Is my lens bad or am I doing something wrong taking photos?

Hello all,

When I shoot stationary objects, trees, building, etc, the pictures turn out fine. The examples shown below and in this album are pictures that didn't turn out sharp. Why is the couple in my photos blurry? They posed like statues but they are blurry. Am I using too large of an aperture? My shutter speed seems to be fast enough (some shutter speeds of 1/1000 or more were used (camera chosen). And I selected the focus point on my 60D as close to the subjects face as possible. For instance lets take the first and second picture as an example. On the first picture the focus point is on the female's right eye, however this picture is a little blurry. On the second picture the focus point is at the of the female's head, her hair and the photo is sharp. All photos are OOC jpgs. Please click here for the rest of the pictures where the subjects are blurry. What am I doing wrong?

Sharp
Focal Length: 30.0mm (35mm equivalent: 47mm...
Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
Aperture: f/3.2

I looked through a bunch of these pictures and my guess is that your lens is slightly back-focusing. I can't tell for sure due to the picture sizes but using this example it looks like the shrubbery just behind them is in focus but they are not:
http://smg.photobucket​.com …ew¤t=EOS_​1221-1.jpg

IMO, at your subject distance, I think your aperture should be fine. F/3.2 @ 30mm should be plenty enough DOF for what you are doing.

For the 60D, IIRC, all your focus points are cross-type. However, I believe the center point has the highest precision (F/2.8?). Have you tried using the center point only?

Ady2glude707 wrote in post #14923670
All photos are OOC jpgs.

Digital images need to be edited in software. Apply USM and then determine if they are out of focus.

Also, 1/100 could be a bit slow for you to handhold steady.

Ady2glude707 wrote in post #14923670
On the second picture the focus point is at the of the female's head

Oh, I just noticed this. You should always target a high contrast area to focus (eye usually works best). The forehead would generally lack contrast. You can see that the second photo of the two you posted is the more blurry one of the two.

Gatorboy wrote in post #14923768
Also, 1/100 could be a bit slow for you to handhold steady.

Your photos are off focus, clearly.
We can see sharp background sharp hair splits / sharp shirt-sleeve. We can immediately eliminated hand shaky motion blur.
1/100s is for sure enough for 47mm equivalent focal length unless the handler has a shaky hand syndrome type of problem.

Like other said above, it's back-focusing. Some images are in focus. I am not exactly sure if it's an user error or lens problem. Cause it could be you, pointing at the wrong target and "misfocused". Or it could be the lens that is malfunctioning/miscali​brated.

I suggest you to do some scientific testing, use a tripod, get a stationary target and point at it. Open up your aperture all the way to the maximum.

Try f7. Shutter over 400. See what happens.
Good Luck
Mike

Ady2glude707 wrote in post #14923670
Hello all,

When I shoot stationary objects, trees, building, etc, the pictures turn out fine. The examples shown below and in this album are pictures that didn't turn out sharp. Why is the couple in my photos blurry? They posed like statues but they are blurry. Am I using too large of an aperture? My shutter speed seems to be fast enough (some shutter speeds of 1/1000 or more were used (camera chosen). And I selected the focus point on my 60D as close to the subjects face as possible. For instance lets take the first and second picture as an example. On the first picture the focus point is on the female's right eye, however this picture is a little blurry. On the second picture the focus point is at the of the female's head, her hair and the photo is sharp. All photos are OOC jpgs. Please click here for the rest of the pictures where the subjects are blurry. What am I doing wrong?

Sharp
Focal Length: 30.0mm (35mm equivalent: 47mm...
Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
Aperture: f/3.2


Not Sharp
Focal Length: 30.0mm (35mm equivalent: 47mm...
Exposure Time: 0.0100 s (1/100)
Aperture: f/3.2
ISO Equiv.: 200

try using a higher aperture, for example f5.6 for a greater depth of field and use a higher shutter speed

focus with the center point and recompose.

Also do some test with the lens to check if it back/front focus.

An option is to focus with the center point only, and crop afterwards. Try using at least f4 or F 5.6. If you need to boost ISO to 320 or 400, then go for it. While 1/100 should be fast enough, you might try higher shutter speeds, like 1/160.

Earwax69 wrote in post #14923977
focus with the center point and recompose.

No, dont do this. Even at f3.2 that can cause some issues, select a focus point that matches where you want the focus to be.

SoCalTiger wrote in post #14923760
I looked through a bunch of these pictures and my guess is that your lens is slightly back-focusing. I can't tell for sure due to the picture sizes but using this example it looks like the shrubbery just behind them is in focus but they are not:
http://smg.photobucket​.com …ew¤t=EOS_​1221-1.jpg

IMO, at your subject distance, I think your aperture should be fine. F/3.2 @ 30mm should be plenty enough DOF for what you are doing.

For the 60D, IIRC, all your focus points are cross-type. However, I believe the center point has the highest precision (F/2.8?). Have you tried using the center point only?

Thanks for your reply. I do use the center point however in this situation I chose the focus point closest to the subjects face. I've read that choosing the focus point closest to the subject is better than recomposing a shot.

Gatorboy wrote in post #14923768
Digital images need to be edited in software. Apply USM and then determine if they are out of focus.

Uhhh... what?!?! That is simply not true! If images SOOC are not sharp (assuming all settings are appropriate), something is wrong. The mindset that all images need to be edited in order to be sharp is just plain wrong.

These are OOC jpg's and will have whatever sharpening is associated with the picture style already applied.

RAW needs some sharpening to combat the AA filter.

How long are you waiting after focus before pressing the shutter button? If you don't press it immediately when focus is achieved, it is possible you are swaying slightly and moving the plane of focus before actually taking the shot.

Re focus using centre point and recompose

RobDickinson wrote in post #14924060
No, dont do this. Even at f3.2 that can cause some issues, select a focus point that matches where you want the focus to be.

Complete rubbish, with a 30mm lens at f3.2 you have a DOF of more than 2ft.
You can focus and recompose quite safely.