Is it possible to get camera motion blur @ 1/250?

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I was shooting glamour type shots 1/250 with off camera flash + integrated flash. Focus is on one eye or very near in all the pics(forehead, lock of hair, cheek)

Somehow most of them don't look super sharp. Some are worse but even the best are nowhere near as sharp as the shots I took outside with natural light and shuttler speeds of 1/2000 to 1/6000 with f2.8 and ISO100.

Is it possible that I am moving the camera myself when I press the shutter? I was handholding on those vs tripod for the outside shots. Moving enough to cause problems @ 1/250 with IS enabled?

[DisrupTer911]

what f/ when inside? f/2.8 is very narrow up close. are you sure its motion blur and not a depth of field thing?

the flash should freeze any motion the subject makes regardless of if they're moving.

tripod vs handheld could also be the issue here

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both inside and outside were f2.8 ISO100

Differences are
handhold vs tripod
1/250 vs 1/6000+
off camera 580 + integrated flash vs early sunshine

I was standing maybe 4' away from the model when I shot. Surely this is not causing the eye to be out of focus compared to the forehead/cheeks???

[RDKirk]

I was shooting glamour type shots 1/250 with off camera flash + integrated flash. Focus is on one eye or very near in all the pics(forehead, lock of hair, cheek)

Somehow most of them don't look super sharp. Some are worse but even the best are nowhere near as sharp as the shots I took outside with natural light and shuttler speeds of 1/2000 to 1/6000 with f2.8 and ISO100.

Is it possible that I am moving the camera myself when I press the shutter? I was handholding on those vs tripod for the outside shots. Moving enough to cause problems @ 1/250 with IS enabled?

Seems to me you answered your question yourself.

If you are shooting fill flash or the ambient light is otherwise high enough, you can suffer particularly ugly motion blur between the flash and the ambient.

Subtle camera shake can look like a soft lens, and most people show more camera shake than they think.

But you're shooting digital--it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to run tests and find out where your problem is.

[PhotosGuy]

I was standing maybe 4' away from the model when I shot. Surely this is not causing the eye to be out of focus compared to the forehead/cheeks Well, you said "Focus is on one eye or very near..." Very near isn't good enough at f/2.8, & what focal length were you at?
Did you use the focus point on her eye, or did you focus & recompose?
I'd only use AI Servo when I was hand holding a shot where either one of us could move.

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I have found a few things since then...

I can get sharp pictures @f2.8 if I use the center point AF and e-ttl flash. Either the center point does a better job or the side point was having issues with the low light since manual flash does not give me AF-assist

I still get slightly sharper pictures @f4 than @f2.8 but the difference is minimal.

I also found that the side AF points as seen in the AF don't correspond exactly to the Af points as shown in DPP. When I put the point right on the eye it sometimes ends up on the eyebrow.

Next time I will use f4 unless I really want maximum background blur. I will also use center AF and recompose and finally I will make sure there is enough ambient light to let my AF find the right spot.

[OdiN1701]

Yes.

[DisrupTer911]

you can get good bokeh at narrower apertures by varying subject to camera distance.

also your center AF point is your most accurate due to it being f/2.8 or faster cross type.

the outer points are usually slightly less sensitive which means in low light you'll run into possible focus issues

[DYORD]

is it ok to focus(using center AF), lock, then re-compose?! Or will that give me different focus? Assuming i didn't move back or forth... just the camera.

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is it ok to focus(using center AF), lock, then re-compose?! Or will that give me different focus? Assuming i didn't move back or forth... just the camera.

I have made mistakes there and learned that you must not only keep the same distance but also the same plane.. as in focal plane.

So if you lock on the face and then get down and angle the camera upwards you will shift the place which is parallel to the image sensor. Best way to to lock the focus and then keep the camera at the same angle so if you go down you will aim the center at the belt instead of the face.

[RDKirk]

is it ok to focus(using center AF), lock, then re-compose?! Or will that give me different focus? Assuming i didn't move back or forth... just the camera.

That will work most of the time. It can fail at very wide apertures (f/2.0 and faster) and at distances that have razor thin depth of field. But here is a comparative example of focus-and-compose at f/2.8, 100mm, and a six-foot subject distance. You can see by the hair above the forehead of the mannequin that the focus plane has been tilted backwards by recomposing, but the plane still passes close enough through the eyes not to be a problem. That is normally the case.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdkirk/3908514678
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdkirk/3907739055

The primary reason the outer focusing points appear to be less effective is because they see linear subject contrasts in only one direction--perpendicular to the orientation of the rectangular focusing mark. They are totally blind to linear subject contrasts that are parallel to the orientation of the mark.

If you turn the camera vertically to focus on a person's eye with the right-side focusing mark, you have actually turned the camera to its weakest focusing position--the rectangle will be parallel with the major linear contrasts of the human eye (the lids and eyebrow).

One way to focus and recompose without shifting the plane of focus is to use the outer focusing mark and turn the camera around the lens axis so that the focusing mark is perpendicular to the major linear subject contrast. Focus, then turn the camera back and shoot.