Picture of my nephew with Canon 20D. Please comment on what you think of it.

Like the expression on your nephew it's really cute. Just you lost a bit of his head and it's a little too soft focus for me. I'm sure you had to shoot fast as he looks like a normal kid who doesn't stand still for long.

Calicajun wrote: I agree on that, but one can cure a bit of that unwanted softness with postprocessing:

http://www.rifiles.de/pics/steve/nephew1-90.jpg

Sorry that I had to resize, but there were too many JPEG artifacts to really work with the original size.

@calitran
Hope you don't mind that I had a go with that - you caught him in such a nice pose...

Regards,
Th.

Can you tell me how to have a better focus? i always have problem with focusing. Also, how would i fix that with postprocessing? by using the sharpen tool?

calitran wrote: Hm, if you ALWAYS have problems focusing, maybe it's your camera? Test with a static target with good contrasts and good light - if even there you can't get at least *something* well focused you should consult your local camera store or maybe ask a more experienced photographer for help, maybe you mis-configured the camera, who knows?

As for the picture of your nephew - in most cases people will be interested in the face so try to make sure that especially the eyes are in focus. It looks to me as if you already tried this, it's only that he looks a bit soft... maybe he just played his little tricks on the AF? Ran out of focus when you pressed the shutter? Anyway... just keep trying, you should(!) be able to get some well-focussed images under good lighting situations.

Now for the postprocessing. The sharpen tool and/or USM (unsharp mask), gradiation curve (very slight "S" form) and levels adjustment can increase contrast and thus the image will "look sharper". You'll notice that all the pixels in the image stay at their places, they just change their color, luminance etc.

If you really want to "move pixels" deconvolution is worth a try, but I think that doesn't belong here.

Start with trying to get a good focus on unmoving, then on moving objects and use USM or even the sharpen tool as a starter to sharpen, that's ok.

If you get serious problems with that, ask for help here and learn from peoples answers, try to copy what they do and see if it works for other, similar situations.

Good luck and happy snapping!

Candid shots of kids and animals are hard for me. They move too quickly and in unexpected directions.

Good pic of your nephew

Thanks