What happened here? - Noise, soft focus

len20

I used a flash for the first time this weekend with my daughter and I didn't get results that I'm real happy with. The focus isn't sharp, the photos are noisy at 100%, and the color seems weird to me. My settings seem ok when I'm shooting; I'm watching my histogram like a hawk. So why do you guys think these photos are soft and noisy?

EXIF is attached.

1. EXIF




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4.


I'll be eager to know what you think I could be doing wrong. The soft focus really bothers me, because I was trying to keep my shutter speed above 1/80. And the noise boggles me too, because I was shooting with ISO 400 and it wasn't all that dark.

beetle8

Well I'll take a stab at it,
I looked at them at 100%,
#1 I don't see a noise issue the only noise present is in the extreme oof and thats not the same. As for the focus on this one your exif says 50mm is it a 50prime? how close to the baby were you? This one has a clear focus on the brim of the hat and I think it's just a case of very shallow DOF.
#2 the focus? maybe motion the noise I would atribute to it being just slightly underexposed and slightly oof will also contribute to noise.
#3 is this a crop at that range the dof is going to be pretty shallow
#5 My guess is motion again I don't see a noise issue in this one.
That's just my take
The good news is you have a super cute kid, and she can't complain about you and your camera...yet.

len20

Ok, so a shutter speed above 1/50 should take out handheld camera shake; what shutter speed do I need to stop the action of a wiggly kid?

LiquidAir

len20 wrote:

Ok, so a shutter speed above 1/50 should take out handheld camera shake; what shutter speed do I need to stop the action of a wiggly kid?

1/50 will only handle camera shake on a 50mm lens with good technique. If you plan to regularly shoot a 50mm at 1/50s it is worth practicing on a stationary target.

As for the proper speed to stop subject motion, it depends both on what your subject is doing and also how close you are to the subject. That said, as a general rule, I generally shoot at 1/125s or faster for close up candids.

saurora

Little kids, even non-walking infants like your daughter, move more than you even realize. You shot these at 1/125 so I would take it up a notch. I always shoot like I'm shooting wildlife. If you sit and watch almost any child for a period of time, you will see how they are almost always in constant (if subtle) motion. Add camera motion to that factor and it's difficult to get really sharp without bumping up the shutter. She's adorable! Were these taken late afternoon? You could cut back on some of the yellow.

len20

saurora wrote:

Little kids, even non-walking infants like your daughter, move more than you even realize. You shot these at 1/125 so I would take it up a notch. I always shoot like I'm shooting wildlife. If you sit and watch almost any child for a period of time, you will see how they are almost always in constant (if subtle) motion. Add camera motion to that factor and it's difficult to get really sharp without bumping up the shutter. She's adorable! Were these taken late afternoon? You could cut back on some of the yellow.

Thank you for the advice. Yes, it was late afternoon/early evening. I'm going to reshoot tonight to see if I can do better. This time I'll have a reflector with me. Any advice on using the flash?