Focus problems?? Is it my lense or me?

[OdiN1701]

Okay...I got a new 24-70L lens....went to the park this evening to grab some shots. First..got upset that my flash wasn't working properly so I had to just shoot with available light.

Anyway...tried as best I could to get these images to "pop" as much as I could...the focus just seems off. I don't know if it is me or the lens..tried auto focus, manual focus, etc.

Anyway here are a couple sample shots. The first is f/3.5 @ 1/20 @ 50mm and the second is f/2.8 @ 1/30 @ 70mm

Is there something with my settings that I'm not doing right....something of my methods...I dunno. I used mirror lockup, ISO 100, shot AWB in RAW mode.

Only adjusted white balance and some minimal levels work. I know color isn't perfect right now but don't care about that. Didn't sharpen or anything. What do you think??


http://www.ranetworks.net/focus1.jpg



http://www.ranetworks.net/focus2.jpg

[Tsmith]

They second one its too bad but your problem is gonna be the slow shutter speeds. Bump up the ISO some if not enough available lighting.

[robertwgross]

You've got fairly wide open apertures, and that dictates a narrow depth of field. Therefore, your focus point has to be right-on. You have very slow shutter speeds, for no apparent reason. You can get away with that only if you are using a tripod, or if the person hand-holding the camera is really steady. The solution is to push the ISO up to at least 400. With a 20D, you could even go to 800 or so without any problem.

Levels adjustment might have been a good thing, but the white shirt is still too hot.

---Bob Gross---

[Big_B]

Not bad, although i agree they are a little soft. Like they said, you needed a higher ISO ==> faster shuter speed.

[OdiN1701]

Well...I was using a tripod and mirror lockup... would faster shutter speeds still improve this?

BTW...the problem with my flash...I put it on and it wouldn't let me have a shutter speed higher than 1/250. This is with a 580ex. Anyway...I had a 580ex on my camera as a master and a 580ex on a lightstand as slave with an umbrella. I couldn't get it to faster than a 1/250 shutter speed. I must be doing something wrong....can anyone tell me what?

About the wide open aperture....it was focused in the viewfinder, and I tried very subtle movement of the focus ring in both directions for multiple shots...it didn't help.

Thanks for the help so far!


Also...I was unaware that a faster shutter speed increased sharpness...why is this? Have never been told this at any classes I've taken =/ Well...I am here to learn.


Oh and yeah I know the shirt is too overexposed...but I haven't corrected for anything and actually probably pushed these shots a bit much. They haven't been properly post-processed.

[CyberPet]

You don't have slow shutter speeds enough to really gain anything from a mirror lockup, probably gaining more risk to camera shake with it. I'd suggest you up the ISO to at least 200 or 400, the noise is almost nothing and it should give you more control. Does your lens have IS and was it turned on? Sometimes IS can be causing more problems, especially if you use a tripod and it could itself cause camera shake.

[OdiN1701]

No this lens doesn't have IS.

[RAitch]

Slow shutter speeds are a problem even if you're using a tripod... if your subjects can move. Yet, a 50mm shot at 1/250 should be fast enough.

Look at the grass in the second photo. It looks like it's sharp closer to the dude's knees.

What I don't get is you were able to take a photo with the flash at 1/250... but instead you opted to do it without and used 1/20 or 1/30. That is too slow for human/live subjects.
The "golden rule" (or guideline) is to have speeds of 1/(focal length of lens) or faster. If you're shooting at 50mm, make sure the speed is 1/50 or faster. If it's at 30mm.. aim for 1/30. Personally, when handholding, I try to get that speed as fast as possible. I usually like to keep it around 1/200 if I can.

You do realize that 1/20 is much slower than 1/250 and 1/20 will have the lens open longer providing a better chance for subject blur? The higher the number (without the numerator) means that it's a smaller piece of a second... thus, a shorter time.

[OdiN1701]

I would have liked to shoot at 1/250 but the exposure would have been off...needed to get it to about 1/500 but my camera wouldn't let me set the faster shutter speed when the flash was attached. There has to be some setting that was messed up on it but I don't know what it was =/

This was for the first shot that I was trying. I was using the sun behind them to highlight the hair and with a shutter speed any slower than 1/500 and maybe 1/1000 it would have been way too overexposed. So I was trying to set a really fast shutter speed and then use some fill from the umbrella/on camera flash so that I wouldn't end up with a shillouette.

[CyberPet]

Maybe a cheat sheet on how to use fill-flash would be appropiate?
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1345

Downloadable pdf-file
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=706

I'm not sure I understand you, but I think you also misunderstood a bit, 1/500 and 1/1000 is fast shutter speeds and means less light into the camera. I.e. it would have made the image darker to use faster shutter speeds compared to 1/30 of a second or 1/20 of a second that you used.

[RAitch]

If your exposure at 1/250 would have been off, and you wanted/needed 1/500... that would mean your image at 1/250 would be too bright (exposure).

If it was too bright, your TTL would have self-balanced. OR, you could easily drop the EC to produce a darker image.

Since you're having focus issues, you could also close down the aperture to gain more DOF. It sounds like you were in an ideal situation with lots of options (if you used flash) but chose not to and ended up having to slow the speed or crank the ISO.

Most lenses are sharper not wide open... so the extra aperture would have helped huge.

Maybe we're not understanding the issue... I dunno.

[OdiN1701]

Maybe a cheat sheet on how to use fill-flash would be appropiate?
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1345

Downloadable pdf-file
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=706

I'm not sure I understand you, but I think you also misunderstood a bit, 1/500 and 1/1000 is fast shutter speeds and means less light into the camera. I.e. it would have made the image darker to use faster shutter speeds compared to 1/30 of a second or 1/20 of a second that you used.

Yes. I needed a fast shutter because I was shooting into the sunlight, not away from it. I needed the flash to illuminate the subjects so they would not be dark due to the fast shutter speed. That's why I stopped using the flash.

Basically the sun was coming in strongly from behind the subjects, through a tree. I was positioning them so that their heads would block the direct sunlight and create rim lighting for their hair.

Anyway...it just didn't work. These are some friends of mine...will be reshooting them soon. Just using them to test my new equipment and lenses before I try to use it for people I don't know.

[Michael L]

I see the problem. You said you shot in RAW and did not sharpen. All Digital images need to be sharpned. If you shoot in JPEG the camera will sharpen for you. All RAW images from digital SLRs will look soft untill sharpned. Read the PDF manual from the below link. The first page of this PDF file will explain why the focus will seem a little off in RAW untill you sharpen.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools/TLRProfessionalSharpeningToolkit.pdf

[jfrancho]

Basically the sun was coming in strongly from behind the subjects, through a tree.Was the tree underwater?

[Curtis N]

I couldn't get it to faster than a 1/250 shutter speed. I must be doing something wrong....can anyone tell me what?The flash sync. speed for your camera is 1/250. Because of the way the shutter curtains work, shutter speeds faster than that won't work with a flash, so the camera automatically limits the shutter speed when a flash is being used.

[robertwgross]

The flash sync. speed for your camera is 1/250. Because of the way the shutter curtains work, shutter speeds faster than that won't work with a flash, so the camera automatically limits the shutter speed when a flash is being used.

This is all true, unless you activate High Speed Sync. Then you can shoot at the highest shutter speed of the camera. However, that opens up a new can of worms.

If this were a perfect world, you would have had a photo assistant there to help you. Get the assistant to hold up a 40-inch gold reflector to bounce the afternoon sun onto the front of the subjects. That might work better than flash, and it has few technical challenges.

---Bob Gross---

[RAitch]

Was the tree underwater?

Nice, I was wondering the same thing.

[herderdog]

I see the problem. You said you shot in RAW and did not sharpen. All Digital images need to be sharpned. If you shoot in JPEG the camera will sharpen for you. All RAW images from digital SLRs will look soft untill sharpned. Read the PDF manual from the below link. The first page of this PDF file will explain why the focus will seem a little off in RAW untill you sharpen.

.pdf (http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools/TLRProfessionalSharpeningToolkit.pdf)

I agree here Michael--a little USM really picks this image right up. Looks fine to me when sharpened.

[OdiN1701]

Nice, I was wondering the same thing.

I didn't include the shots of the sun through the tree...I didn't take them because they wouldn't work. The shots posted were from other areas.

[jfrancho]

Then what do the pictures and their data you posted have to do with your question? It seems like you have several issues you're looking to solve.

You have a nice location, great models, and decent poses, but here are my suggestions: In my opinion, the first is overexposed just a touch, and suffers from some slight softness due to either movement of the camera or the subject. A faster shutter speed would have fixed that. The second looks fine, and I agree that some sharpening is in order. As far as your second problem, which isn't a problem since you neglected to pull the trigger and find out what would happen, could be handled by manually setting the camera up, making adjustments using the data from the histogram. I hope this helps.

[GR8WTSHARK]

It isn't a sharpness issue - it is a focus issue. My brand new 1Ds Mark II locks onto a focus plane and when I look at the raw file, the plane I have focused on is out of focus and 8 inches behind it is in focus. Like many in here, I am a professional. I've been focusing cameras since I'm 12 - I'm now 40. It isn't a sharpness issue - it's a focus issue with Canon. My images are so out of focus, they actually look how I see without my glasses and I'm nearly blind. Canon's going to have to answer for this.

[joe_li26]

dude, I was like some of you arguing for nothing, but this wedding, I shot iso 400 1/30 f2.8, fill flash for main subjects. great pictures. I am searching for a vote to see if canon is bad, focusing is a random thing, I read on other form stated so, and I myself find myself have some random not really focus pictures. and I wanted to know if other are like me. But I don't want to give up canon yet. I like the color came out of canon. or perhaps auto focus is the problem... or digital camera is the problem, i used manul old film camera and hardly see this happending. or is it because it's a combination of digital, not manual focus, zoom lens.

about this form, it's stupid, it the owner really did for people to discus things, not register should be need it. it just STOP users to contributes, web surfer just want to find what they looking for and most likely didn't get the answer yet and has a ong unknown journey ahead of them so they won't bother to register and "waste" time. just the text reading type back verification should be way more than enogh.

oh, I don't think i will remember this web address nor my password for this account. if you want send me e-mail at joe_li26@yahoo.com, not going to promisse i get to your mail but you can try, because it's a junk mail account to begin with. :(

[Glenn NK]

dude, I was like some of you arguing for nothing, but this wedding, I shot iso 400 1/30 f2.8, fill flash for main subjects. great pictures. I am searching for a vote to see if canon is bad, focusing is a random thing, I read on other form stated so, and I myself find myself have some random not really focus pictures. and I wanted to know if other are like me. But I don't want to give up canon yet. I like the color came out of canon. or perhaps auto focus is the problem... or digital camera is the problem, i used manul old film camera and hardly see this happending. or is it because it's a combination of digital, not manual focus, zoom lens.

about this form, it's stupid, it the owner really did for people to discus things, not register should be need it. it just STOP users to contributes, web surfer just want to find what they looking for and most likely didn't get the answer yet and has a ong unknown journey ahead of them so they won't bother to register and "waste" time. just the text reading type back verification should be way more than enogh.

oh, I don't think i will remember this web address nor my password for this account. if you want send me e-mail at joe_li26@yahoo.com, not going to promisse i get to your mail but you can try, because it's a junk mail account to begin with. :(

The classic method of making friends and influencing people. :rolleyes: