Encore une toile d'araignée

Another spider web. I got a little carried away with the webs. Part of the reason was that I was experimenting (again) with the camera. I'm still not totally satisfied with my images; I find them too grainy and not crisp enough. I just don't know if it's the lens or it's me. The lighting in most of my pictures seems right, but the images just aren't sharp enough.

A wide shot. The subject (plant and web) are in focus, but the detail seems grainy to me (f/9, 1/60 sec, ISO-160).

So I take a lot of photos of the same subject with a different settings, hoping that I'll hit on the magic combination. One benefit of doing that is that I'm getting more of a feel for manual photography, where I choose the aperture and shutter speed instead of letting the camera do it for me. I'm learning to like the control that gives me.

A closer shot. The subject is still in focus, but I think the details should be crisper (f/7, 1/60 sec, ISO-100).

For a while I thought the issue was that I needed a tripod for my shots in lower light conditions. And that's true in many cases, but not all. I still get the graininess in bright light photos when the aperture is smaller, the shutter is quicker, and the ISO is standard, which combined, should make for a sharp shot.

The two photos here were taken with a relatively slow shutter for hand-held shots. But I've taken similar shots with a tripod without getting a better result.

I think I'm going to have to break down and get myself another lens to see if that makes a difference. I'm thinking of a fixed 50mm lens of a higher quality than the kit zooms that I got with the camera.