Sharpness and downscaling

B

blackfilm

Member
Hello!

I've been getting out of my mind lately. I've seen a huge amount of videos shot the D7000 and other dslrs. I don't know but my footage always looks like crap compared to them. I just don't understand how do they get it that sharp. It generally looks alright with shallow dof shots, but anything wider or stopped down more is so mushy. I've tried applying unsharp mask settings in after effects, but generally if i'm using it to upload to Vimeo (which i do most the time), the compression lowers the quality even more and the sharpening doesn't help much. I also tried to downscale the video to 720 in AE, i'm not sure if it looks any better. Or maybe i'm not doing it right? I should export/resize the footage through another app?

Anyway, i attached a few clips. They're straight out of the camera without any corrections. Shot on D7000 + Tokina 12-24, the forest one is at f5.6 the other one at f16. If anyone wonders, i'm also using the nikkor 50mm 1.8 and 28mm AIS 2.8. Also, i'm always shooting at Neutral settings with contrast and sharpness turned all the way down. Be sure to download the videos!!!

Link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9vyg8bzsvxbbc2l/0YQJD0WxBB#/

I just want to know the camera, so i can shoot without worrying that my footage will look awful when i get back home! :) Your advice would be extremely helpful.
 
Try setting the sharpness to 3. It'll help boost sharpness without introducing much noise, if any, so you can add more sharpening in post without bringing up noise or compression artifacts.

Try to stay at f/11 or wider. Diffraction will soften the image above there. Most lenses are in their sweet spots at F/5.6 and F/8, though as you noticed, images with lots of bokeh will make the in-focus subject look sharper than it really is.



EDIT: just got a chance to see your vids. They look more out of focus than anything, or maybe upscaled 480p. I've got a D7000 and even with sharpness at 0 and small apertures, I don't get video that soft. Were you using the camera's phase/contrast detection AF to get focus, or doing it by eye?
 
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Well thank you so much for replying! That's what i'm saying, it does look awfully soft. I focus by eye zoomed in the lcd. It should be quite accurate. Using af is rarely an option, cause the Tokina is my only af lens. I always thought it shouldn't be that soft, but i also heard dslr video isn't sharp, so maybe my post sharpening techniques are at fault here. So it was really the camera all along? Also the sky shot is at f16, i don't think if it's even possible to focus badly when the subject is so far away and the lens stopped down as much. Could you please send me a clip with a wider lens used straight from the camera so i can compare this?

Thanks again for replying, i need to solve this so badly!
 
I have to agree with Blue Bomber on this. It looks more out of focus than being soft. It seems like you are front focusing (focusing closer to you than needed). Is it the same with other lenses? It might just be a focusing problem with your tokina
 
Best thing to do is shoot another vid while slowly racking focus around what you think is the in-focus point. You'll be able to see the true in-focus image at one point, and compare it to what you think is in focus. I never liked using the LCD to determine focus, even with a loupe. The image just isn't sharp enough to be 100% certain, even though it's significantly better than the D90's screen. I bought a Swivi monitor for that purpose, which has focus peaking to end the confusion.
 
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