Shutter Speed aka. Why are all my pictures blurry now?

So I'm fiddling around with some of the settings tonight and was taking some pictures in the living room. Real low light. I custom set the white balance and the pictures actually looked good and not yellow. My daughter is in the room and I'm trying to get pictures of her too. She's a toddler and won't sit still for much but I can usually get relatively good pictures with minimal blur... except tonight and I have no clue what I did... I set the ISO to 1600 due to the light and I was trying to set the shutter speed to make it faster and I'd crank the dial and get 1/60 only to find when the focus set it would suddenly be 2 and the pictures would be blurry and well...crappy. Every single one I tried did that. I messed with the different types of focus and still... all blurry. So I added the flash only to find the white balance would be all messed up because it was custom set without it... grrr... very frustrating!

Why am I having such trouble tonight? I've been taking some really good pictures in <P> mode up until tonight...

Now taking suggestions! Thanks all!

A picture is worth thousand words.
Show us some of those pictures, preferably with EXIF, it’ll be lot easier to tell what went wrong.

When you tuned the dial to get 1/60 was the camera pointing at something bright? It could be that you metered something that was in good light and then went to take the photo and pointed at something dark (like a darker carpet your daughter was on?)

This could be further complicated by you having a lens with a variable aperture. If you set the exposure while zoomed out with an aperture of say f/3.5 and then zoomed in and it went to say f/5.6 you would be making your shutter speed decrease by more than double.

You don't say which exposure mode you used.

My guess is you were in Av - in that mode the aperture will remain at the setting you chose, but the shutter speed will change to get a decent exposure.

If, as Shadowplay suggests, you set it while aimed at a light source, you might have been able to get 1/60 at your chosen aperture but the camera reset to 2 seconds when you aimed at your subject.

-js

Oh, as for the white balance with flash: your custom WB would have been for tungsten light. The flash is very close to daylight, much bluer. If you're going to use flash you need to reset to AWB or to flash WB.

Keep at it! Everything will fall into place soon...

-js

A picture w/ Exif would be the quickest way for other people to help. Another issue could be focal lenth? If you have a 135 on, 1/60th won't likely be fast enough.

Ok, here's the stats for this one:

Shootimg Mode: P
Shutter: 1/8
Aperture: 3.5
Metering: Partial
Exposure Comp: 0
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 18mm
Img: RAW
White Balance: Tungsten (I'd changed it for this one)
Pic Style: Standard

http://picasaweb.googl​e.com …t6IiQ#512990604​0165727362

Why is it I can't assign [IMG] tags to pictures in my picasa album?

[IMG]http://picasaweb.​google.com/mailin78/My​World/photo?authkey=bL​yHdHt6IiQ#512990604016​5727362

mai_lin wrote in post #4266582
Ok, here's the stats for this one:

Shootimg Mode: P
Shutter: 1/8
Aperture: 3.5
Metering: Partial
Exposure Comp: 0
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 18mm
Img: RAW
White Balance: Tungsten (I'd changed it for this one)
Pic Style: Standard

http://picasaweb.googl​e.com …t6IiQ#512990604​0165727362

Why is it I can't assign [IMG] tags to pictures in my picasa album?

[IMG]http://picasaweb.​google.com/mailin78/My​World/photo?authkey=bL​yHdHt6IiQ#512990604016​5727362[/IMG]

Shutter speed is 1/8th!!! There is your answer!!!

Okay, this is simple: 1/8 of a second is too slow for moving toddler..

I know the shutter speed is too slow - but every time I tried to change it the camera would change it on me... can I turn that off? The manual gives very little on how to change the shutter speed...

Its the shutter speed causing all the blur

Your problem is the 1/8 shutter speed. This going to give you motion blur unless you use a Tri-pod (and shoot a stationary subject) or maybe an Image Stabilised Lens if you are lucky. You need to ge the shutter speed up over 1/30 at that focal length to even get a chance of getting a sharp image. A faster shutter speed would be better.

Try shooting with more light or try a flash.

Hope this helps,
Jason.

mai_lin wrote in post #4266604
I know the shutter speed is too slow - but every time I tried to change it the camera would change it on me... can I turn that off? The manual gives very little on how to change the shutter speed...

Its the shutter speed causing all the blur

Shooting in [P]rogram mode, the camera chooses aperture and shutter speed for you. Try shooting in [M]anual mode, where you can set aperture and shutter speed yourself. But judging from the EXIF, you need more light - there is nothing else you can do.

It's all about the light. You can't do it with the light you have in this shot. Your lens is wide open, your ISO is at maximum, your shutter speed is too slow, and the shot is still underexposed about a stop. WB looks good, though.

A tripod would allow you to shoot at slower shutter speeds to get better exposure and make the background sharp (eliminating camera shake) but it wouldn't stop your daughter.

A f/1.8 lens would allow you to shoot at 1/30 to get the same exposure, and that's high enough to eliminate camera shake if you pay attention to holding it steady. An IS lens would help with the camera shake, but not with subject movement.

Flash is the answer - using flash WB, as mentioned above.

-js

sbressler wrote in post #4266641
Shooting in [P]rogram mode, the camera chooses aperture and shutter speed for you. Try shooting in [M]anual mode, where you can set aperture and shutter speed yourself. But judging from the EXIF, you need more light - there is nothing else you can do.

Ok, that I can believe as that room only had one lamp on... but...
the on camera flash is harsh... it made her face look all red/blotchy... can I compensate for that 'on camera' rather than in photoshop?

I'm very grateful for all the help I'm getting... tonight has been a bit frustrating for me...

mai_lin wrote in post #4266604
I know the shutter speed is too slow - but every time I tried to change it the camera would change it on me... can I turn that off? The manual gives very little on how to change the shutter speed...

Its the shutter speed causing all the blur

Don’t take me wrong mai_lin, but I believe that you need some basic understanding of the elements of exposure.
Take a look at this site, it might give you the answers to some of your questions.

http://web.canon.jp/im​aging/enjoydslr/

Also, do not underestimate the Instruction Manual.
Everything is written there, everything!