I don't get it...

Derrel · Mar 7, 2014

paigew said:
Why do my photos come out clear with flash one second, then blurrythe next? Am I not letting the flash charge enough between shots? (speedlight/bounced)
4th...clear again
View attachment 68182

If you look more closely, you can see this shot (shot #4) is not actually fully sharp. Look at the eye catchlight pattern, which shows a streak of light. And the hair on top of her head shows no real definition of individual hair. And her eyebrows have almost zero definition because they are being rendered by flash and also by ambient light. The FIRST shot is the sharpest, but #4 is not all that sharp.

paigew · Mar 7, 2014

your right, it's really not that sharp :/ cool well thanks for the info

OrionsByte · Mar 7, 2014

paigew said:
Okay am I not getting something here?...why are the first and fourth photos totally sharp. At the same settings, same subjects not even a second apart.

People tend to move around in fits and starts, even when (maybe especially when) they're trying to hold still. That's why firing in burst mode with a hand-held camera at a slow-ish shutter speed will result in a set of photos with varying motion blur - even within split seconds of each other, you would be more still in some than in others.

When you and your subject are both trying to hold still, the absolute sharpest frames are only going to happen when you both simultaneously hit one of those moments when you're both at your most still. A faster shutter speed would have dropped the ambient light down, reduced motion blur (from both you and your subject), and allowed the flash to take a more prominent role without any additional adjustments.