What am I doing wrong?

[mrfish]

I took this photo to see what the quality is like. I am shocked how bad it is. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
DJI_0013 by William Heron, on Flickr

 

[maggior]

Did you pull the photo from the memory card?

 

[mrfish]

Did you pull the photo from the memory card?

Yes, and converted it in Photoshop.

 

[BobaFut]

The only issue I see is the subject is out of focus? I don't really consider that a quality issue (absent some sort of hardware problem) and seemingly is just user error (no offense). Also you don't say what model you are using or the settings or anything that might diagnose a potential problem (again, I don't see a "problem").

 

[mrfish]

The only issue I see is the subject is out of focus? I don't really consider that a quality issue and just (no offense) user error.

No offence taken I assure you. How or why is it out of focus? At 1/640th of a second it isn't due to camera shake. Am I too close to the subject for it to focus? For such a wide angle lens I would expect it to be able to focus quite close to the subject. What is the minimum focus distance for the lens? Many thanks.

 

[GFields]

What did you take the photo with? Drone, DSLR? More details including the brand/type of equipment might be helpful.

 

[GFields]

converted

From what to what?

 

[mrfish]

From what to what?

Apologies, it was taken on a Mini 3 Pro. The original raw file was converted to jpeg on photoshop. Just converted, no other processing. It's hosted on flickr. It says the exposure is manual, I thought it was on Auto, I must check that tomorrow.
ƒ/1.7
6.7 mm
1/640
100
Flash (off, did not fire)
Hide EXIF
Compression - JPEG (old-style)
Make - DJI
Orientation - Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution - 300 dpi
Y-Resolution - 300 dpi
Software - Adobe Photoshop 22.0 (Windows)
Date and Time (Modified) - 2024:04:01 17:27:52
YCbCr Positioning - Centered
ISO Speed - 100
Sensitivity Type - Recommended Exposure Index
Exif Version - 0230
Date and Time (Original) - 2024:04:01 23:43:34
Date and Time (Digitized) - 2024:04:01 23:43:34
Components Configuration - Y, Cb, Cr, -
Exposure Bias - 0 EV
Max Aperture Value - 1.7
Metering Mode - Average
Light Source - Daylight
Flashpix Version - 0100
Color Space - Uncalibrated
File Source - Digital Camera
Scene Type - Directly photographed
Exposure Mode - Manual
White Balance - Auto
Digital Zoom Ratio - 1
Focal Length (35mm format) - 24 mm
Scene Capture Type - Standard
Gain Control - None
Contrast - Normal
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Normal

 

[GFields]

I don't think it looks all that bad myself. Perhaps a little tweaking.

 

[mrfish]

@GFields I can only think of one digital photo that that I had to sharpen due to either camera shake, or being slightly out of focus, that was about 12 years ago. An £80 phone camera would take a better photo than what I have taken with the Mini 3 Pro. The photo isn't sharp. I assume it is down to to the lens being defective, or the subject being closer than the minimum focus distance. I will try it with the subject further away tomorrow. I will do an A3+ print with writing on it and then photo it at several distances to see if what I did today was too close to the camera. I suspect it will still show as being out of focus. I noticed some other shots I took over the last few days were equally terrible, but I need to be more scientific about it to be sure. I will post the results on here. If the shots are still terrible, I will contact DJI to see what their take on it is.

 

[waynorth]

It's a focus error. The grass behind the person is sharp.
The cameras AF has automatically chosen a focus point on the grass. You should have tapped on the screen on the boys head to let the AF focus on it. There is no indication that there is anything wrong with the camera.
The minimum focus distance for the camera is 1 meter.

 

[PanoVolo]

drone optics is optimized for long focal distances, near infinity. I don't think the optics is at strongest when focused on close up subject.

 

[mrfish]

It's a focus error. The grass behind the person is sharp.
The cameras AF has automatically chosen a focus point on the grass. You should have tapped on the screen on the boys head to let the AF focus on it. There is no indication that there is anything wrong with the camera.
The minimum focus distance for the camera is 1 meter.

Thank you for that. I will try again tomorrow. That is excellent advice. Many thanks, I will get my head round this with help.

 

[waynorth]

drone optics is optimized for long focal distances, near infinity. I don't think the optics is at strongest when focused on close up subject.

True, but this is more than mediocre optics Click on the photo to enlarge it and you will see that he is very much out of focus.
The drone has not focused on the boy because the focus point has been set on the grass, either automatically by the drone or by the photographer.
The boy may be too close for the lens, but I believe he is more than 1 meter from the camera?.
Or maybe DJI is very optimistic when they say that the minimum focus distance is 1 meter.

 

[PanoVolo]

True, but this is more than mediocre optics Click on the photo to enlarge it and you will see that he is very much out of focus.
The drone has not focused on the boy because the focus point has been set on the grass, either automatically by the drone or by the photographer.
The boy may be too close for the lens, but I believe he is more than 1 meter from the camera?.
Or maybe DJI is very optimistic when they say that the minimum focus distance is 1 meter.

I had to look - yes they say 1m is minimal in the spec, hmm. Wonder if it is real or estimated.

 

[MARK (LI)]

It's really not so bad a picture from e Mini3, it is not a great quality camera on the drone....it is OK...but not what you would expect if it were taken with a good camera

 

[waynorth]

It's really not so bad a picture from e Mini3, it is not a great quality camera on the drone....it is OK...biut not what you would expect if it were taken with a good camera

Did you view the photo in full size? The boy is the main subject and he is way out of focus.
The mini 3 pro has an impressive camera given its limitations, and it can do far better than this.

 

[PanoVolo]

the image does look back-focused, whether a camera error or photographer error is hard to tell.

 

[waynorth]

Thank you for that. I will try again tomorrow. That is excellent advice. Many thanks, I will get my head round this with help.

You need to learn the tapping on the screen to set focus where you want. Try that on subjects both close and further away, and I am sure you will see the difference.

 

[MS Coast]

It's not a camera limitation, camera shake, or slow shutter speed. The child just isn't in focus. Manual focusing on the child or using the tap-to-select focus feature of auto focus should solve the problem.