About to Go Insane. (I Need Your Advice.)

SimplyShane

Disclaimer:: I had originally typed a full message prior to writing this, but it seems Firefox decided to be evil and disconnected me from Dgrin.

So now, I am forced to be more succinct. (Which may not be a bad thing... hahaha. :-D)

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Recently, I attended a friend's wedding ceremony. Thankfully, I was *NOT* the official photographer. I just snapped candid shots as I saw fit, and any that are worthwhile, I'm going to be giving to the couple for free. **For a majority of my shots, I used the EF Canon F/1.8 II lens.**

Anyway, I thought that lens was a good choice, but much to my dismay, a heavy majority... (Maybe 65-70%) of the shots I had taken with it were blurry. (Indeed, I missed MANY a good photo opportunity because of this.)

I should also inform you that for most of the day, I was shooting in a variety of dim environments and I had no choice but to use lower apertures (f/1.8-2.8). (I have no portable flash unit, and the pop-up flash, as we all know, is abysmal.)

Regrettably, the shots seemed to blur regardless of distance from the subject. Also, I did *NOT* focus and recompose any of my images. Even still, it usually took multiple shots just to get the focus right, if not more.
Obviously, this frustrates me a *great deal*. I'm missing shots and it's getting me quite angry. If there is something I'm doing wrong, I don't know what it is but I will own up to it immediately regardless.
Please...help me. I just want to learn from this. I have no interest in repeating this error over and over again at these lower aperture levels. I'm going crazy over here. Seriously!

CWSkopec

While the 50 1.8 is a great lens, even wide open it can't compensate entirely for the dark environments of a reception. I've taken my XTi and 50 1.8 (also without a decent flash) to a couple of my friends' weddings and most of the shots come out at least slightly blurry even wide open with 1600 iso.

F1.8 just isn't enough to overcome the lack of light. Not sure which camera body you're using, but the newer models offer a higher iso range and may do slightly better, but the only real option is a good flash unit.

Probably not the answer you wanted to hear, but I've yet to figure out a better option.

Richard

The 50 1.8 has a reputation for erratic focus, I'm afraid, and that's probably why you had problems. Many people seem to have ditched it in favor of the 1.4 for exactly that reason.

ivar

Can you show us some examples with the exif? What iso where you shooting with? did you get the focus confirmation light/sound when you shot?

photokandy

I'd be very curious what particular camera you were using and what ISO settings you were using. Also, what the typical shutter speed for your blurry images. (I.E., is the blur from lack of focus, or from too slow a shutter speed?)

Chances are good that it is a combination. Low-light doesn't offer a lot for the camera to use to lock focus, and the 50 1.8, for whatever reason, seems really susceptible to this. But, if your ISO was 1600, the available light was unlikely sufficient to allow for a shutter speed more than 1/80s. Perhaps ISO 3200 would have done the trick, or even 6400, though both would require some pretty heavy noise reduction.

Next time I'd suggest going to Tv (Shutter Priority), setting your shutter speed to 1/80s, and then enabling AUTO ISO. It would still be likely that you'd have problems capturing the images in this environment, but if focus was able to be locked, you'd have a better change at getting sharp images, albeit rather underexposed. (But you can correct that later, and then proceed to use the heavy noise reduction to make the image palatable.)

The other thing to think about, though, is the subjects you are shooing. 1/60 or 1/80 really is slow enough to cause blur when the subject is moving. So if you were trying to take pictures of anything moving moderately quickly, you should aim for 1/160 to 1/200 (or more). At which point, you're going to be at such a high ISO/underexposure combination that by the time you do PP, you're looking at something on the order of ISO 12800. Depending on your camera, the sensor, etc. that's going to look different levels of bad, but if the shot is more important than the noise, you'll have captured the shot.

All that said above, a good flash unit will fix the problem right away. Put it on a bracket so that it doesn't make horrible light, put a diffuser on it, and you'll have better success. Not likely the desired answer, but when the light is that low, the only real option is to create your own light.

Hope that helps some...

SimplyShane

I think you hit the nail on the head.

For a majority of the shots, I was using ISO 800. (Probably far too low. I should have tried 1600, but didn't want the grain...)

Most of the folks I were trying to photograph were moving and placed in a dark environment. Without flash, I knew it would be tough.

But even still, there were some shots earlier in the day that were taken in brighter conditions and the lens still seemed to fail. It really upset me because I missed some rather decent shots. (I would have loved for the couple to have them.)

Looks like I'm going to have to invest in the 50mm 1.4 and a flash unit. Damn. Not the kind of news I wanted to hear...

Guess there goes $600...

(Oh, and for the record:: Manual Focus DOES work, but it's simply too slow to capture fleeting moments. It just takes too long, especially at lower apertures.)

photokandy wrote: »

I'd be very curious what particular camera you were using and what ISO settings you were using. Also, what the typical shutter speed for your blurry images. (I.E., is the blur from lack of focus, or from too slow a shutter speed?)

Chances are good that it is a combination. Low-light doesn't offer a lot for the camera to use to lock focus, and the 50 1.8, for whatever reason, seems really susceptible to this. But, if your ISO was 1600, the available light was unlikely sufficient to allow for a shutter speed more than 1/80s. Perhaps ISO 3200 would have done the trick, or even 6400, though both would require some pretty heavy noise reduction.

Next time I'd suggest going to Tv (Shutter Priority), setting your shutter speed to 1/80s, and then enabling AUTO ISO. It would still be likely that you'd have problems capturing the images in this environment, but if focus was able to be locked, you'd have a better change at getting sharp images, albeit rather underexposed. (But you can correct that later, and then proceed to use the heavy noise reduction to make the image palatable.)

The other thing to think about, though, is the subjects you are shooing. 1/60 or 1/80 really is slow enough to cause blur when the subject is moving. So if you were trying to take pictures of anything moving moderately quickly, you should aim for 1/160 to 1/200 (or more). At which point, you're going to be at such a high ISO/underexposure combination that by the time you do PP, you're looking at something on the order of ISO 12800. Depending on your camera, the sensor, etc. that's going to look different levels of bad, but if the shot is more important than the noise, you'll have captured the shot.

All that said above, a good flash unit will fix the problem right away. Put it on a bracket so that it doesn't make horrible light, put a diffuser on it, and you'll have better success. Not likely the desired answer, but when the light is that low, the only real option is to create your own light.

Hope that helps some...

SimplyShane

ivar wrote: »

Can you show us some examples with the exif? What iso where you shooting with? did you get the focus confirmation light/sound when you shot?

How do I go about doing that?

photokandy

Almost certain that in that situation that ISO 800 would be too low. You didn't mention what camera you were using -- ISO 1600 on my T1i, while not exactly beautiful, is definitely acceptable with just a hint of noise reduction. Depending on your shutter speeds, that may have been enough to increase your keeper rate.

What post-processing software do you use? I just upgraded to Lr3, and the noise reduction is greatly improved there.

As for the 50 1.8 and focusing... yeah, that's a bit of an issue with the lens. I'm not sure if you focus center-point only or if you let the camera pick a focus point, but chances are good that your camera is most sensitive only at the center -- using another focus point may well be contributing to some focus problems.

As for the EXIF, you should be able to copy it out of your photo editor program, but how you get it to display is different for every program.

Svennie

SimplyShane wrote: »

How do I go about doing that?

Place them on your flickr account. There is a link called 'More properties' in the Additional Information section (on the right). This link will display the exif information.

Before you get yourself the 50/1.4, look for a good (and indeed expensive) flash. This will give you a lot of new opportunities.
I'm somewhat confused: flickr reports you use a Nikon D40 but you mention a Canon lens... If you indeed have a Nikon, I would recommend the SB-600 or SB-900 flash.

SimplyShane

I owned a Nikon D40. I am now currently using a Canon Rebel XS. Some of my posted photos are old... Sorry for the confusion.

Svennie wrote: »

Place them on your flickr account. There is a link called 'More properties' in the Additional Information section (on the right). This link will display the exif information.

Before you get yourself the 50/1.4, look for a good (and indeed expensive) flash. This will give you a lot of new opportunities.
I'm somewhat confused: flickr reports you use a Nikon D40 but you mention a Canon lens... If you indeed have a Nikon, I would recommend the SB-600 or SB-900 flash.

Sam

Shane,

1. Post images from this shoot with exif data.

2. Post images from this shoot with exif data.

3. Post images from this shoot with exif data.

Sam

VayCayMom

This thread is so helpful, I am glad you posted it and that so many have answered with tons of information. I love this place.