What is going wrong???

Barefoot and Natural

I know this is not a typical pose....I am really just trying to find out why my photos look out of focus, but when I look through the view finder before I take the shot....it looks crystal clear. I have tested it on 2 of my lenses

Canon 50mm f/1.8 and my Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8

am I missing something here....please look at the following shot....her entire face looks out of focus to me.

Andy

Give us the exif for this shot please

Barefoot and Natural

Andy wrote:

Give us the exif for this shot please

oh, I am sorry about that....
the original photo and info is here
http://barefootandnatural.smugmug.com/gallery/1540384/2/95383761


thanks andy

TomaS

Two possibilities come to mind.

The shutter speed of 1/125 is marginal for handholding with 70mm lens.

If you are manual focusing, you may need to adjust the eyepiece diopter. I am guessing since you said "it looks crystal clear" when I shoot.

Also, another good reason to use a tripod is you can slow the shutter speed, stop down the apeture, and get more DOF than you did in those images.

Hope this helps.

Barefoot and Natural

TomaS wrote:

Two possibilities come to mind.

The shutter speed of 1/125 is marginal for handholding with 70mm lens.

If you are manual focusing, you may need to adjust the eyepiece diopter. I am guessing since you said "it looks crystal clear" when I shoot.

Also, another good reason to use a tripod is you can slow the shutter speed, stop down the apeture, and get more DOF than you did in those images.

Hope this helps.

So without sounding dumb....what should my shutter speed be at for hand held.

A tripod is almost out of the question for me as none of my children know how to sit still for more than 3 seconds and I like to be down on the ground for some shots.

Thanks for your help on this.....I realy appreciate it

This all started because I am trying to get out of the P&S mode and trying new things with me camera.

Heather

claudermilk

Andy wrote:

Give us the exif for this shot please

It's in the image. Don't you have an EXIF reader in your browser?

Rebel, f3.5, 1/125, 70mm.

The shutter ought to be fast enough based on the 1/focal length rule of thumb--even accounting for the crop factor. Tripod couldn't hurt. Where's the focus point? It does look like focus was missed, and the little viewfinders we have are not that great for judging sometimes.

TomaS

The 'rule' is to use a shutter speed at least equal to the focal length. In this case, at least 1/70. But I question whether that is enough. Here is an article that disputes the old rule.

http://www.enginova.com/Minimum%20Shutter%20Speed.htm

I tend to agree and would suggest trying 'shutter priority' mode with that lens. Shoot some at 1/125, then jump up to 1/250 and see if that works better. Apeture values will adjust automatically in that mode so at 250 you will need more light than at 1/125 but a 2.8 lens should handle it if the amount of light is reasonable. Shutter priority mode is what I use to shoot motorcycle races, so it might work for the kids.

Of course, using a good external flash (with a diffuser) would help immensly with those hyper little critters too.

Finally, try to set focus on the eyes for people / animal pics.

rjpat

Thanks for the link, Thomas, it was very interesting.

LuckyBob

The other possible factor is that a 70mm lens on a Rebel (1.6x crop factor), by the "old rule", should need a minimum of 1/125th second exposure anyway. Also, if you prefocus the camera and delay shooting the final picture at all, there's a fairly good chance that between two people, one or both of you will sway back or forward a bit and ruin the focus, especially at a shallow depth of field.

The real test would be to see if a series of autofocus images net the same results as the picture you posted - forcibly use the center focus point (as it is a cross-type and thus more accurate) and point it at one of her eyes. Shoot a series of shots, refocusing each time; a majority should be at least fairly sharp as long as the shutter speed's fast enough.

If the shutter speed's an issue, put the camera in manual mode with a 1/200th sec shutter speed and at f/8 and turn on the flash. Usually f/8ish is the sweet spot for most lenses, which should eliminate any softness issues for the test - you could test later wide open to see if the lens is abnormally soft. The flash pulse is very short it should eliminate any shutter speed issues; 1/200th is only necessary to prevent stray light from entering the lens after the flash pulse.

I've got an original Rebel and I've had the autofocus perfectly nail focus on a few strands of hair in front of the eyes, so unless there's something wrong with the lens or the autofocus system you should get pretty decent results. Manual focus is up to you though . Be sure to post your results!