogram?  The right side of the histogram in the top photo is good but the bottom photo it is weak on the right side. That means it is underexposed. That makes a valid comparison difficult.

[ebiggs1]

Perhaps you missed my last comment so I am reposting it here.

"The worst, hardest, critic is yourself. In your example, 0722 is OOF plain and simple. It is also underexposed. Underexposed shots make everything else look even worse. Add OFF to underexpose and, yeah, it probably has all the bad going for it. Like several of us have said keep it simple. Let a simple thing be simple. It is easy to over think something when it isn't necessary. You should be using One shot 90% of the time. It is that much more accurate for most shots. Also, ISO 200 whenever possible and for this type of photos, P mode is good.

I took a pretty compressed jpg that you u/l of the baby and look how much better it is. That is a simple levels adjustment to correct underexposure. I added a bit of saturation to the reds too. If I had the Raw it would look even better.

Way back a few posts ago i think I saw you had aT7 and a 24-70mm Canon lens? Understand the lens makes the shot. Not the camera as it is basically a storage device.  Let that very good lens do its thing in AF with the cameras in One shot. Also one stop down from wide open is sharper so use it when you can. If you were at f2.8 and 1/320, a better choice would be f4 and 1/160."

[samkusterbeck]

The underexposed one has the better focus. 😔

[jrhoffman75]

Can you post a few RAW images on Dropbox so we can study your settings?

[samkusterbeck]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/glrit76fum3yxan/In%20Focus%20%282%29.cr2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oo8hhd02lvd9s05/In%20Focus.cr2?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcmbgl25a2fvwbz/20220417-IMG_0885.cr2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m74jjsr3orb4kxw/Out%20of%20Focus%20%282%29.cr2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8bmz26uohilhg36/Out%20of%20Focus%20%283%29.cr2?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0d2coolgnild2z7/Out%20of%20Focus.cr2?dl=0

I named them either "In Focus" or "Out of Focus" hopefully I did it correctly.
I sincerely and deeply am so thankful for everyone's time helping me on this... I have a basic level of understanding of my camera. My issue isn't a grain issue as it is becoming apparent, its an out of focus issue. I'm not really sure what I am doing wrong in between photos. Why some are in great focus and others seem blurry (upclose)

[jrhoffman75]

I examined the in focus and out of focus images in Canon DPP.

The out of focus image appears to be uniformly out of focus. Compare the edges of the bib and the ribs in the shirt as well as the eyelashes. Even the lettering looks less crisp.

A shutter speed of 1/350 should be enough to prevent camera shake in most cases, but perhaps you are down low to get the shot and not the most steady shooting configuration?

I'll look at the other images.

[jrhoffman75]

I just looked at the two dog images.

Both shot at f/2.8 1/40 sec. 24mm focal length. In general 1/40 should be sufficient for hand holding. You said 24-70mm lens. Is it a Canon L lens? If not, what lens?

Do you have access to a tripod? If so, you can shoot a series of shots. That would eliminate the hand holding effect (if any).

I am now thinking either camera shake or a mechanical problem w/camera and/or lens.