Canon 7D shots out of Focus

captainjack

captainjack

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Name
Tim
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I have been using my Canon 7D it has the battery holder and the lenses I mostly use are the Canon 70-200 F4 L (no is ) Canon 24 - 105 F4 L
What I seem to be getting, is a lot of out of focus shots when I bring them up on the MAC, I don't a have drink problem so its not the shakes
Sometimes I am going down to 100sec and this is with a high iso
or with Tungsten Video Lights. 60sec, ISO800, F4

What I was thinking could this also be causing me problems

I look at the model or sitter through the viewfinder focus on the eyes, press halfway down on the shutter, then I go and move the zoom in and out and camera to get what I feel is the correct composition.

Should I be moving the zoom in or out to what I think is correct for the shot before pressing the shutter, then focus on the eyes hold the shutter down and move the camera down to get the correct composition

what I am wondering is the zooming in and out after pressing the shutter causing the blurring

Thankyou for any help and advice
 
captainjack said:
I look at the model or sitter through the viewfinder focus on the eyes, press halfway down on the shutter, then I go and move the zoom in and out and camera to get what I feel is the correct composition.

what I am wondering is the zooming in and out after pressing the shutter causing the blurring

Thankyou for any help and advice
Click to expand...

You cant zoom after you focused you would need to refocus thats your problem :thumbs:

Best way would be to get your composition right, then choose a single focus point on her eyes and focus take your shot
 
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Surely focusing and recomposing is another bad habit to lose as you could alter the camera to subject distance and shift the focus point. I'd only recompose at smaller apertures when the DoF is great and I wasn't too bothered about absolute focus or sharpness and when doing so, like when using hyperfocal technique, I wouldn't even be tempted to blame the equipment for any shift in focus away from what I'd initially planned to be the focus point.
 
Hi Alan

I would have to recompose after locking the focus on the models eyes then moving the camera down so that I do not have a lot of head room or anything else that I don't want in the photograph
 
Can you not use another focus point or use manual focus? Otherwise I think you'll be lucky to get the sharpest result that the camera can achieve.

Also, what aperture are you using? At f4, even f8, your DoF could be a matter of inches and you stand more chance of focus issues if you recompose.
 
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Forgot to say I only usually use recompose in some landscape photography as do lots of other photographers,but would mostly choose my focus point in camera, also for portraits as I said before change the focus point in camera
 
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it could be anything from F2.8 to F8 depending on whats the available light
I will give selecting the focus point a try, but it I am working with photographers who work so fast they, lock the middle focus point, focus on the eyes and move down to suite and take the image. Their images seem bang on, so I was wondering what I could have been doing wrong and I just noticed myself zoom in and out after locking the focus and thought this has got to have something to do with it
 
1. Aim camera in subject's general direction
2. Focus once to check composure (i.e., are there any small details out of shot that a lens out of focus won't pick up on?)
3. Zoom and re-compose if necessary
4. Focus shot again
5. Take photo!

(6. Review photo on screen, decide it's crap, repeat steps 1-5!)


Part 6 is optional :thumbs:
 
woof woof said:
Surely focusing and recomposing is another bad habit to lose as you could alter the camera to subject distance and shift the focus point. I'd only recompose at smaller apertures when the DoF is great and I wasn't too bothered about absolute focus or sharpness and when doing so, like when using hyperfocal technique, I wouldn't even be tempted to blame the equipment for any shift in focus away from what I'd initially planned to be the focus point.
Click to expand...

That one is nowhere near as bad. One needs to be very close to a subject and shoot very wide apertures to induce focus errors.

Focusing and zooming in is a rather good way to get OOF shots. Zooming out shouldn't be so bad, bad sadly not all lenses are parfocal.
 
daugirdas said:
That one is nowhere near as bad. One needs to be very close to a subject and shoot very wide apertures to induce focus errors.
Click to expand...

I suppose it all depends upon how good you are or are not at maintaining the camera to subject distance as you move the camera.

A look at some DoF tables will tell you that you don't have to be either "close to a subject" or at "very wide apertures" to "induce focus error." Even at f8 the DoF could still be just a matter of inches... look it up.

Let alone the shift in distance that recomposing after focusing introduces, sway back or forward a bit as you shift position and you're potentially making yet more shot changing movements - for good or bad, who knows.

Obviously something is going wrong as the op has problems... so both the valididy of the technique and how it's carried out are worth looking at.
 
The thread title is a tad confusing.
 
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