EOS 7D What am I doing wrong here?

I wanted to shoot some back lit window shots of my daughter, getting used to the new 7d, and found that my lens would hunt while trying to focus on her eye (Sigma EX 17-50 2.8 OS HSM). Also, there appears to be quite a bit of noise on her face for ISO 400, and it doesn't appear to be sharp at all. What am I doing wrong here? I tried to spot meter on her face, then recompose to get the far right focus on her eye, then took the shot. I shot RAW, converted to Tiff in DPP, and converted to JPEG in Photoshop 7.0.1.

Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 7D
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/50 sec
Aperture: 3.5
Focal Length: 17mm
Flash Used: No

I can't help with the focus (the sample you posted is too small to really tell much of anything about the focus), but the noise is probably because her face is under exposed. You'll also find that the latest version of Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop do a better job than DPP of converting 7D RAW images and dealing with noise.

Using spot metering on her face, you probably should have adjusted the exposure upward by 2/3 to a full stop - did you do that?

What focus mode were you using?

Shooting into a bright light source kills contrast. The AF system needs contrast to work.

I would have used a bounced flash on this to properly expose the girl's face and the room, and ensured that my ambient exposure wasn't blowing out the window. You'd still get a bit of backlight on the hair, and the subject would have been much better exposed.

Does that lens have IS? 1/50 is pretty slow. A faster shutter may give a sharper image.

Stsva -
Sorry about the small sample picture.. I uploaded the entire 8MB file to picasa, not sure why it got resized. I'm really wanting to get in Adobe's Light Room program, but can't justify spending the money on it at the moment. I didn't adjust the exposure at all when I spot metered on her face.. I didn't think I needed to, since the spot was covered by her entire face. Is the 7D prone to underexposure like this? I was trying to use spot focus, and I'd have to play with the focal length to get the focus lock, then I just said screw it and put it on one point AF.

Egordon-
I like that idea, I may try it next time I get a chance.

Juggy-
Yes, Sigma's IS is called OS (optical stabilization) and on this particular lens, its rated quit high as far as performance goes.

Thanks for the replies guys. Any way to get the full sized image to appear on these boards? Also I'd love to hear how you guys get your 7d images tack sharp with PP. I've heard not to us sharpening in DPP, and only sharpen when you get it to JPEG in photoshop. But after that, I'm lost.

I hear a bunch about this problem, but now it's starting to hit me more and more the more I mess with settings, read more of the manual, and watch more tutorials, but now I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed coming from my Sony A230 and A100. Although, that's probably a good thing, as there's more than enough room to grow into this camera.

The most recent version of DPP supports unsharp mask as well, for RAW images.

Stamp wrote in post #11177126
I tried to spot meter on her face ...

Taking the spot meter reading as gospel will result in underexposure on a fair skinned face. Also, the lack of detail in a child's skin will make it appear OOF.

Stamp wrote in post #11180855
I'm really wanting to get in Adobe's Light Room program, but can't justify spending the money on it at the moment.

I believe you can still download it and try it out for 30 days. Head on over to the Adobe website and see if that option is still available.

Stamp wrote in post #11180855
I didn't adjust the exposure at all when I spot metered on her face.. I didn't think I needed to, since the spot was covered by her entire face. Is the 7D prone to underexposure like this?

With the extreme amount of light coming through that window, you'll need to adjust the exposure, in my opinion. This is actually a good exercise for you because it'll help you to learn how to properly use the camera. Keep changing settings and study what those changes actually do to the captured image.

Thanks guys. I know this is considered a more tricky situation when it comes to photography, and I'd like to get it nailed down... I'll try again later tonight hopefully. I was trying to use an off camera flash to brighten up a bit of her face, with the flash compensation turned all the way down, but I had it aiming right at her, which wasn't a good idea without any diffuser, so I'll try the bounce idea tonight. I'll post another pic and we'll see how it goes.

Anybody have advice on how to upload a larger picture? Again, that's the link to the 8mb file above, and it got resized pretty badly. Thanks.

oldvultureface wrote in post #11180892
Taking the spot meter reading as gospel will result in underexposure on a fair skinned face. Also, the lack of detail in a child's skin will make it appear OOF.

Yep...Althought spot metering only meters the "spot" (as opposed to trying to balance the entire scene), you are still taking a reflective reading. This means the camera will still try to expose the spot as 18% grey so you'll have to use exposure compensation if you're shooting stuff that isn't 18% grey.

You don't have this problem if you're using an incident meter.

If you up the exposure on her face the window will completely blow out. With drastic lighting like this bouncing or diffusing some fill flash will help.

The noise is most likely from her face being under exposed.

Tommydigi wrote in post #11180978
If you up the exposure on her face the window will completely blow out. With drastic lighting like this bouncing or diffusing some fill flash will help.

The noise is most likely from her face being under exposed.

LOL...The window is already blown out. This shot would look 100000x better with the proper lighting.

A simple hot-shoe mounted speedlight could have easily fixed the lighting.

I do want the window to be a little blown out with some detail around the edges, like it currently has, so hopefully I won't lose too much of that with a bounced speedlight.

Edit: I meant Speedlite... Sorry guys... Didn't mean the nikon pun.

Stamp wrote in post #11181056
I do want the window to be a little blown out with some detail around the edges, like it currently has, so hopefully I won't lose too much of that with a bounced speedlight.

How blown out it is is going to be determined by the shutter speed, ISO, and f/stop.

How well exposed the subject is is going to be determined by the flash power, f/stop, and ISO.

So you can play with "balancing" the flash and ambient exposures to see what different effects you can get.

Also if the shoe mounted flash has infra red it should help with the 7d hunting for focus. Point it to the ceiling behind you, use the green mode first to get a suggestion on what settings you should be at, then move over to manual.