topic Re: problems with blur in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

problems with blur

kamiller12 — Sun, 08 May 2016 19:42:17 GMT

Hi,

I am an amateur who wants to take nice photos of families and friends. I've had my Canon Rebel about a year. I have been having issues lately where many of my images are not in sharp focus. It just seems to be hit or miss. I don't remember having this problem as much when I first started taking pictures with my camera.

So, nowadays, all seems well when a review the photos in the viewfinder, on the camera but when I load them onto my computer and reveiw them, I am disappointed as many of them are not in sharp focus. It is frustrating to me and I've lost all confidence that I can reliably take any photos. I mostly use AV mode and use a wide aperture and let the camera choose the shutter speed.

Here is an example of a photo that turned out slightly blurry. What is causing the blur? I am handholding and the shutter speed is fast. I have aimed for someone's eye, probably the older child, press the shutter halfway and recompose... Thanks for any advice anyone might have for me.

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Sun, 08 May 2016 20:07:26 GMT

Don't rely on my opnion, but it looks like the older child's shoes are in good focus, while his face looks soft. Then again, my glasses could simply be dirty. If you are using a Rebel, I assume that you probably do not have AFMA in your camera. Auto Focus Micro Adjustment.

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

With a wide aperture, you are going to get a narrow depth of field. Use the calculator at the above link to get an estimate of how much, or how little, depth of field you are getting in your shots.

Many lenses have a soft focus when the aperture is fully opened. Try stopping it down one or two steps. Doing so will also give your more depth of field. Finally, I think your eye has become more experienced at looking at your photos, and is now simply more critical of what it sees.

Re: problems with blur

ScottyP — Mon, 09 May 2016 09:38:14 GMT

Yes. Don't try to use big apertures for group shots. Hard to line up faces to all be in focus in a shallow DOF.

Cant see on phone screen if sneaker is in focus but if it is you would perhaps have a front focus problem. See if problem is consistently front focus or back focus.

Also a avoid doing focus and recompose with big apertures. Same problem.

Re: problems with blur

ebiggs1 — Mon, 09 May 2016 13:23:00 GMT

What exactly is your set up. You said a Rebel? And which lens do you have?

Besides that, I can tell you the one thing that will help you the most is to use just the center focus point. Turn all the others off. Then put that one focus point on the exact place you want to be in perfect focus. Most likely the child's face. If you are using multiple focus points the Rebel is going to lock on the closest thing it finds. Possibly the boys shoe?

A camera can have only one perfect in focus point. Anything in that "plane" will be in focus. Everything in front of that plane or behind it will become more and more OOF (out-of-focus).

"I mostly use AV mode and use a wide aperture and let the camera choose the shutter speed."

For a photo like your example you can simply use the "P" mode. Cameras are smarter than you might think they are! Sometimes they are smarter than the photographer! They have taught me that several times.

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Mon, 09 May 2016 15:03:22 GMT

"Besides that, I can tell you the one thing that will help you the most is to use just the center focus point. Turn all the others off. ... A camera can have only one perfect in focus point. Anything in that "plane" will be in focus. Everything in front of that plane or behind it will become more and more OOF (out-of-focus)."

Using just the one center focus point is good advice. I cannot tell you how many times I have pressed the shutter halfway, and then released it because I didn't like the focus points that the camera selected and lit up. Frequently, I would run out of patience and just snap the picture, which would frequently not have the focus that I was looking for. I used to ask myself, "Which red square [out of several that lit up] is the camera using to set focus?" It cannot use all of them, just one.

Be aware that the "plane" of perfect focus will usually be a constant distance from the lens, which means a curved arc of a circle, actually a 3D sphere, with the lens in the center of it.

I am looking at your picture on a 27" monitor, and I am noticing the grass. The grass between the older child's legs seems to be the best focus, while the grass outside of his legs, both nearer and further away from that focus distance, seem to be not quite as sharp and in focus. If you have DPP, then use the feature that illuminates the focus points on your shots, so that you can see what the camera was focusing. This is most useful when using just the center focus point.

If lighting up the focus points can be done In Lightroom, I wish someone would point out how to do it for me.

Re: problems with blur

ebiggs1 — Mon, 09 May 2016 15:23:45 GMT

"If lighting up the focus points can be done In Lightroom, I wish someone would point out how to do it for me."

Show Focus Point Lightroom Plug-In

You should be able to handle trhe rest?

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Mon, 09 May 2016 15:39:49 GMT

@ebiggs1 wrote:
"If lighting up the focus points can be done In Lightroom, I wish someone would point out how to do it for me."

OK
Show Focus Point Lightroom Plug-In

You should be able to handle trhe rest?

Ok, thanks for that, Ernie! I'll install it this evening.

Re: problems with blur

kamiller12 — Tue, 10 May 2016 18:02:16 GMT

I have a Rebel T5i with a Canon 18-135 mm zoom lens and a Canon 1.8 50 mm prime lens. I usually use the zoom lens, but for the above picture, I used the 50 mm lens.

The aperture of that pic was 2.0 and the shutter was 1/4000(!). Is 2.0 too wide for this kind of subject matter? I thought their heads were close enough to the same plane... I had my camera set to One Shot and I aim the center for one of the subject's eyes and recompose. I have AF point selection set to Manual selection with the center chosen. Could AF Tracking be causing this? I thought that if I had One Shot selected that it would not track. Maybe I have a fundamental misunderstaning about how the auto-focus settings work, or how they work together. I don't understand if I aim for the eyes how the grass in front of the subject could get the most focus. My subjects didn't move that much. Did I just miss when I aimed for the eyes?

I will try shooting more in P mode more to see what the camera does. That's a good idea. 🙂

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Tue, 10 May 2016 18:22:44 GMT

No, your problem could be Depth-Of-Field. The following chart is from the link I posted earlier.

I highligted the " f/2 " column, and the "Distance" column. "Near" refers to the minimum distance from the camera where focus is accepted as nominally sharp. Likewise, "Far" refers to the maximum distance from the camera where focus is accepted as nominally sharp.

Objects closer than "Near", or further away than "Far", will be out of focus, typically appearing as bokeh. Take notice of the difference between the "Near" and "Far" values. This difference will be your DOF.

At a distance of 10 feet, the DOF is just under a foot, which mean if the older child's sneaker, or grass between is knees is in focus, then his face will be close to, or just beyond, the "Far" edge, and dropping out of focus. I think this is what you are seeing in that shot.

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Tue, 10 May 2016 18:37:54 GMT

@kamiller12 wrote:
I have a Rebel T5i with a Canon 18-135 mm zoom lens and a Canon 1.8 50 mm prime lens. I usually use the zoom lens, but for the above picture, I used the 50 mm lens.

The aperture of that pic was 2.0 and the shutter was 1/4000(!). Is 2.0 too wide for this kind of subject matter? I thought their heads were close enough to the same plane... I had my camera set to One Shot and I aim the center for one of the subject's eyes and recompose. I have AF point selection set to Manual selection with the center chosen. Could AF Tracking be causing this? I thought that if I had One Shot selected that it would not track. Maybe I have a fundamental misunderstaning about how the auto-focus settings work, or how they work together. I don't understand if I aim for the eyes how the grass in front of the subject could get the most focus. My subjects didn't move that much. Did I just miss when I aimed for the eyes?

I will try shooting more in P mode more to see what the camera does. That's a good idea. 🙂

Shooting in P mode will teach you a lot, provided you have a basic understanding of the "Exposure Triangle". If not, then do a web search for that phrase. You'll be up to speed in 5-10 minutes.

You could also use "Av" mode, where you dial in a constant aperture, and the camera determines shutter speed. Always try to use the lowest ISO possible, one that keep your shutter speeds above 1/200 of a second for still shots. Determine an aperture setting based upon your distance from the subjects. If in doubt, just dial in f/8, and shoot away.

Turn off AF tracking, and use just "One Shot" until you get a better feel for exposure settings and focusing. Try to aim for the eyes for portraits. Don't forget that you can place the center focus point on the eyes, lock focus, and then re-adjust the aim to get the shot you want, and then fully depress the shutter button.

Re: problems with blur

ebiggs1 — Wed, 11 May 2016 11:17:19 GMT

"Is 2.0 too wide for this kind of subject matter?"

IMO, yes it is. That shot doesn't require any special attention at all. As a matter of fact it is the standard example of the "Sunny 16 Rule". Remember, on a Sunny day, f16 @ 1/100 with ISO set to 100. Or just use "P" mode and forget it. You do know the P stands for Professional? Like I offered above sometimes the camera is smarter than the photographer. Been taught that many times!

OK, this statement is somewhat misleading ....

"Near" refers to the minimum distance from the camera where focus is accepted as nominally sharp. Likewise, "Far" refers to the maximum distance from the camera where focus is accepted as nominally sharp."

I'll tell you why. There is only one plane from the film surface or the sensor in this case that is in perfect focus. Everything to the front or back of that plane gets increasingly out of focus, OOF. There is no line where it is in focus and than OOF. It is a gradual thing. Some people accept more OOF than others.

One shot focuses when you 1/2 way press the shutter button. It stays there unless you release it. If I were you I would go into the menu and turn off all the focus points except the center one. Don't leave any of them active or guess what? They will do their thing and try to focus.

Re: problems with blur

kvbarkley — Tue, 10 May 2016 22:50:22 GMT

@ScottyP wrote:
Yes. Don't try to use big apertures for group shots. Hard to line up faces to all be in focus in a shallow DOF.

This is what the A-DEP mode was for.

Hey, wait a minute! My T6S doesn't have an A-DEP mode! I guess Canon finally realized that no one ever used it.

Re: problems with blur

kamiller12 — Thu, 12 May 2016 18:53:02 GMT

Thanks for all of your feedback and advice so much.

I was just looking at some of my photos in Preview on my Mac, and I noticed in the Exif data that it says my Focus Mode is set to Al Servo AF when in actuality I had my camera set to One Shot. Why would this be happening? That could explain why sneakers are in focus when I am aiming for the eyes. But then, why would it be using Al Servo when I have it set to One Shot?

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Thu, 12 May 2016 19:05:15 GMT

@kamiller12 wrote:
Thanks for all of your feedback and advice so much.

I was just looking at some of my photos in Preview on my Mac, and I noticed in the Exif data that it says my Focus Mode is set to Al Servo AF when in actuality I had my camera set to One Shot. Why would this be happening? That could explain why sneakers are in focus when I am aiming for the eyes. But then, why would it be using Al Servo when I have it set to One Shot?

I dunno what could have happened. I find it unlikely that EXIF data is reporting incorrect settings at the time the shots were taken. The sub-applicaiton that gathers the information is not smart enough. All that is knows how to do is collect chicken eggs from a dynamic list of locations. It doesn't know, care, or even understand what color the eggs are.

"One shot focuses when you 1/2 way press the shutter button. It stays there unless you release it. If I were you I would go into the menu and turn off all the focus points except the center one. Don't leave any of them active or guess what? They will do their thing and try to focus."

When you first depressed the shutter, if the center focus point was initially between his legs, or on his shoe, focus would lock there, and will stay there, unless your recompose the focus to the face, preferably the eyes.

Re: problems with blur

ebiggs1 — Thu, 12 May 2016 19:24:43 GMT

"... recompose the focus to the face, preferably the eyes."

In a snap like that one any focus point on the face would be good. The eye is too small to make any significant difference. "Focus on the eye" has become a inner web catch phrase. Use it when it makes the photo best and forget it when it doesn't.

Re: problems with blur

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 13 May 2016 00:49:10 GMT

Perhaps you are confusing One-Shot with Single Shot? It's easy to do.

Re: problems with blur

kamiller12 — Fri, 13 May 2016 02:16:49 GMT

Nope, I have "One-Shot AF" selected, and I always leave my camera on Continuous Shooting mode. I am confused as to why the Exif data says the AF Focus is set to "Al Servo AF." Maybe there is another setting that overrides my "One-Shot" selection? I want to figure this out.

Re: problems with blur

Waddizzle — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:17:16 GMT

@kamiller12 wrote:
Nope, I have "One-Shot AF" selected, and I always leave my camera on Continuous Shooting mode. I am confused as to why the Exif data says the AF Focus is set to "Al Servo AF." Maybe there is another setting that overrides my "One-Shot" selection? I want to figure this out.
Are you using one of the "Basic" shooting modes, or one of the "Creative" shooting modes?

The Creative modes [P, Tv, Av, M, B] allow you to set your own camera settings, but the Basic modes can override many of your custom settings, or not permit you to make certain adjustments, at all.

Re: problems with blur

kvbarkley — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:13:25 GMT

Use DPP to look at the exif data to verify the correct mode. The focus modes would be pretty mfg specific and Apple or even the mighty EXIFTool might get confused.

Re: problems with blur

kamiller12 — Sat, 14 May 2016 14:53:52 GMT

You're right. I downloaded DPP and the Exif data does say "One-Shot." Thanks!