Hi, beginner over here! Not thrilled about my image. Not sharp enough, will work on focus

[Jesshappy33]

[shadowsports]

Welcome to the forums.  Please provide your camera model..  powershot?

Didn't see full EXIF informaiton.  This might help us provide some tips.

[jrhoffman75]

Two hints about Canon auto focus.

1. Unless you tell it otherwise (by deliberately selecting a focus point) the camera will assume that your desired subject is the object closest to the camera.

2. The AF system needs contrast to determine focus. So, even if your desired subject is front and center the camera may not focus on it if it can't find enough contrast.

For general shooting your best results will be if you select a single focus point and use the central point.

As Rick said - more info will help us help you.

[Jesshappy33]

Hello! 👋. 1st of all I appreciate the responses. Very much! I have a Canon Rebel T7 with the lense EF-S 18-55 mm/ 3.5-5.6 IS. Sorry if I'm not too specific. I'm still trying to learn. I think I accidently used portrait mode

[Jesshappy33]

I'm only interested in landscapes. I wanted to know what settings should it be, but I guess it really all depends the lightning, how I'm shooting, etc. Is it best to shoot in RAW mode for landscapes?

[jrhoffman75]

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@Jesshappy33 wrote:
I'm only interested in landscapes. I wanted to know what settings should it be, but I guess it really all depends the lightning, how I'm shooting, etc. Is it best to shoot in RAW mode for landscapes?

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Hi Jess.

The Portrait icon setting is going to favor a shallow depth of field to have the subject stand out from the background. That could explain what you got.

Typically for landscapes you are more interested in large depth of field to maximize what is in focus.

I would suggest Av mode with aperture at f/8 and Auto ISO. That way the camera will do some thinking for you and balance shutter speed (so you don't get camera shake blur) with ISO. You would typically want a shutter spped of at least twice your focal length (zoom setting) to avoid motion blur. The camera is programmed to do that.

I always recommend shooting RAW unless you have a very special need for a JPEG (like immediately downloading an image and emailing it to someone). If you are in that situation just shoot both. With today's software shooting with RAW is transparent - the software just ingests the image and displays it.

[Jesshappy33]

I appreciate the info John! And shadowsports!