People not in focus

[amatula]

Hi,

I noticed the other recent post on people not being in focus. I too am an amateur to DSLR photography (but not SLR).

I have a Canon Rebel SL1 with the standard 18-55 IS lens.

I also do not like the focus/sharpness of my photos. I notice some have f stops below F8 (like F 6.3).  I could swear I am always checking for F8 but notice some are below that.

The setting for this photo was F9, 1/400 AV -1/3 (I do not know what that is -- mistake setting), ISO 400, Center Weighed Metering, Image Quality L (1007)

Any guesses on what went wrong?

I had been told F8 was max for good depth of field.

For the majority of my photos I prefer depth of field and sharpness (over high quality images). Would a 3/4s or mirrorless work better for my needs?

Thank you so much!

[ScottyP]

You Should watch a few free video tutorials on the "exposure triangle". It helps with the big picture of taking pictures.

Your shutter speed is plenty fast to freeze the movement of a guy sitting on a parked 4 wheeler, so shutter speed is fine. Your aperture is plenty big enough too at f/9 or f/6.3 to get the fellow in focus with enough depth of field. Your image quality refers to the size of the image data file and L is Large so you have plenty of resolution in that size file as long as ISO isn't set too high.

ISO 400 is higher than needed and your resolution suffers and you may have some noise too. Try using ISO 100 or 200 on a sunny day with plenty of light to work with. Raising ISO to make the camera need less light causes loss of image quality and resolution, which can look like unsharp images.

You can increase aperture (lower the f/number) to make up light for the light you lose going lower in ISO. Google for a depth of field calculator. To get your friends face in focus you could certainly go as big as f/5.6 or f/4 and still be ok. Also your sharpest aperture on that camera is probably f/5.6 or f/6.3. At higher f/numbers you begin to get diffraction which will look like losing sharpness.f

Pick a single focus point (the center point). If you let the camera choose which focus points to use it may fail to understand you really want the face to be in focus and not a tree or something.

Changing to a camera with a smaller sensor like micro 4/3 or 4/3 etc will hurt, not help your image quality. Going mirror less will not help sharpness either.

Buying a better lens can help.

[amatula]

Thank you!

Yes; I was thinking a new lens, like the Canon F2 35 mm IS lens.or the Tamron 45mm f/1.8 lens, something with image stablilization that is light weight.

I like a zoom but want to keep weight down with the Rebel SL1.

I am open to recommendations!

Thank you, again,

Annie

PS: I have never seen a compact camera photo that is out of focus with people. So I am surprised you said those would not help...then again, I am probably misunderstanding!

[jrhoffman75]

A lens to look into for the small form factor SL1 is the Canon 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens.

Concerning the comment on quality and micro 4/3 cameras - quality means different things to different people.

For a given print/image size the larger the sensor the less enlargement is required and thus the images generally look better; that's why folks like full frame DSLRs.

You are correct about compact cameras and focus. Point & shoot cameras genrally have small sensors, so the lens focal length is short (wide angle) and they have a large depth of field.

As far as your metering mode selection, unless you have a particularly tough shooting condition, such as strong backlighting or large dynamic range, Canon's Evaluative Mode does a very good job. You don't want to be varying too many parameters when you are learning becasue it then becomes tough to tell which one worked (or didn't) when you review your images.

[kvbarkley]

We need to separate two issues here. There is exposure - which is affected by the metering mode - and focus. I suggest you set the focus to always focus at the center point, or at least watch when you push the shutter half-way to see which focus points are lighting up in red.

[amatula]

Thank you, John,

I will try Evaluative Mode!

Annie

[jrhoffman75]

the "-1/3" is most likely a negative exposure compenstaion that you inadvertently dialed in.

[Waddizzle]

"I also do not like the focus/sharpness of my photos. I notice some have f stops below F8 (like F 6.3).  I could swear I am always checking for F8 but notice some are below that." 

Your posted photo seems to be highly cropped, and processed just a tad.  You should expect the image to look somewhat "pixelated", should you zoom in on the image.  Overall, though, I'd say it is a decent shot.  The focus is fairly good, IMHO, about what can be expected for the 18-55mm kit lens. 

I see very little in the way of camera motion blur, which means you held the camera pretty steady when the shot was taken. The shot could probably use a WB, white balance, adjustment.  I'd recommend "Daylight" as a starting point.  I don't see anything in the photo that could serve as a good WB reference.

Finally, your shot is a challenging one for cameras and photographers alike.  It has a lot of contrast, beginning with the subject in the sun, to the shaded trees in the background, and with additional brightly lit trees behind that. 

It is difficult to capture all elements in the scene at optimum exposure because of the high dynamic range of the content.  The man's forehead seems to be overexposed, while some of the trees trunks seem underexposed.  Since the camera couldn't expose everything in the scene just right, it sought a happy medium.  I'd say it did well.

[amatula]

Thank you so much.

This is very helpful.

It's the original. I do have another where I did not zoom in. I haven't used WB at all so I will check into that.

Again, I appreciate your help!

Annie

[kvbarkley]

Remember, too, that if you are using all the focus points it will autofocus at the point that is closest to you, in this case, I bet it was foucusing on the knee and not the face. Make sure to pay attention when you push the shutter half-way to the focus points that light up. If it is not where you want it, you may need to adjust things.