Out of Focus with Flash

I took some jumping pictures of a kid the other day and had it printed on the biggest size I offer. I use AB-800 as a main light, it wasn't full power. Camera settings were ISO 100, f/7.1 and 1/200. It is out of focus after looking at the print. I should of zoomed in at 1:1 before I even edited it.

How can I avoid getting out of focus kids jumping with my strobe in the future? What went wrong?

Its probably not out of focus, but rather soft because of motion blur. The alien bees are not the fastest duration lights and it gets worse the lower the power setting. What was your ambient light condiditons, inside, outside?

Motion blur is a possibility, even with a strobe firing... Post pic, and we can take a look

Could be you simply missed the focus. It happens to the best of us.

OneDeep wrote in post #16719590
image.jpeg

I didn't think to check for the focus when I was editing this because the still shots look good. It look terrible on the print and is very noticeable. Is there anyway to avoid this next time?

Crank the strobes to full power, thats the shortest duration time in most studio strobes. Newer strobes like the Einstein use a circuit like a speedlite where the shortest duration is on the lowest power. They are better for freezing motion.

Use a smaller aperture = More DOF and shorter flash duration (increased power output from strobe) in one swift swoop!