Cant stay focused!

[asheeants]

Ok guys.. I'm quite frustrated. This weekend I'm doing a 4th of July shoot of my children. I'm going to try and get some nice out door shots. As some of you know from a previous post; one of my firsts concerns was lighting. I made me a reflector from a white foam board and aluminum foil. It works great! I went out this morning to take a couple practice shots. With my camera on a tripod and an assistant holding my reflector, I took a few of my 11 month old. I couldn't for the life of me get her eyes in focus! I took some appealing shots but her eyes are so out of focus! Should I continue to use the tripod to keep from camera shake or take if off the tripod to try and get their eyes in focus? What is the best way to photograph children? I've taken plenty of nice shots of my children, but I'm taking this shoot much more seriously and want them to come out the best they can. If you guys have any advice I'd love to hear it or some examples you can show me? Thanks!

 

[flyingember]

what was your f-stop and where were you focusing? it also wouldn't hurt to know what lens you were using

 

[Overread]

My first advice is to post some example shots here along with the details of the settings you used for them. That gives us a solid idea of what you are producing and what the problem is in your shots - descriptions are good certainly, but without a photo a well it leaves far to many variables for us to be able to give you a more focused answer.

 

[asheeants]

Sorry guys still getting used to posting. I was at f10 using my 70-300 lens. I was focused in before taking the shot.

 

[flyingember]

Sorry guys still getting used to posting. I was at f10 using my 70-300 lens. I was focused in before taking the shot.

f10 should be fine for DOF. what was your shutter speed?

 

[SrBiscuit]

what was your focal length?
some of those entry level super zooms have mediocre IQ...especially at the long end.

 

[edouble]

I would try two things :

1. Focus on the eyes using the AF-L to hold focus then recompose the shot

2. Use manual focus

 

[gsgary]

Sorry guys still getting used to posting. I was at f10 using my 70-300 lens. I was focused in before taking the shot.

F10 does not matter what was your focal length and shutter speed ?

 

[AgentDrex]

some of those entry level super zooms have mediocre IQ...especially at the long end.

Hi I'm AgentDrex and I'm an idiot, what does IQ stand for?

Yeah, I know...I could go research it...have I mentioned I'm lazy?...you mean I spent more time and characters asking the question than would have been necessary had I just looked it up? did I mention I'm an idiot? and a comedian minus the funny stuff???

 

[Petraio Prime]

1) Auto-focus is useless

2) Auto-focus is useless

3) Auto-focus is useless

Look at this one:

I focussed on her left-eye eyelashes. No auto-focus system could do that. 350mm lens, very shallow DOF.

 

[asheeants]

Sorry guys still getting used to posting. I was at f10 using my 70-300 lens. I was focused in before taking the shot.

f10 should be fine for DOF. what was your shutter speed?

My settings were..
1/13, f10, iso lo. 0.3, 185mm

 

[LCARSx32]

1) Auto-focus is useless

2) Auto-focus is useless

3) Auto-focus is useless

1.) Wrong

2.) Wrong

3.) Depends

Most DSLRs don't have a good way to manual focus. There's nothing in the viewfinder to show the focus (other than a tiny image...).

 

[asheeants]

Oh, also I'm in aperture priority. I take much better photos in this mode since I'm not very experienced. Manual I'm terrible.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Sorry guys still getting used to posting. I was at f10 using my 70-300 lens. I was focused in before taking the shot.

f10 should be fine for DOF. what was your shutter speed?

My settings were..
1/13, f10, iso lo. 0.3, 185mm

You're probably getting motion blur, try shooting around f/4 or 5.6, ISO 400ish, set the lens closer to 70mm, and set the active focus point on the eye and you should be getting much better results.

 

[Petraio Prime]

1) Auto-focus is useless

2) Auto-focus is useless

3) Auto-focus is useless

1.) Wrong

2.) Wrong

3.) Depends

Most DSLRs don't have a good way to manual focus. There's nothing in the viewfinder to show the focus (other than a tiny image...).

No, it is useless!