topic Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong? in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS M50 Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Fri, 05 May 2023 17:35:57 GMT

I recently purchased a canon eos m50 for my tattooing. I am used to using an iphone where you just point snd press. My subject seem to come out slightly out of focus and dark on one edge.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 11:31:08 GMT

Welcome to the forum.

An iPhone has a much smaller sensor, which gives a greater depth of field, and also does a lot of computerized photo processing.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 12:01:13 GMT

So what should i do to better my photos with this canon?

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 12:24:40 GMT

The tattoo portion of the image looks to have good exposure. The dark portions of the image can be brightened by getting some light onto them. Maybe put a light fixture behind the subject to illuminate the background slightly.

You would also want to get a smaller f/stop (larger number). What were the camera settings for the image you posted?

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 13:09:08 GMT

Im not sur i know nothing of camera settings i’m not sure if i’m better off using manual focus or the assisted. Back in the day i had a canon rebel that did everything similar to my iphone i just half pressed and it would focus.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 13:10:18 GMT

Also the left side of the skull is out of focus. In all my photos there seems to be partial focus. I’m using area focus option

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 13:29:17 GMT

I suggest using single point focus and place the focus point on the item you want in focus.

What camera mode are you using?

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 13:37:18 GMT

I use manual focus with a polorizing lense aswell as additional flash attached with polorized film( fresh tattoos are shinny so light reflets into the camera) imake some lense adjustmants using hand while wathing display and i also try with the lense fixed and move camera forward and back while viewing eye viewer. Than i repeat on assisted setting aswell. Sadly with all these pics theres always a focus issue it seems

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 13:39:41 GMT

Pardon my poor spelling and punctuation. My grammar is as good as my photography lol

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 15:19:57 GMT

Can you post the image on a share site like DropBox so I can examine photo settings and details?

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 16:43:18 GMT

Absolutely just tell me what stepps to do so . Thank you btw any tipps on what settings i should use or anything is much appreciated

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

rs-eos — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 20:43:27 GMT

Are you sure you need both a polarizer on the lens as well as polarizer sheets/gels on your lights? While that can lead to some very creative style of photography with certain plastics, I think you only need one or the other to remove glare/reflections from what you're photographing.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

rs-eos — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 20:51:02 GMT

In terms of blur... if you choose to manually focus, that can be very tricky. I would recommend using autofocus so you can concentrate on other aspects.

What specific lens are you using? If you are close to your subject and using a wider aperature (e.g. f/2.8, f/3.5), then what is in focus can be very narrow. For certain camera/lens combinations, it can be extremely narrow as in a few millimeters. So things in front of and behind that will go out of focus. You tend to see this in portraits where the eyes will be in focus, but the tip of the nose and then the ears will be out of focus.

In your case, if the tattoo is on a flat part of the body, that shouldn't be an issue. But for an arm where the tattoo would wrap around, you'll need to ensure you have wider depth of field. One way to do that is the close down the aperture (higher f-stop numbers like f/8.

Another way to get deeper depth of field is to use wider angle lenses. However, they tend to distort things if not careful. I image you want to showcase your artwork as it appears in real life as much as possible. If your lens has telephoto capability, perhaps move back from your subject as much as possible, then zoom the lens in as much as possible. Especially with a narrower aperture and your subject now being further away, that should keep more things all in focus.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

kvbarkley — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 21:00:11 GMT

I hope all your filters and gels are circularly polarized. Linearly polarized light can wreak havoc with exposure and focus because of the mirrors involved.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 16:05:42 GMT

I looked up “ how to take beter tattoo photos” and researched an researched. A couple videos suggested an actual camera-check=“canon eos m50” bestbuy guy talked me into i geuss. Than a polarized circular lense=check as well as a flash atavhment with polarized filter because the light source aswell as the camera lense needed to be polarized to not cancel eachother out. I use dim light in background and the lense that came with the canon m50. I will purchase a 3rd party lense if needed.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

ebiggs1 — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 13:56:12 GMT

"... put a light fixture behind the subject to illuminate the background slightly."

This not only will not help, it may make things worse so don't do it. Sometimes we try to out think the camera and sometimes the camera is smarter then we are. Get rid of all the gadgets and attachments. Set the M50 to P mode and the lens to AF Give that a try.

I assume the room you are shooting in is reasonably lighted? If not increase the ambient light as much as you can. Forget flash for now. Flash isn't a beginner thing or easy to set up correctly.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

ebiggs1 — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 13:57:32 GMT

I'm not onto skulls myself but that is a cool tat.

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

Tat2abe — Fri, 05 May 2023 17:27:04 GMT

You all been very helpful. Im getting better. I now use the same eos m50 only i picked up a manual 50mm lens. I took the diffuser film off of the light attachment an still use diffuser lens. My issue seems to be when auto focus the green square never covers the entire tattoo only a portion so the outer portion of tattoo is always blurred

Re: Out of focus images? What am i doing wrong?

rs-eos — Fri, 05 May 2023 17:36:49 GMT

Having the camera that close to the subject, it may not be possible to get the entire tattoo in focus due to depth of field (especially for the areas on the sides of the arms).

Along the length of the arm, to keep the majority in focus, you'll need to be sure that the surface of the arm is as perpendicular to you lens as possible. And angling of your lens will lead to areas being out-of-focus.

To also help with having more in focus, try using narrower apertures (e.g. at least f/5.6, but also f/8, f/11, etc.). The con of doing this is you'll need to add in more light, and/or increase ISO.