Blurred low light shots with 70-200 f.28IS

[lk1]

Hi

I'm a newbie so forgive my ignorance. I am about to shoot a wedding this weekend for someone - I'm new at it and am charging next to nothing. However, doing practice shots in the church last weekend my shots are a bit blurred even using the 70-200 IS.

I was using manual (can't use flash in church) 1600 ISO, f2.8 and the shots which looked the best exposures were taken at 1/60th, 1/80th, 1/100th and 1/125th, however, most of them are a bit blurred. What is the reason for this? The focal length I was using was 70mm.

Is it because I am not holding the lens firmly enough? Is this the reason or is there some other reason. I have noticed while taking shots outside of my friend's child that again, the shots were not particularly sharp.

On a separate note, there is a setting on the lens for 1.4m and another for 2m. What is this for?

[sblais]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

An image is worth a 1000 words. Please post some pics, it will help us identify your problem(s) ;)

If your lens is well calibrated (with your camera body), blurriness can be caused by 3 things: moving people or moving photographer or bad focusing.

At 1/60, unless you are shooting a football match, motion blur should be minimal. So I suspect a photographer error, either movement (shaking) or bad focusing.

Thinking of it: is your IS turned on?

For the focus question (1.4m or 2m) - it's related to the speed of the focusing system. If you only shoot objects 2m and more away from the camera lens, it`s better to leave it at that setting.

Practice with a tripod/monopod and see if helps the image quality.

[coreypolis]

Hi

I'm a newbie so forgive my ignorance. I am about to shoot a wedding this weekend for someone - I'm new at it and am charging next to nothing. However, doing practice shots in the church last weekend my shots are a bit blurred even using the 70-200 IS.

I was using manual (can't use flash in church) 1600 ISO, f2.8 and the shots which looked the best exposures were taken at 1/60th, 1/80th, 1/100th and 1/125th, however, most of them are a bit blurred. What is the reason for this? The focal length I was using was 70mm.

Is it because I am not holding the lens firmly enough? Is this the reason or is there some other reason. I have noticed while taking shots outside of my friend's child that again, the shots were not particularly sharp.

On a separate note, there is a setting on the lens for 1.4m and another for 2m. What is this for?
Either the people were really moving or you couldn't hold the camera and lens steady enough. Was IS really on? Mine often switches to off in my bag.

the 1.4 vs 2.5 is a distance option for focusing. If you aren't shooting up close, put it to 2.5 and it won't think to focus in that area and will speed of focusing.

[Big Mike]

IS will not do anything to freeze the blur caused by subject movement. So if your subjects are moving...you will need a faster shutter speed to freeze the action.

If you can't freeze the action at F2.8 & ISO 1600...then it's pretty dark. You could look into a faster lens like the 50mm F1.4 (or F1.2) or the 85mm F1.2.

[CyberPet]

If you need faster shutter speeds, try underexpose a stop and live with the extra grain. I had to do that this last weekend as I was shaking with fever and needed 1/60 or 1/100 s.

[lk1]

Hi
Thanks for the tips. How do I post photos. Do I have to make them a certain file size before posting?

Thanks
Lynne

there are some wedding shots I did at a training course under www.pbase.com/highlandrover (http://www.pbase.com/highlandrover) in the Wedding gallery. The shot 118 of the bride and groom in church - if you look at it in the original size the groom is a bit blurred. I will try and upload some test shots

[coreypolis]

Hi
Thanks for the tips. How do I post photos. Do I have to make them a certain file size before posting?

Thanks
Lynne

there are some wedding shots I did at a training course under www.pbase.com/highlandrover (http://www.pbase.com/highlandrover) in the Wedding gallery. The shot 118 of the bride and groom in church - if you look at it in the original size the groom is a bit blurred. I will try and upload some test shots
well the bride is just out of focus, the groom IMO is still acceptable and I doubt the couple would care. Considering that was 1/40 at iso 1600, I would accept that.

[oldshooter]

The shot you mentioned 118, the groom is close to being in focus, and the bride is out of focus, due to depth of field issues. When you are shooting wide open like f2.8, you need everything to be in the same film plane to maintain focus. And it is called shallow depth of field. This become exaggerated the longer the lens or in your case the more you are zoomed in. The bride is a coulple of feet further back than the groom so she appears out of focus.

Warm regards,
Joe

[C.Steele]

^^What he said:D

One thing I had to learn when I got a 2.8 zoom is that the DoF is wafer thin when it's zoomed. When you focus lock and recompose, if you lean in or out at all, shift your weight, turn slightly, breathe:p (seems like), your shot will be soft.

[Mike Reynolds]

well most of your question was answered with good suggestions..., first the 1.4m and 2m was already covered, was the IS on, covered, ISO 1600 covered, 2.8, covered, camera shake covered, try using a tripod or mono pod, covered, shoot under exposed covered, and finally I suggest shooting in RAW and under exposed and post process your shot. Other than that you got it covered. keep on shooting and good luck on your upcomming event!
mike

[Richtherookie]

This isn't my forum but thanks for all of the information you folks are sharing. I have all these questions and now i am getting the answers. I love this place. Thanks x 1,000,000

[Hellashot]

Someone walking at a normal pace will look blurry if taken at 1/60 and moving latterally across the camera's view. 1/50 is about the slowest you'll be able to shoot someone that is standing still. You'll need to take your pictuers at opportune time where there is no movement. If your blurriness is people motion and not camera shake of course.

Should you even be charging for this wedding if you are having trouble with even getting useable shots in the church?

[Andy_T]

Lynne,

welcome to the forum :D

First of all, you have quite a few nice photos in your portfolio!

Your questions were answered in quite some detail, just maybe a few remarks:

Focus 1/2,5 m ... bear in mind that if you set this to 2,5 and anybody comes closer than that, the camera will not focus any closer and the shot will be wrongly focused. Accidentally setting that caused me quite a bit of woe in the past :rolleyes: The (little) gain in speed for distant shots bears quite some risk if you forget to turn it off and go to take candids... IMO something for a sports shooter whose targets are always 50 meters away, but not something I would put on in a stress situation like a wedding where you can have quite some close encounters :wink:

The focus-recompose problem is explained in more detail here: http://visual-vacations.com/Photography/focus-recompose_sucks.htm
Solution would be to use the correct AF sensor (dial in the AF sensor that matches your subject) or using the center AF sensor and cropping a bit more later. You might consider using a tripod or monopod in the church, although the IS on your lens (when it is turned on) should be quite some help there. Still, 1/40 is a bit slow for people ... if somebody waves his hand, it will be blurred.

Good luck for your wedding....

Best regards,
Andy

[gateruner]

I sometimes shoot in really low light using fill flash with second curtain sync and the light is so low that the lens wont focus on auto. I switch to manual and do it myself and it generally works out alot better especially with static subjects. I know you arent using flash here but it is worth practicing to see if you like the results.

[lk1]

Someone walking at a normal pace will look blurry if taken at 1/60 and moving latterally across the camera's view. 1/50 is about the slowest you'll be able to shoot someone that is standing still. You'll need to take your pictuers at opportune time where there is no movement. If your blurriness is people motion and not camera shake of course.

Should you even be charging for this wedding if you are having trouble with even getting useable shots in the church?


Hellashot
I am charging £100 which is around US$190 to cover my time, petrol to get there and the cost of processing the prints. I will be covering the wedding from 2.00 pm to about 8pm, maybe later. The shots I took with the 24-70 lens were okay and I also have 50mm 1.8 lens which with 1.6x with my 20D will give me 80- odd mm focal length which would be okay considering I didn't go more than that with the 70-200 lens. I think my photography is good enough to charge a small amount and the B&G are fully aware that I have never shot a wedding before - I made sure they knew I wasn't experienced before they decided to take me. They liked my other work and took me on because they wanted only a very small selection of prints i.e. 10-20, not a normal wedding album. I think they will be getting a pretty good deal as I am sure I will manage to take more good photos than the 10-20 they want and they may end up choosing more. I took quite a few good shots at the training course I did which are on my website.

Thanks to everyone for your helpful comments. In the 118 photo in my Wedding gallery, I intended the bride to be out of focus slightly, I just thought that perhaps the groom wasn't quite sharp enough but one of you more experienced guys has said it is acceptable.

Cheers
LK