yet another focus question...

I have been shooting a lot of my son's baseball games. I have a 70-200 canon lens that I truly love. The problem is not all of the action I am trying to get is in focus...

For example... a player diving into first base. The head, glove and base are in focus, but the shoes are not.

Is this a DOF issue or a focus issue?

I shoot primarily in Av mode and will use the automatic focus selection I have tried centerpoint focus, but I get the same results. My setting was f4 (to blur background), but yesterday went to f7. Still had the same results.

It appears that this problem occurs more when the action is close. (I get good shots when I am behind first base and shoot to home plate.)

Any suggestions on other things to try?

Without an example picture, your description sounds like you are getting less DOF than you want for the shot. If the player is diving straight at you and the face is sharp then the focus is correct. If the feet are soft, then the feet are simply extending out past the far side of the range of acceptable sharpness.

You need to stop down if you really want the feet sharp. Most baseball photographers will prefer to shoot wide open anyway. The feet being soft probably doesn't make or break the shot and shooting wide open will blur out the typical distracting background.

I never use auto focus point selection for anything. There is no point to it as only one point can work at a time anyway. By selecting the one you want you know that what you want it focus will be selected.

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My crystal ball is out for service, too?
Knowing WHAT camera would help?

Could be too slow a shutter speed, too.

I guess a pic would help!

I know the question talked about baseball, but here is a soccer pic...

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He's running that's why his feet aren't in focus IMO. Try a faster shutter speed.

The entire soccer player appears to be in focus. As the previous poster stated, the feet are blurry because they are moving a lot faster than the rest of the body.

Daylight sports = 1/2000 shutter speed unless there is a reason I cannot attain that. I tend to shoot outside in bright sunlight at ISO400, and I will go to ISO800 - 1000 for any clouds.

Hmmmmm... I always tended to go lower on ISO... A higher ISO would help...

Great tips! Thanks!

drmac wrote in post #5901957
Hmmmmm... I always tended to go lower on ISO... A higher ISO would help...

Great tips! Thanks!

At least with my 5D there is essentially no loss in IQ between ISO 100 and 400 and I find ISO800 to be very, very good.

You sometimes find people skirting the very limits for shutter speed (either for handholding or freezing motion) and yet still shooting at ISO below 800 or even 400 because they fear signal noise or loss of detail.

The reality is, minute blur from shooting right at the 1/focal length rule or small subject blur will wipe out a heck of a lot more detail in the image that using a higher ISO. It's better to be conservative on shutter speed than on ISO setting.

Gavin shoots everything at high ISO & provides fun captions as well. The first & many other images are at ISO Speed Ratings = 1600!
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