I completly messed this up....What am I doing wrong ?

[ashleighmcf]

I was at my Dad's visiting and his house is just an amazing place to take pictures and I thought I got a really good pic of these old kids shoes. It looked great on the camera and then when I looked at it in my laptop it like I cut off part of it and it seems out of focus. Why do I seem to have such a hard time getting things in focus. That is one part of c&c I am always pointed out on is my pics are out of focus.

 

[Robin Usagani]

probably soft due to camera shake. 1/5 sec shutter.

 

[sparks017]

Not necessarily your picture is out of focus of the DOF is shallow. What is your apeture set at? Also don't always rely on the LCD screen from your camera, there is always a huge difference from the LCD to the computer. Take multiple photos of the same subject (not a lot snapping away) but take time and make sure that each shot is a keeper. That way you will have some photos to look at when it comes down picking out the best one.

 

[sm4him]

Are you shooting with the kit lens, or something else?
Like schwetty said, your shutter speed was way too slow, assuming it was handheld.
But it also looks like your aperture setting was f/4.

Your focus looks like it's on the front shoe, somewhere between that little "flower" embellishment on the top and the leather strap. But at f/4, you're just not getting enough depth of field. Try opening your f-stop to 9, or 11, bump your shutter speed up to at least 1/50 (or use a tripod), and either increase your light source OR bump up your ISO to compensate.

As far as cutting off the bottom of the shoe: If you find yourself constantly doing this, even after "thinking" you got it right, from the LCD...there's a simple fix. Shoot wider than what you think you need, and crop if necessary. Yes, it's better to get it right in camera--but it's also way easier to crop out extra space than to add in something you didn't get in the photo.

 

[ashleighmcf]

I thank you for the great C&C....

 

[Jeremy Z]

Try again, but with:

a) the camera on a tripod, even a cheap tabletop one
b) the lens set to f/8 or so
c) the shutter actuated with a self-timer, so there's no camera shake
d) focus set to 1/3 to 1/2 of the way into the shoe.

Also, I think this might be a good candidate for B&W or sepia tone, instead of full color. If you stick with full color, try to reduce the color saturation; it looks like a bit much.

 

[MLeeK]

Your shutter is dropping way too slow to be hand held and your aperture is way to wide to have a very large depth of field. You also need to remember to back up and leave extra room for crop factors. Your camera's sensor is only one size or ratio. Prints are many sizes and many ratio's. When you print to certain sizes you have to crop parts of the image. You should get into the habit now of leaving extra room in your images for that.
You need some basic guidelines to follow for your shutter speed and aperture:
If you are hand holding the camera (and you're a fairly steady hand) your shutter should be no slower than 1/80
If you are photographing a live subject that sits still your shutter should be no slower than 1/125
If you are shooting a live subject in motion your shutter should be no slower than 1/250-active toddlers qualify here.
If you are shooting a live subject that RUNS no slower than 1/500 (sports like football...)

For aperture: your aperture should be equal to or greater than the number of people or objects in your image. If you are zooming in or you are very close to the subjects add another stop to aperture. If you are getting towards macro add 5 stops or more. There is no real scientific logic to that, it just happens to work fairly well until you get a good feel for how it works.

 

[SCraig]

In a word: F-L-A-S-H (and not the built-in flash)

 

[KmH]

What is your apeture set at? .

Look at the image EXIF data. Go to www.opanda.com and download their free EXIF viewer, or one of the many others that are available at no charge.

For the OP:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...o-gallery/270090-most-common-problem-dof.html

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...allery/267492-info-those-new-photography.html

Be sure and check out the tutorial on White Balance, so you can learn how to avoid the strong yellowish-orange color cast.

 

[Bossy]

You could've taken the shoes outside, that probably would've helped a lot with your settings. ISO 800, 1/5 sec shutter speed is too slow for hand held. Are you shooting in Auto?

 

[ashleighmcf]

No not shooting in auto

 

[ashleighmcf]

Not necessarily your picture is out of focus of the DOF is shallow. What is your apeture set at? Also don't always rely on the LCD screen from your camera, there is always a huge difference from the LCD to the computer. Take multiple photos of the same subject (not a lot snapping away) but take time and make sure that each shot is a keeper. That way you will have some photos to look at when it comes down picking out the best one.

apeature was at 3.63 AV

 

[Tony S]

No not shooting in auto .... apeature was at 3.63 AV​

You better check again how you set your camera so you can learn how to make appropriate changes. Your exif info on the image says you were in auto mode shooting at f4 @ 1/5" with a manual white balance (want your camera's serial number too? lol) . Get the opanda exif reader, it's much faster than pulling up the info in Photoshop or Lightroom.


Ohhh, it also says you took this photo way back in February of 2008.

 

[ashleighmcf]

Lol......I just got the camera brand new in December and I did download that program. And as far as I know I am shooting when my dial is set on P

 

[MLeeK]

P is pretty much auto. You aren't choosing your exposure, the camera is. Your images will have errors like this until you learn how to fully control your own exposure. That means knowing how to use your aperture and shutter speed to control the way the images looks.
Here are some great tutorials to start you out. Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials