Sasja in the rain...

photocat

This is Sasja. It was a dark grey day here in UK today. I did a photosession of little Sasja, and I got so frustrated. My Nikon D70 does not want to go lower then 4 and a bit something aperture, the asa was on 400, shutterspeed dropped till 10, 20, 30... So as I don't want to flash and I don't want to turn on the ASA to 800 or 1600, I wonder what is wrong. Why can't I have sharper pics than what I am obviously getting. This one is sharp, with the sharpness around the eyes, where I want it really.
I do have a bunch of pics though that her sweater is sharp but her face is off, and I know that I focused on her face. (I use autofocus, so normally, the middle of my picture should be sharp, I always focus on the middle field.
This is the only picture that is sharp enough to my liking. Either I speed up the shutterspeed to 125 but then break all the rules about correct exposure.
How do other people solve that. A too dark of a day, you only have one chance for a shoot, More ASA does not work because the noise becomes inbarable.
I never seem to get nice, crisp, clear shots... and on a day like today, it is very depressing...
Any comments and suggestions welcome. (I know about the tripod and the flash, but I don't want to use those things... Am I plain stupid? I do have a tripod and I do have the nikon SB800 flash, am I crazy not to want to use them?)

zigzag

Sasja is cute, and you have a pretty darn sharp photo there. But you want more consistency/sharpness. I think it's the lens for the light you had. You say 4 and something aperture. Was this the 18-70 kit lens?

Could be just that for the light available and a given ISO speed, your lens doesn't let enough in.

I'd recommend just getting a 50mm f/1.8 lens. Costs $100 on this side of the pond, it's sharper than even the (excellent) kit lens, and opens much wider to let in more light. I find it makes a great portrait lens too. This would solve your problem.

Example with the 50/1.8:

photocat

zigzag wrote:

Sasja is cute, and you have a pretty darn sharp photo there. But you want more consistency/sharpness. I think it's the lens for the light you had. You say 4 and something aperture. Was this the 18-70 kit lens?

Yes, it is probably time to invest in a more light sensitive lense. I took todays pics with the tamron 28-200, 3.8 biggest aperture.
I do have the kit lens that came with the camera, and the zoom 70-300. I seem to get sharper pics with the zoom then with any other lens.
I thought of taking the tamron today as the zoom allows me to blur out the background.

Thanks for your suggestion of a lens with an even bigger aperture. I need to sell some work first before I can talk new lens...
Thanks for the comment!

zigzag

Without question, the 28-200 Tamron is going to give you less sharpness than your kit lens. If you don't have the cash to drop for the 50mm, switch out to the kit lens for the "important" shots.