I'm feeling upset that someone paid me for candid shots..and...the autofocus kept

The autofocus kept acting wonky and might've caught some people to be slightly out of focus, so the shots with a bigger group have like 3 people in focus and the rest gradually get blurrier. But then, when it's a smaller set of people like 2, the shots are great and very clear. And in many cases when you zoom in close someone's face might be a bit out of focus, but the whole image will be great and in focus.

I had a 580ex with me and had it set to ONE SHOT so the focus light would work, and I also had the focus points set to mostly all so all of the points would work just to maximize my chances of getting focused shots In an area where we were doing staged shots, something kept throwing off the autofocus so people came out kind of soft.

Don't know how to feel about this. It was her birthday party, and she paid me and also asked to have the raws so she can work on them before sharing them with her crowd. We also took some staged shots too, and that was fun but again either the focus was innacurate and I kept having to do it manually, which is bad when you're at a party. Then because I kept switching from a fisheye to my zoom I caught some dust in there..she's gonna see that too.

I was there for six hours, and had to rent a fisheye so I was paid for my time with an extra tip and the lens rental. I kinda feel like returning some cash to her, but she's dabbled with her DSLR at a night I shoot regularly so I'm sure she'll understand the circumstances. She specifically asked for me to do Candids.If I had it my way, I'd give her like 60 great shots out of the 200 and call it a day, but she wants them all

/rant

THE Phreak wrote in post #14386992
I also had the focus points set to mostly all so all of the points would work just to maximize my chances of getting focused shots

This maximizes your chances of focusing on something, but not necessarily what you want to focus on. It's almost always better to choose a single focus point.

Beyond that, it's hard to diagnose this without samples, and even then it may be hard to figure out what went wrong. Throw a few samples up (with EXIF info) and we at least have something to evaluate.

Sounds like you had your lens wide open which creates a shallow DOF.

Gatorboy wrote in post #14387112
Sounds like you had your lens wide open which creates a shallow DOF.

Most definitely did, it was really dark in there unfortunately.

This is what I mean, if you zoom in close their faces aresorta soft. For some reason my flash wasn't helping with the exposure and I don't have an off camera set up ;/

A lot of the close up shots with people came out great though. I'm just goign to have to be honest with her and see if she's happy and if not, just return some cash.

You would benefit from reading
Flash Photography 101, Chapter 3.

Curtis N wrote in post #14389384
You would benefit from reading
Flash Photography 101, Chapter 3.

I'll definitely read it, I guess I'm just more upset at myself than anything. I've been taking stills at parties and nightclubs since 2009-10ish, long enough to avoid making any mistakes and yet here I am, making beginner errors.

THE Phreak wrote in post #14388959
This is what I mean, if you zoom in close their faces aresorta soft.

I think the problem was definitely having all focus points active and letting the camera choose one. The "faces" picture is focused on the left side of the chair (right side if looking at it) and the "sorta soft" is focused on the center girl's legs because of her high contrast hose I suspect.

THE Phreak wrote in post #14388959
This is what I mean, if you zoom in close their faces aresorta soft. For some reason my flash wasn't helping with the exposure and I don't have an off camera set up ;/

.

Unfortunately, looking at those images, that is what I would expect from using all points AF, rather than choosing where to focus yourself. If you leave it up to the camera to decide what to focus on, it will generally pick the nearest object that has sufficient contrast, on the assumption that the subject is usually to the front of a scene.

The faces are soft because the camera has chosen to focus on the nearer targets presented by their feet, legs or the seat itself. With the shallow DoF you had, the faces are too far behind the chosen point of focus to come out any sharper than they did.

It is rarely a good idea to leave the choice of what to focus on to the camera, as it has no idea what is the important part of the scene. You need to select an AF point yourself and place it over the subject that you want sharp (in this case one of the faces).

don't worry about it - look at it as a learning experience and move on.

We all make mistakes, but you shouldn't be charging for photography until you understand what has been pointed out earlier in the thread.

Frugal wrote in post #14391168
We all make mistakes, but you shouldn't be charging for photography until you understand what has been pointed out earlier in the thread.

This.

THE Phreak wrote in post #14386992
I had a 580ex with me and had it set to ONE SHOT so the focus light would work, and I also had the focus points set to mostly all so all of the points would work just to maximize my chances of getting focused shots In an area where we were doing staged shots, something kept throwing off the autofocus so people came out kind of soft.

So you used the 580ex only for focus assist? What's on the right side of the frame that is blowing out? Some sort of lamp?

1, you're focusing into a strong light source
2, you aren't on a single focus point
3, your flash isn't flashing enough to overpower that lamp or much ambient
4, your 1D classic (if you used that) isn't that great in lowlight, so it is a bit noisy without flash helping which reduces sharpness
5, you technically do have off camera flash in the 580, you just have to get a wireless trigger or a hotshoe cord

Frugal wrote in post #14391168
We all make mistakes, but you shouldn't be charging for photography until you understand what has been pointed out earlier in the thread.

Yeah, I read through it all and saw how bad I failed, the most simple mistakes really cost me. In the end when I delivered the photos I was up front and honest about it, said things weren't up to par and I was going to give her the money back. She picked out a number, and I returned whatever cash she asked for.

In the end the staged shots weren't good, but the candid "nightcluby" shots came out great (in her opinion). It sucks, it hurt my ego, but I feel I did the right thing.

I've been asked to do this kind of thing before and I usually just gave the best 100 or so shots, but never had a big screw up like this!

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback!