Beginner Camera shake or missed focus?

Major

Major

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Name
Tom
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Hello everyone.

I took my daughter today for a walk again. Wind was quite noticeable, time of the day wasn't perfect as well, but she said she wants to go anyway. I took one shot that I like


DSC_0346
by Tom Major, on Flickr

.. but am not happy with sharpness of the eye I was focusing on. The main intention was to add some movement to the photo and to give it slightly windy feel, but it looks to me like I managed to mess it up properly.

Of course it could be much sharper, sadly is it not due to camera shake or missed focus - can anyone tell me what is the cause?. Her hair was blown all over her face and left eye and focus struggled for a bit, but finally settled down so I could press the shutter button and till I saw this photo on laptop, I thought I have a keeper.

If it's camera shake, I guess I'll have to drink less coffee or get lens with VR (tripod would be useless in that spot, I was standing on the edge), but is there anything I could do to prevent problems with focus in such conditions? Is manual focusing the only option?

As always, I will be grateful for any tips/hints/pointers.

Regards
Tom
 
Looks to me to be a bit of camera shake or motion blur, 1/60 is marginal at 75mm (FFE) and for moving subjects so will likely result in a bit of blur.

That said, I really like the image, the slight softness adds to it I reckon, gives it a sense of motion.
 
I wouldn't worry about the sharpness at all. It is not a formal portrait and is in focus. If you concentrate on unnecessary sharpness you are likely to remove all life from the picture.
 
Really like the sensibility to this image, the hair flowing and her wistful expression. Nice shot! It's sharp enough, don't worry about it.
 
holty said:
the nearest eye is in focus .
maybe you need a greater dof
Click to expand...


Looking at the details on Flickr its a 50mm lens at F2.2 so I would agree with Holty that the depth of field is not enough to cover the distance to keep both the eyes in focus. However the picture is a good one. (y)
 
Once again thank you for all you kind comments gents.

I didn't really need both eyes in focus, for some reason I like shallow DoF, was just on about the nearer one.

I went out later with my second half, my bad luck sent us sun and almost no wind at all - just enough to mess hair a little, so couldn't recreate the shot, but I think I know how to improve :). Will give it a go next time I have a chance (strong winds outside that is) and see what will be the result.
 
In this case I will put it on equipment - I chose focus point specifically to cover her left eye. Normally camera doesn't struggle that much, but like I said before hair flying in the frame posed slight problem for the focus.
 
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