opinions on this please

i have tried to take on board all the advice i was given on here when i went to my sons kick boxing tournament. about half the pics were good ( in my eyes ) and half were still blurry. i would like your opinions on this pic bearing in mind its a 1100d with a 50mm lens. no flash was used. i know i can do better with your help...the settings i used were

You may want to try Tv mode with ISO set to auto. You will then choose the shutter speed and the camera will pic the rest. You'll want to be in the 1/200 or faster (you'll know with a few test shots if you can freeze the action with that speed or if you need to go faster. The 50mm is the fastest lens you have at f1.8 (assuming you mean the 50 1.8 lens). Use that lens as your first choice. F1.8 lets in much more light than the f3.5-f5.6 of the 18-55 lens.
Shoot in AI Servo mode. It helps when shooting action.


many thanks

Not bad at all for a little 1100D. Color and exposure look good. Actually, the color is surprisingly good given the usual nature of the lighting in those kinds of environments (flickering fluorescent, or sodium-vapor).

I might have framed it in portrait instead of landscape, so you didn't cut off the feet, but you do get rid of some of the extraneous clutter on the sides.

If it's in focus and crisp, and you don't need to print it real big, crop in much closer to bring emphasis to the kid and the coach. Bring up the bottom of the frame so it's about halfway between the coach's elbow and the bottom hem of his shirt - see how that looks. Maybe it'll work, maybe not.


P.S. this thread might have been more appropriate in Critique Corner.

To me the exposure looks fine, but it does look a little blurry. How were you focusing - did you have a single focus point selected, and if so what was it on? And, being in AI Servo for a fairly static scene like this might be hurting you a bit, One Shot would probably be better if you're not trying to track movement.

I think it has focused on the coaches right hand, so the main subject matter is dropping out of the very narrow DoF from the 50 f/1.8 wide open.

Alan

OP, what AF settings were you using?

It does look like you focused on the coach's hand instead of on either of their faces. Do you specifically remember what you focused on? Also, do you remember if you tried to focus & recompose, or did you actually have the active AF point on the object of focus when you pressed the shutter?

Were the blurry ones action shots? Can you show us a few. Action and no action (if it is blurry). Also DPP all show the focus point so you may want to check that.

Also I think you can sharpen up that image quite a bit. If you ad Image Editing OK to your profile I'll show you.

there was not many static shots taken. most were of the fighters in action thats why i didn't change from AI mode. ( not that i know the difference yet ). i didn't change any focus settings. whatever it was on was left. i was jumping from one fighter to another on the day so didn't really take my time i just pointed and pressed. stupid i know but, i will learn. any and all criticism is welcomed as that is the way to learn

many thanks for the replies

digital paradise wrote in post #16755163
Were the blurry ones action shots? Can you show us a few. Action and no action (if it is blurry). Also DPP all show the focus point so you may want to check that.

yes the action shots were blurry in places and sharp in others. i will have to get the other half to do it for me as not brill with pc

On the image you posted, you might add a vignette to help focus attention on the boy and his coach and downplay their surroundings.

Technical issues aside, I love the boys stance and the look of complete concentration on what his coach is telling him.

heres one

and another

Two things. You do have some motion blur. You can see it in the second image you posted. Look at the judges right foot. Shutter speeds were too slow.

You are shooting with a shallow DOF so focus point is critical. First image the judges watch is in focus so the focus point is somewhere behind the kids. Second shot the people be hid the kid kicking are in focus so it picked some focus point behind again. Are you using single point focus?

If you are OK with me posting an edited image of that very first post I think I can sharpen it.

I know you can have a tough time balancing shutter speed, aperture and keeping the ISO down. You lens is sharpest at f4. You can see this on the MTF chart. Depending how close you are and deeper DOF like f4 will be less critical like when Tom pointed out the hand if the coach was in focus instead of the eyes in the very first post. You can always fix noise but you can't fix motion blur or badly out of focus images.