Shooting in MANUAL mode and still blurry pics! HELP!

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

Help, I'm new to this forum, I decided to join to get some help. I'm really frustrated and I know that I am doing something wrong...I recently purchased a Vivitar 85mm lens- 1.4, its a beautiful bright lens for portraits for the price and would be even more phenomenal if I can learn to control using it! Here's what I'm doing... my camera is set to "manual" mode, I'm anywhere from 1.4-3.5 F stop because I want great DOF. I'm shooting outdoors at 4-5pm (Summer) in a wide open field, lots of nice diffused light, no camera flash, no reflectors just me, the model and the camera....I'm also 5-6 feet away from her at times, I change my position a lot when shooting to get different angles. While focusing however, I'm not moving a bit, I focus on her face, compose the shot, look through my viewfinder and it looks amazing so I continue, when I get home and load the pics up on the computer they are all out of focus and I'm being disappointed! What went wrong? I'm in manual mode and the image looked clear as crystal through the viewfinder but obviously they are not. Please help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks so much!

nazster14 · Aug 7, 2011

I was having the same problem but recently i just use autofocus and after focusing turn it into manual focus. i am not sure what camera you have but try doing what i said or you can bump up the shutter speed to 9-11 and after taking the picture zoom and see if the pic is blurry will save you a trip.

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

The Vivitar lens is ONLY manual unfortunately...I'm shooting with a Canon 1D Mark II...I added it to my profile but for some reason its not showing..anyways my shutter speed may have been an issue I believe I was at 30 or 40...

480sparky · Aug 7, 2011

Post some sample photos.

KmH · Aug 7, 2011

At the aperture range you are using it's likely the DOF (depth-of-field) is so shallow there is no way to get everything in focus you want to be in focus.

e.rose · Aug 7, 2011

480sparky said:
Post some sample photos.

KmH said:
At the aperture range you are using it's likely the DOF (depth-of-field) is so shallow there is no way to get everything in focus you want to be in focus.

Both of these^^^

If you show us sample shots we can better determine what it is.

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

Ahh good point KmH! Thanks! Here is a sample photo of yesterday...there are many others like this ... I did get some good ones luckily, not sure how that happened but I'm thankful for those ones. Is that the norm when in manual mode? Is it normal to get some bad out of focus shots?? Maybe I'm beating myself up too much? Clearly, I'm not a technical photographer, I'm self taught and learning a lot along the way but I"ve been stumped with this new lens..its really challenging me to learn some techniques which is good!

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

Ahh good point KmH! Thanks! Here is a sample photo of yesterday...there are many others like this ... I did get some good ones luckily, not sure how that happened but I'm thankful for those ones. Is that the norm when in manual mode? Is it normal to get some bad out of focus shots?? Maybe I'm beating myself up too much? Clearly, I'm not a technical photographer, I'm self taught and learning a lot along the way but I"ve been stumped with this new lens..its really challenging me to learn some techniques which is good! <br><br>

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

I can't seem to upload the pic? I hit the pic icon, select the image, it uploaded fine and not showing? errrr hold on, let me keep trying this...

e.rose · Aug 7, 2011

lizg said:
Ahh good point KmH! Thanks! Here is a sample photo of yesterday...there are many others like this ... I did get some good ones luckily, not sure how that happened but I'm thankful for those ones. Is that the norm when in manual mode? Is it normal to get some bad out of focus shots?? Maybe I'm beating myself up too much? Clearly, I'm not a technical photographer, I'm self taught and learning a lot along the way but I"ve been stumped with this new lens..its really challenging me to learn some techniques which is good!

First of all... there's no image.

Second of all... only if you, as a photographer, take bad, out of focus shots.

The mode you're shooting in has nothing to do with it. It's just your inexperience as a photographer. Again, once we see images we can probably help you better with what you should do differently. :sillysmi:

And also... it helps to post your settings for each image (shutter speed, aperture, ISO).

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

I've uploaded the pic 6 times, I made it small 600 x 400 pixels and its a jpg...clearly this is simple and I upload images all the time, not sure why its not working on my end...something special I'm missing here? This seems so bizarre....

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

Since I only register an hour ago, I guess I"m still awaiting approval to submit images? Not sure but I honestly cannot post any images? Is there a setting I need ot turn on/turn off?

Railphotog · Aug 7, 2011

You'll need to host you photos on an external site such as Photobucket, then post the links with on them so they'll show up in your post.

And if you're using 1/40 and 1/50 as shutter speeds then you're probably too slow and getting motion blur as you move the camera around.

Sonoma · Aug 7, 2011

Try reading thru this information. It should help for posting pictures.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...forum-functions-pictoral-guide-using-tpf.html

Good luck
Gary

lizg · Aug 7, 2011

lol! right! I was under the impression the little image icon here would just insert my pic...clearly not, well here it is through tinypic and Railphotog, I can see how the shutter speed was a problem...that helps!