Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

new to this lens but got to use it for an engagement session

Sold mine this morning to another member. It was a fantastic lens but I'm going to try out the Sigma 85mm.

where do you live? you have very nice locations as well!

I'm betting Sweden or so.

kMayer wrote in post #11162437
where do you live? you have very nice locations as well!

Russia. Siberia.

ximix wrote in post #11162620
Russia. Siberia.

Here in the USA, we are lead to believe that Siberia is a desolate frozen wasteland. It looks beautiful based on your photographs. (We already knew Russia had beautiful women, though...)

^^ Agreed, that was my assupmtion too. Seems like it's really nice there though.

Ok, so how do I know if my camera and/or lens(es) need "micro adjustments"?
I like to shoot a lot of shots of people and kids close up and I use a lot of lower fstops, but I seem to get a lot of my shots missed focus or DoF was missed from where I intended it. I plan to get a new focusing screen for my 5DMKII when I send it in for cleaning, but now I'm wondering if I need to send in my lens and ask to have both micro adjusted, but I don't even know really what that is.

Here are to simple shots that I should have nailed the focus on, is it me with wrong settings or is it the equipment? Surely I wasn't shaking that much?

1/50 sec at f/2.8, ISO 160
50mm(EF50mm f/1.4USM) lens

IMG_1

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Bump up your ISO! haha you have a 5D2 so iso shouldn't be an excuse. 1/50 at 2.8 is just too slow for a portrait much less a candid of a kid. bump it up to 400 or 500. MA can't fix your issue. You can do a focus test to with a chart. I can have a good percentage of keepers shooting at 1/50th but that's if the subject is fairly static and because I'd be shooting with the 70-200 which has a 4 stop IS.

Are you loading these photos in software that will show you the active focus point? I know it can be done in Canon's provided software -- Digital Photo Professional (DPP). Load a photo, and in one of the menus at the top is an option that should read something like "Show Focus Point" or "Show Focus Information". That should bring up the focus point grid seen through the viewfinder; active focus points at the time of the shot will show up as red as opposed to black.

ni$mo350 wrote in post #11163626
Bump up your ISO! haha you have a 5D2 so iso shouldn't be an excuse. 1/50 at 2.8 is just too slow for a portrait much less a candid of a kid. bump it up to 400 or 500. MA can't fix your issue. You can do a focus test to with a chart. I can have a good percentage of keepers shooting at 1/50th but that's if the subject is fairly static and because I'd be shooting with the 70-200 which has a 4 stop IS.

Yeah, I thought 1/50 was too slow, and figured it was more my shooting settings vs. the "micro" adjustments, I shot this in Av mode though so the camera set the 1/50 and 160 ISO, lol.
I still would like to know more about what those are and how to know if you need them.

Adam Jones wrote in post #11163645
Are you loading these photos in software that will show you the active focus point? I know it can be done in Canon's provided software -- Digital Photo Professional (DPP). Load a photo, and in one of the menus at the top is an option that should read something like "Show Focus Point" or "Show Focus Information". That should bring up the focus point grid seen through the viewfinder; active focus points at the time of the shot will show up as red as opposed to black.

I have Lightroom 3 and Aperture 3 I use, nothing else. I'll see if they have these features.
I try to use the face as my focus point, but with the 2.8 and smaller, its going to cause a very thin DoF, but these just look like what was said above, too slow a shutter speed.