First Wedding Photos a bit blurred! Help

I shot my first wedding last weekend. Everything went well until I returned home to find my images were slightly blurred, not horrible but enough to notice. And it's not camera shake blur, but out of focus blur. I'm trying to decide where I went wrong. I was using 2 strobes with Silver lined umbrellas to light the subjects, which the color is great. I shot 100% RAW and that worked out well. I used a Canon Xsi camera body, Tamron Lens 28-75mm F2.8 lens, settings were 1/60, ISO 100 and F2.8. I'm not sure if it was the auto focus feature on my camera - should I have used the manual select mode and selected the center auto focus point only? Was it my DOF F2.8 should I have bumped it up? Or a combination of everything. I was about 6-8 feet away from my subjects, for the larger group shot I was about 15 feet away back row blurred, front row sharp and clear. HELP?

XSi and f/2.8 are your problems. You should have upped your ISO to 400 or so and then shot at f/8 at minimum, especially for portraits! I shoot at f/8-f/11 for as long as possible. When I'm inside during the reception I'll slap on a flash, shoot at ISO 800 and f/5.6 or higher if I can.

And I'm really just ragging on the XSi. I can't stand that camera. But it's probably not why your images came out blurry.

PeaceFire wrote in post #10921306
XSi and f/2.8 are your problems. You should have upped your ISO to 400 or so and then shot at f/8 at minimum, especially for portraits! I shoot at f/8-f/11 for as long as possible. When I'm inside during the reception I'll slap on a flash, shoot at ISO 800 and f/5.6 or higher if I can.

And I'm really just ragging on the XSi. I can't stand that camera. But it's probably not why your images came out blurry.

Really? I almost never touch those apertures.
I wish I was shooting at those apertures b/c my gear would be so much cheaper!

Blaming the XSi is probably not the right thing to do. But we need to see some sample photos to see what the OP is talking about.

OK..so I mis-spoke earlier, the camera body I used was the Canon Xti. If this should make a difference. Sorry

SMonson wrote in post #10921482
OK..so I mis-spoke earlier, the camera body I used was the Canon Xti. If this should make a difference. Sorry

It doesn't.
One thing I will mention is ALWAYS select your AF point manually. Don't let the camera decide for you because it doesn't know any better!

Post up a sample because I am not sure what you mean by blur. Was the DOF too narrow? Was it motion blur? Was it misfocus? Was it a lens issue? Difficult to say without seeing a sample.

shooting at 1/60 works if the things u are shooting are static but once they move, they will be oof. try go a bit faster by pumping up the iso to like 800 if its dark indoors. i got iso 400 and bounce my flash and works great.

Here's the link.
http://i691.photobucke​t.com …n/Photos/Shared​Image3.jpg

Maybe I read it wrong but isn't OP referring to the portraits? In that case 1/60 should be fine.

I only go up to f/11 for large group portraits so the people on the sides don't go blurry. I shoot ceremonies at f/8 unless I'm going for an effect. Of course, this is for outdoor, bright light weddings (I've only shot two indoor weddings so this is what I'm used to). When indoors it's different but if OP is shooting at ISO 100 I was assuming they were shooting outdoors.

it depends on where your focal length is. If you are shooting on the long end 1/60 will bring in camera shake. If people are moving 1/60 will blur.

A sample will be helpful if you can post it up.

As far as the group shots your aperture was too wide (small number) and it effected the depth of field. That's why the front row is crisp and the back row is blurred. for groups (dependent on focal length, distance to subject, and spread of group) f5.6-f11 will allow them to be in focus. f2.8 will focus on one row probably (if they are even with eachother) and make any subsequent row out of focus.

looking at your photo you messed something up bad. Nothing is in focus (maybe the grooms right hand). Did you accidentally click it into manual focus and forget to change it back? Did you get AF confirmation on that shot? Where were you focusing?

If you were focusing on the bride you'd still have soft bystanders due to the aperture being at 2.8 with 45mm focal length.

BTW your exif says it was shot with a t1i. Are you sure you know what camera you have?

I posted the link to the sample above...please check it out. Thanks for all the good advise.

I edited my post. Check it out

Not sure what happened there, it obviously wasn't your AF cause nothing is in focus. Could possibly be a front/back focus problem with the lens you were using or as tfizzle said the af switch could of gotten bumped.. Are all of the photos like this?

SMonson wrote in post #10921601
Here's the link.
http://i691.photobucke​t.com …n/Photos/Shared​Image3.jpg

Couple of things:

• Looks like the hand on the man on the left side is in good focus. Difficult to tell at that size. So perhaps it's a matter of misfocusing. So did you let the camera decide what to focus on or did you manually select the AF point?
  
• At 45mm, 1/60 might be a little too slow. Were you using a tripod?
  
• You needed to stop down the lens. DOF at f2.8 is too narrow to get everyone in focus unless they are on the same plane. I would have used at least f5.6.

I know I'm not being helpful at all, and I mean no disrespect to the OP, but there's a part of me that says the original post is something that should appear on CraigsList under wedding services. This is the kind of stuff that brides don't think can go wrong but happen all the time.

The photo I posted is the worst out of all of them. The rest has a slight blur not noticeable to most people but to me it is.
So this is what I can tell you..I did use the XTi Camera Body I'm sorry I mis-spoke on my first post!
1. I did let the camera decide on what to focus on.
2. I was using a tripod. At the time the photos were showing up clear as a bell on my little 3" lcd
screen. So my bad I should have upped the Shutter speed to 1/100 or 1/120th.
3. I think your right in saying my DOF was way too narrow to get everyone into focus.

I guess the only way you learn is from your mistakes.