Photos in Servo are no good!

I need a little advice here. Whenever I try to take pictures of people moving (kids playing for example), I put my T1i into servo mode. As soon as the camera goes in servo, the shots tend to be OOF. If I shoot something a little more still in One Shot, the photos come out great.

Is there a greater chance of getting these OOF shots if I use a wide aperture?

Here is an example: I shot at f/2.8 and 1/200.

The photo actually looks pretty decent to me in regards to focus. But, are you making sure to keep the active AF point on the child's face? You'll probably want to set the AF to a single AF point if you haven't already done so in such a contrasty environment.

That_Fox wrote in post #10020661
The photo actually looks pretty decent to me in regards to focus. But, are you making sure to keep the active AF point on the child's face? You'll probably want to set the AF to a single AF point if you haven't already done so in such a contrasty environment.

I picked the upper left AF point for this shot. When getting a shot like this, do you have to keep the AF point on the kids face while he moves or will the camera track the subject through the frame? I'm not 100% on how Servo mode works.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Staszek wrote in post #10020679
I picked the upper left AF point for this shot. When getting a shot like this, do you have to keep the AF point on the kids face while he moves or will the camera track the subject through the frame? I'm not 100% on how Servo mode works.

Thanks for the quick reply.

You have to keep the AF point on the child's face the entire time. AI Servo mode continuously tries to find and keep focus, so it will focus on whatever the AF point is pointed to. I also believe that your camera is most accurate with the center AF point, so you might want to try AI Servo with the center and see if it tracks better.

That_Fox wrote in post #10020715
You have to keep the AF point on the child's face the entire time. AI Servo mode continuously tries to find and keep focus, so it will focus on whatever the AF point is pointed to. I also believe that your camera is most accurate with the center AF point, so you might want to try AI Servo with the center and see if it tracks better.

Thanks for the info. I wish I had more focus points like the 7D Do you think the f/2.8 has anything to do with it? Or once I start tracking correctly, they should come out fine?

Staszek wrote in post #10020877
Thanks for the info. I wish I had more focus points like the 7D Do you think the f/2.8 has anything to do with it? Or once I start tracking correctly, they should come out fine?

If you get sharp shots at ƒ/2.8 when using One Shot, then it shouldn't be unreasonable to expect it to get sharp shots at ƒ/2.8 when using AI Servo. The only time I wouldn't be surprised for it to miss focus is when the child is running directly towards the camera.

Pretty dang sharp at f/2.8 in One Shot. Thanks for the help.

Something else to keep in mind is that when you are in AI Servo AF, the camera will fire whether or not focus has been achieved. You're probably used to One-Shot AF where the camera will not fire until focus is achieved.

It's possible what is happening is you are triggering the camera before the subject is in focus.