What Am I Doing Wrong? (EXPERTS NEEDED)

[ten1437]

I have the hardest time with indoor group shots, and lately at a wedding this happened to me. (see links below) I took three pics in a row, and all 3 are out of focus! This seems to be happening alot. What should I set my camera and flash at to achieve a nice crisp image?

???

Here are the original files:

files gone...thanks!

[joedlh]

The exif data showed that your exposure was 1/80 sec at f/3.2 and that you were shooting in aperture priority. It also said you were using the 5D with +1/3 exposure compensation.

In some cameras the options for flash in aperture mode, you have the option of setting it to shoot with the flash providing the light or having the camera set the exposure so as to capture the scene with existing light and using the flash for fill. In the latter case, if there's not enough light in the scene then you will have a slow shutter speed and see motion blur. It looks like you were pretty distant from this group and that most of your light came from ambient light as opposed to the flash. It has the orange cast of tungsten lights. So your flash wasn't doing much of the work. You might want to check your flash setting in aperture priority mode.

I think there's some movement blur, but they're badly out of focus too. If you have your autofocus set to AI focus or AI Servo, sometimes the camera will hunt and pick what it thinks should be in focus. When you have so many subjects, it's anybody's guess what the camera will pick. It looks like it might have been the carpet in front of the group. Most experienced photographers will select the central focus point, set it with a half press in one shot mode and then recompose. We do that because our cameras have burned us in the past.

You might also want to check that your AF/MF switch on your lens is set to AF.

[rent]

did you use a tripod for these shots? it might be motion blur, but looks more like simply out of focus to me. either you forgot to focus, or check your camera/lens for focusing accuracy.

-alex

[mrfixitx]

1/80th f3.2 ISO 2000, and you were using flash according to the ISO.

At those settings all the flash is doing is a bit of fill ambient light is doing the majority of the lighting.

A couple of the pictures are clearly out of focus slightly, the 1st picture looks like the sharpest of the bunch which is sad, because its not really sharp there is very little subject detail when you zoom in at all.

What was your in camera noise reduction set to? What was your focus point? I wonder if this is a combination of either camera shake/slightly out of focus and to much noise reduction all adding up.

[Josh_30]

They simply look out of focus to me. Does the lens take sharp photos outdoors or in bright light? I'd try center focus point and One Shot AF. The aperture being at f3.2, while needed for the low light situation, gives you a fairly shallow DoF, so if you're focus is off, it'll be more apparent. That being said, nothing really looks in-focus in those... so maybe the switch was set to MF as someone said before. I can't see it getting a focus lock in AF mode to take those second 2 shots. How did the other photos come out? Were they sharp, or soft?

[DStanic]

couple of factors:

1. shutter speed was too slow. You had camera blur (assuming you didn't use a tripod).

2. If you are going to shoot in Av mode don't be afraid to crank up the ISO on the 5Dii I'm amazed at how good it looks at ISO6400. That alone should give you fast enough shutter speeds without a flash.

3. Aperture was too high for a group shot. Maybe try f/5.6 or f/8 next time for sharper result (although this is not the main problem of the shot). F/3.2 on a full frame camera mightl give you too shallow depth of field.

4. In low light situations like in a church I prefer to use Manual mode. Set the a proper aperture for the situation (f/8 for example), a fast enough shutter speed (1/100 should be adequate), and then E-TTL on the flash should take care of doing a correct exposure.

[Kyle is raaddd]

2. If you are going to shoot in Av mode don't be afraid to crank up the ISO on the 5Dii I'm amazed at how good it looks at ISO6400. That alone should give you fast enough shutter speeds without a flash.

This man speaks the truth!!

[DStanic]

My wedding photographer upgraded his 30d/40d to a 5DmkII and says ISO6400 looks as good as ISO1600 on his 40D. And i've seen the results! I'm not afraid to use ISO1600 on my cameras, even ISO3200 on my 30D if nessesary. The 5DmkII is amazing, which I could afford one.

[ten1437]

thanks everyone!

[ten1437]

did you use a tripod for these shots? it might be motion blur, but looks more like simply out of focus to me. either you forgot to focus, or check your camera/lens for focusing accuracy.

no tripod.

-alex

They simply look out of focus to me. Does the lens take sharp photos outdoors or in bright light? I'd try center focus point and One Shot AF. The aperture being at f3.2, while needed for the low light situation, gives you a fairly shallow DoF, so if you're focus is off, it'll be more apparent. That being said, nothing really looks in-focus in those... so maybe the switch was set to MF as someone said before. I can't see it getting a focus lock in AF mode to take those second 2 shots. How did the other photos come out? Were they sharp, or soft?


I had it on AF. Why would it tell me it was in focus tho? It seems like that lens does that alot, even with it outside. I do not get consistent sharp images. I have tried moving it from ONE SHOT, SERVO, FOCUS and I still get blurry pics more so than crisp sharp pics. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Oh and some of them were sharp, but like I said most seem soft.

[gooble]

I had it on AF. Why would it tell me it was in focus tho? It seems like that lens does that alot, even with it outside. I do not get consistent sharp images. I have tried moving it from ONE SHOT, SERVO, FOCUS and I still get blurry pics more so than crisp sharp pics. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Oh and some of them were sharp, but like I said most seem soft.

I'd say you have a lens with serious focusing issues or else it is user error.

Have you gotten in focus shots with that lens at other times? If so I think it's a technique issue.

The person most in focus in your images is the little boy in the center. Everyone behind him is more out of focus so the focus point is in front of him somewhere.

Possible reasons:

You thought you focused but in fact did not. Do you have focus lock beep enabled and did you hear the beep. If not enabled did you see the focus lock light appear in the viewfinder? Was your AF switch on?

You focused but moved the camera before taking the shot. Do you happen to lean forward when you focus then stand up and/or lean back then snap the shutter? Don't know how likely this is but it's possible. Maybe you don't realize you're doing it. If you did do this the fact that you shot with a large aperture only made your depth of field even smaller which made the out of focus people even more out of focus.

[Fred Eric Norris]

I had it on AF. Why would it tell me it was in focus tho? It seems like that lens does that alot, even with it outside. I do not get consistent sharp images. I have tried moving it from ONE SHOT, SERVO, FOCUS and I still get blurry pics more so than crisp sharp pics. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Oh and some of them were sharp, but like I said most seem soft.

You need to watch what object your autofocus is using to focus with. If you are using single point focus it could be that it is focusing on objects that are not the primary piece of the composition..

[Radtech1]

Here are the original files:

files gone...thanks!


WTF?

Files are gone. How do you expect us to know what you are talking about if you remove the files? If you are not going to keep a link alive, why bother posting in the first place? It does no good at all to remove the images while the thread is till active as other members look over the forums for answers to thier problems. How is this going to help someone who is having similar issues when they find this thread and there are no images to reference? Think.

Rad

[gecko3s]

WTF?

Files are gone. How do you expect us to know what you are talking about if you remove the files? If you are not going to keep a link alive, why bother posting in the first place? It does no good at all to remove the images while the thread is till active as other members look over the forums for answers to thier problems. How is this going to help someone who is having similar issues when they find this thread and there are no images to reference? Think.

Rad

+1....beat me to it.

[ryant35]

WTF?

Files are gone. How do you expect us to know what you are talking about if you remove the files? If you are not going to keep a link alive, why bother posting in the first place? It does no good at all to remove the images while the thread is till active as other members look over the forums for answers to thier problems. How is this going to help someone who is having similar issues when they find this thread and there are no images to reference? Think.

Rad

+2 What's the point?

[Frugal]

+3 for people who remove the original pictures from a thread. Makes the whole thread not worth keeping

[Lazuka]

+4, kind of pointless.

[ten1437]

+4, kind of pointless.
sorry guys....they were taking up alot of space on my site. I will be more than happy to repost them if you can point me to a site that will take a file that big.

[ryant35]

I don't know how big they were, but I use Photobucket.