Hello Need Help

SOE

Hi everyone I am new here and would love some help.

I currently shot some family portraits of my friends.
some came out really out of focus .. For some reason in some of the Pictures the background is in focus but the people in the foreground are out of focus.

I just need to know if it is something to do with he settings of my dslr or the lens or maybe my 50D needs servicing.

I used:
Canon 50d
canon 70-200 F4L
Canon 380ex Flash.

I am going to post some pics..
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

ThatCanonGuy

I'm sure you love your lens:D

It's most likely your settings. First of all, what were your focus settings? Ring of Fire or single point? If so, did you have the point on one of your subjects? Did you use continuous AF or single shot? Need some more info to help you.

Brett1000

SOE wrote: »

Hi everyone I am new here and would love some help.

I currently shot some family portraits of my friends.
some came out really out of focus .. For some reason in some of the Pictures the background is in focus but the people in the foreground are out of focus.

I just need to know if it is something to do with he settings of my dslr or the lens or maybe my 50D needs servicing.

I used:
Canon 50d
canon 70-200 F4L
Canon 380ex Flash.

I am going to post some pics..
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

hard to tell, you can use the Canon DPP software to show where the focus points hit. Try shooting closer and using another lens like the 18-55IS

SOE

SOE wrote: »

Hi everyone I am new here and would love some help.

I currently shot some family portraits of my friends.
some came out really out of focus .. For some reason in some of the Pictures the background is in focus but the people in the foreground are out of focus.

I just need to know if it is something to do with he settings of my dslr or the lens or maybe my 50D needs servicing.

I used:
Canon 50d
canon 70-200 F4L
Canon 380ex Flash.

I am going to post some pics..
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi,

Single shoot is the Focus settings,
i had to Point on one of my subjects.

For the Auto focus i was using the One Box Select where it only focuses on One subject and not multiple.

F5.6
ISO 400

ThatCanonGuy

So the red rectangular box is on one of their heads?

SOE

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

So the red rectangular box is on one of their heads?

yes

ThatCanonGuy

OK, it could be that you're using too slow a shutter speed. Were you handholding or using a tripod? What was the shutter speed?

SOE

SOE wrote: »

yes

Shutter speed 1/60
No tripod.. and iam kicking myself for not using one!!

ThatCanonGuy

That's probably why... 1/60th will cause blurr when handholding... it looks a bit overexposed too, were you using manual or P mode?

Icebear

It's hard to say for certain, but it looks like the leaves over the blond lady's head are in good focus. Unless they were moving in exact synchronicity with the camera movement, I doubt your problem has to do with camera shake, hence shutter speed is not your problem. But yeah, use a tripod any way!! Have you actually checked your lens's focus?? I don't know from Canon, but you might be able to fine tune it. Is that Reba on the left? Don't blame you for having a shakey hand.:D

ThatCanonGuy

If it's front or back focus, you can fix that with the 50D's AF Microadjustment, but that sure looks like hand shake to me, but maybe not with the kinda-sharp leaves.

chrisjohnson

If your focus point was really on the face then I can only assume some shake or movement.

The exposure is weird. I can hardly imagine using this flash with this lens, you must have been up close with the flash directed at the subjects. Then it is surprising that DOF is as good as it is, probably you used a small aperture.

The least likely possibility is that there is something wrong with camera or lens. Perhaps you should post in the Technique section and give full details of EXIF data.

billythek

I don't think the leaves are in that good of focus, there are just a lot of high contrast edges in the leaves. For static shots like this, you are better off with a tripod, and focusing manually using live view and 10X mag and a shutter release switch.

If you really just want to take shots hand-held, though, turn up the shutter speed, make sure you have focus confirmation, and debug from there.

ThatCanonGuy

goldenballs wrote: »

If your focus point was really on the face then I can only assume some shake or movement.

The exposure is weird. I can hardly imagine using this flash with this lens, you must have been up close with the flash directed at the subjects. Then it is surprising that DOF is as good as it is, probably you used a small aperture.

The least likely possibility is that there is something wrong with camera or lens. Perhaps you should post in the Technique section and give full details of EXIF data.

The OP gave the exp.: 1/60th, f/5.6, ISO 400. I think it's probably blurr, but if not, then maybe back focus.

ivar

Is there a place that you can put (a bigger version of) this image online, and link us to it? attachments get mutilated on the forum when uploaded, so it is hard to say have a good look at this.