Softness??

friesianfan69

friesianfan69

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Donna
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I keep getting a lot of pics coming out slightly out of focus ( soft ), what reasons could it be happening?
It's frustrating as ruining what would be nice shots : (
 
Camera shake? Shutter speed too low?

without specific examples and exif intact it would be hard to make real recommendation.
 
dejongj said:
Camera shake? Shutter speed too low?

without specific examples and exif intact it would be hard to make real recommendation.
Click to expand...

Possibly but out of the same batch i can get a nice clear shot.
Here is an example

IMG_2780.jpg
 
Shutter speed is too slow. Thats motion blur. You can see the body is sharper, as its still, and the backgorund is sharper as its still. The head must have been moving so its blurred. Its shot at 1/100, you'd want at least 1/250 I would think. Also the focal length was 119mm, so your shutter speed should be at least 1/125, but as I said 1/250 would be my minimum.
 
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TCR4x4 said:
Shutter speed is too slow. Thats motion blur. You can see the body is sharper, as its still, and the backgorund is sharper as its still. The head must have been moving so its blurred. Its shot at 1/100, you'd want at least 1/250 I would think. Also the focal length was 119mm, so your shutter speed should be at least 1/125, but as I said 1/250 would be my minimum.
Click to expand...

Ahhh thankyou, she was walking towards me.
I put it on f4 but it kept changing itself to f5 plus :shake: Is that what the problem is?
 
friesianfan69 said:
Ahhh thankyou, she was walking towards me.
I put it on f4 but it kept changing itself to f5 plus :shake: Is that what the problem is?
Click to expand...

No, the f number indicates the depth of field, or in other words simplistically said how much you see in the background'ish...

As TCR4X4 has said, I'd also be looking at 250 if not more for shutter speed. Or alternatively a focus mode that is continuos as you can't really predict what the horse will do next.

I'd use shutter priority for this and keep it up high and let the camera adjust the aperture and possibly even the ISO, if you aren't comfortable going fully manual.
 
The reason the f/stop would have changed I expect is because you were zooming the lens. Dont know what lens you have, but its almost certainly a varaible aperture lens that changes the aperture as you zoom.
According to the exif the max aperture is f/4.2, and this will rise to maybe f/5.6 as you zoom further out.
 
In addition to camera shake and motion blur, I would say the other factor is that the focus point has shifted between you focusing, and taking the picture. You fixed the focus, then the horse moved towards you.

Did you have on single or continuous servo? Does your camera have focus tracking? I'd look into the focus set up closely when shooting moving subjects.
 
when my shots come out like this it was because the horse was still but I was jumping up & down :)

Ditto to all the above answers but also think about how you are standing, moving etc. Just be aware of your own movement.
 
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