My photos are NOT SHARP

[misslyss1]

Can you all take a look at this img- SOOC- none of my pics were sharp on their faces? Use Canon 50D, f5.6 1./200(ss) ISO 320 I mainly used AV and P mode today. PLease help, I think this is user error, but this camera is very technical for me with these focusing points, etc. I think I was in One Shot or AF Servo mode. Evaluative metering.

[misslyss1]

Obviously her hand was moving, but I actually am talking about the face, eyes. What is back focusing? How do I know when the prob is with my camera or lens or ME!

[paul48503]

Try this link on holding the camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsx3-FWfwk

[AndrewCCM]

Are you using center point AF? What length lens were you using? On the 50D you need to multiply your focal length X 1.6 to get your effective focal length. So.. If you were shooting at 100mm, it would be effectively 160mm... General rule of thumb for shutter is 1/effective focal length minimum. Thus 1/160.

However, having said this... 1/200th is not always fast enough to freeze all motion (even subtle motion). I would recommend for a child moving around to shoot at around 1/400th or so...

Lens can make a difference with sharpness as well as auto focus performance. A F5.6 lens will not AF near as fast as a F2.8 lens (referring to the fastest/widest aperture the lens is capable of...not what you have it set at...)

[CaptainTom]

exposure and white balance are excellent.

put your camera on a tripod. If you don't have a tripod, set it on a table.
put your shutter on self timer. use your center focus box. focus on something that has good edge contrast.
take the picture and see if it is in focus. try this with at least five different apertures.

another method is to put the camera on a tripod. use live view to manually focus and take a picture. take the camera out of live view and make sure the center focus is on whatever you focused on in live view.
take another photo. compare them.

[misslyss1]

Originally Posted by AndrewCCM

Are you using center point AF? What length lens were you using? On the 50D you need to multiply your focal length X 1.6 to get your effective focal length. So.. If you were shooting at 100mm, it would be effectively 160mm... General rule of thumb for shutter is 1/effective focal length minimum. Thus 1/160.

However, having said this... 1/200th is not always fast enough to freeze all motion (even subtle motion). I would recommend for a child moving around to shoot at around 1/400th or so...

Lens can make a difference with sharpness as well as auto focus performance. A F5.6 lens will not AF near as fast as a F2.8 lens (referring to the fastest/widest aperture the lens is capable of...not what you have it set at...)

I used the kit lens 28-135 mm, I noticed the lens creeps too, is that a problem? I am not sure what the focal length was, prob closer to 135mm. I did not have the focus square on the center. I think that is where my problem is, I was using a Canon Rebel Xti and had not problems with sharpness, now I can not get any photos in focus or really sharp eyes.

misslyss1 added 55 Minutes and 5 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

The focal length is 47- what does this mean?

[BEphoto]

Just out of curiosity, if this was straight out of the camera, were you shooting JPEG or RAW?

If RAW, i believe they come out a little softer due to them not having any sharpening applied in the camera. Have you ran it through any PP to see if they sharpen up?

Just a thought.

[misslyss1]

these were shot in Large jpg, not RAW this time. I have not done any PP yet, I was trying to get really sharp photos on the front end first, but I know I have to do some sharpening on them, this will prob. not help a ton.

[andyz]

Some of the Canon software will allow you to see what your auto focus was in fact locked on, in the photo. You'll see the red square. If you use center point, lock on and recompose, it won't help much. But if you were using the auto focus and allowing the camera to choose the hot spot, sometimes seeing what was selected can be an eye opener, if it isn't what you thought you locked on.

[SevenAndMe]

Originally Posted by misslyss1

I...
The focal length is 47- what does this mean?

It should mean that within the 28-135 range, it used 47.

Suggestion: Try Sports mode outdoors for a moving subject and see what you get.




Just BTW-
The Canon 85/f1.8 is not very expensive and would be great for this type of shot.
I have it and the 17-55/2.8.

[tri]

sometimes its tough to nail that focus with moving objects. cheat a little and take 2-3. or pay extra attention where your camera is focusing