A step back. How did I do this?

[AMOMENT]

When I first purchased my 50mm f/1.8 lens, I took these photos of my daughter. I shot wide open at 1.8 and at a shutter of about 1/200, 1/160, auto iso. I'm not sure about the other settings and my camera photo program will only show that info so I do not know my metering and or focus modes. Anyway, I shot wide open in these but my daughter, to me, is in better focus with enough DOF to cover her, and the background looks nice and soft. I'm not saying these are necessarily good but they actually seem better than my recent photos. Anyone have any idea why?

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[MTVision]

I've never thought that you had any focusing issues but these ones don't even compare to your newer photos. Your recent photos are definitely an improvement in composition, exposure and focus. In the first one she looks soft all over....Did you do any masking in elements on these?? There is a halo effect on a few of them which is usually caused by masking. But anyways,
How you did this? By having your camera on AF-A and auto area AF. The camera was probably choosing your focus points for you. It will choose the best focus point and the use surrounding focus points as well. You can get in focus shots like this but....you can't selectively focus on what you want. Honestly, it was probably just luck that you got the shots with the eyes in focus. I've been going through my photos and getting rid of a bunch and I found that I had a lot of perfectly focused ones but I had more OOF ones. On portraits I was zooming in 100% to see if they were sharp and in focus. Sometimes, on smaller images, it make look like its in sharp focus but when you zoom in - its not. The thing is - its a lot harder to work in any modes except the automatic one. You may feel like your having issues, when previously you didn't, and its because its a skill that needs to be honed. But....I've never noticed that your pictures were out of focus. Yes, some of your photos will be OOF and some won't. Toss the OOF ones and be happy for the keepers. Eventually you will have more keepers than ones in the trash. You will definitely have a lot of pictures deserving of the delete button while shooting wide open. Remember, I told you that if you want to shoot wide open -go for it because its great practice - but beware that most of them will probably end up in the trash.

Can I see one of the out of focus pictures? You can send it to me on FB if you don't want to post it here.

 

[vtf]

At 5 feet from a subject with 50mm and f1.8 your dof is .21 inches, that is you have .105 of an inch before focus and same after. Your discards will be great. My issue with shooting this wide open is that you with alot of others will eventually give the lens away out of disappointment. This lens has a learning curve and starting at 1.8 is probably starting at the hardest end. My suggestion is to find better backgrounds, place subject 10' from backgrounds and use angles so when you shoot at f4 you get the blur you want. These all seem soft for that lens, since you shutter speed was high enough for children it tells me you dof is too shallow for a moving child, one who is rocking in and out of focus. Try a still object at 1.8 and children at least at f4 if not smaller, you'll feel better. As far as better, I believe your lighting is better, alittle added dialed down flash and she would've popped.
PS: did you do some blurring to the background? Theres halos on most of them.

 

[zcar21]

I don't think the background is nice and soft. I agree with vtf, just shoot at f4 or even f5.6 and find a different background.

 

[KmH]

It's a well known, and uncontrolable, phenomena called 'beginners luck'.

 

[Ryan L]

why dont you post a few recent ones. Maybe your just being more critical now.

 

[MLeeK]

There are a lot of reasons these are better, but two major ones stick out. First it's a better lens it's sharper and cleaner than your kit lenses. Second you aren't throwing in flash like you were before. Your composition is improving-there are some real issues here, but they are getting better and better every time you work at it.

 

[ababysean]

These are all out of focus.

 

[MTVision]

There are a lot of reasons these are better, but two major ones stick out. First it's a better lens it's sharper and cleaner than your kit lenses. Second you aren't throwing in flash like you were before. Your composition is improving-there are some real issues here, but they are getting better and better every time you work at it.

These are her old pictures from when she first got the 50mm. I agree that the photos look better then her new ones in regards to the not using flash. These are from a couple months ago (if I remember correctly) so it was probably nicer out and there was no need for flash.