These photos were taken aperture priority wide open. Would stopping down to f/8-10 improve the IQ?Thanks in advance.

AFAIK there are different haloing effects, but the most commonly refered to is sharpening halos, which is not what you are taking about here. Looks like these were taken with an economy lens, thus the glowing edges, which can be improved by stopping down, but also has to do with the lens coatings.The first image looks a bit OOF and overexposed as well. -- Main Albums:http://picasaweb.google.com/Carskick/ Older Albums:http://www.flickr.com/photos/carskick

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I these were protraits, you might want that glow or "halo" from the backlighting. But you'd also want to use a reflector or fill flash so that the subjects' front or face isn't in shadow. But from the stands you're not able to control the lighting.Going to ISO 400 and closing the aperture 1 stop instead of wide open would keep the action stopping shutter speed, but give more sharpness.

Which lens were you using? Knowing this will shed some light (no pun intended) on the cause of the distortion.

skylinerwrote:Which lens were you using? Knowing this will shed some light (no pun intended) on the cause of the distortion.75-300mm f/4-5.6 (non USM, non IS)