Lack of focus-very frustrated...help?

[TenaciousTins]

Hi y'all,

Lack of focus is not something that I am used to at all. Normally I can nail the focus almost every time. Today, I went out to a gorgeous location to photograph someone and when I went back to look at how the pictures were coming out, they all had missed focus. I was using a Canon T1i with the 55-250mm lens. I am new to this lens, but I used it at a birthday party last weekend and it was gorgeous. Today, I used it with a good tripod, spot metering, and perfect light conditions. And the focus ended up not on her face but elsewhere. Unfortunately, there was only about a 5 minute window where she let me take pictures and then she called it quits. I was a bit unsettled about it because I wanted to try to get focus and the light was so perfect but she is still overcoming her self-consciousness because she is a heavier chick so she'd had it for the day. Unfortunately, I won't get to reshoot because I am leaving to go back to the states on Wednesday and we are booked solid all the way through. So now I am stuck with very disappointing shots. I tried different shutter speeds and apertures but again I had literally 5 minutes. Here are a couple of examples:

Can you help me figure out what is wrong? We were going to go to a wild life park on Tuesday but now she is not sure she wants to take me because she thinks I'm going to get disappointing results since the camera doesn't seem to be focusing properly. I did try manual focus, but I am so bad at doing that, especially from a distance and when my subject is not standing still. I am just really sad...I wanted to cry because it was a "once a year" shoot and I screwed it up.

 

[Forkie]

Have you knocked your diopter out of focus? That could be why you thought it was in focus at the time when it actually wasn't. Then again, if you were using auto focus, as long as you used the correct focus point it shouldn't have affected the final shot.

Looking at the shots it looks like the focus is on her bosom, so I suspect you may have altered the focus point by mistake and not realised it. Could that be a possibility, thinking back?

I also looked at the EXIF data and you shot at 1/125 which, if it was a windy or cold day, could have cause motion blur with movment of the camera from the wind or shivering.

These are just guesses of course, but little things like this can cause a loss of focus, especially if you were in a rush.

EDIT: Re-reading your post I see you used a tripod, so that rules out shivering but if it was unstable ground (like soft grass), taking a step could have caused slight movement under the feet of the tripod.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Oh that is completely possible...I don't know anything about that, but I will research it and look into it. I've never had an issue with this. Towards the end of the shoot, I upped the ISO and the shutter speed as well as bumped the f stop up to 7.1, and got lovely light doing that, but the same missed focus. So I hand held it...and got better focus somewhat, but still not good. It did seem to focus on her bosom (we joked that my camera is a male camera ) and yeah...I will look into that. I did use a tripod, and there was a slight breeze, but not enough to shake the tripod as it was a good one and the breeze was faint.

this is the last picture I took, at 1/250, ISO800 and fstop at 7.1...slightly better focus but not as nailed as I am used to.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Also, what do you mean by altering the focus point? I am quite new, very new to working with metering, etc and don't understand it all but I have gotten the general idea that the spot metering mode is the best. I did try with evaluative metering as well which I believe picks up several focus points, but these all were in spot metering. I made sure the center dot was on her eyes, so that is why I was so confused as to why the pictures were missed focus since I carefully made sure the autofocus did its thing.

I have readjusted the diopter now but am finding it hard because I need reading glasses so in one eye, it looks good and in the other, it doesn't lol. I do have glasses for near sightedness and I tried using those while adjusting the dipoter but got the same result lol

 

[SCraig]

If you were using a tripod did you turn vibration reduction / image stabilization off? Leaving it on while using a tripod will cause a loss of sharpness.

 

[Railphotog]

You seem to be confusing spot metering with picking the spot where the camera focuses. Two different things. Was your camera set with all focusing points active, it picked what was in focus, what was closest to the camera? Always seems to be best to set only the center focusing point to be sure you're getting what you want.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Yep, you're right, I am confusing it. I have started to read up about metering.

I don't know what points were active or not...I guess I need to look into and learn about that.

I have felt that there is so much stuff to learn that it is so overwhelming and up till now, I've gotten decent pictures without an issue and have kept learning little bits here and there...perfect for family functions and the hobby that it is for me. But with this frustration comes a desire to learn a little bit and now I have a little something to focus on. Um...no pun intended.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Ok...after doing some quick research, I have gone oooo and aaaa many times and many more times than that gone "DOH". I didn't know what AI Servo or One-shot was. But now I do...and I also have manually selected the single center focus point and next time I "shoot" a person, I think this, along with adjusting the diopter, will help me a lot. Wow...I feel strangely enlightened, and yet, feel like I *probably* should have, kind of learned about all this before now

 

[Derrel]

Our "mistake" photos and photo sessions tend to be the ones where the critical lessons are learned. Don't be too hard on yourself. You have now learned a very,very valuable lesson, and chances are you will not make the same mistake again. So hey, lesson learned! Again,like I stated earlier, don't be too hard on yourself. It's over and done with. No sense crying over spilled focus.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Haha thanks for that. I'm not upset at all but actually excited to think that maybe my pictures can get *that* much better. I've never had a real issue with soft photos, but using a longer lens and being farther away from the subject has obviously changed things up for me and walla, I get to learn something new. I am a *very* hands on, visual type person so I have read and read and read about all this stuff, but having no hands-on experience with it, I've forgotten most of it...so yes, the lessons are most definitely learned the best by trial and error. I love learning that way. I'm not one to go "oh well the pictures are usually good, must be it was the camera or the lens". I see something wrong with it, and I want to fix it.

The real reason I wanted to cry (not REALLY cry) is because I see my best friend once a year, and she is hard to take pictures of, and I've never had the opportunity to "shoot" her away from her home, in such a nice environment with such lovely lighting on such a perfect day and I won't get that opportunity again at least until next March and that's a big pill to swallow

 

[KmH]

The EXIF data in all 3 of the photos you posted say: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Your camera was set to ISO 800 for 2 of the shots and ISO 400 for one of them. You may have needed to activate your camera's Auto Focus Assist feature for your AF to function properly because there may not have been enough light for AF to work properly.

When using your T1i in spot metering mode, the spot it is metering is concurrent with the center focus point location. Unfortunately, the spot metered is always in that spot. With most other camera brands
the spot metered moves so it stays concurrent with the selected auto focus point.

I also noted your T1i was set to Auto White Balance, a task it doesn't handle very well. I recommend you set the white balance manually.

 

[TenaciousTins]

Yes...white balance is something I am starting to study up as I know little about it but want to set it manually. I want to get a gray (grey?) card so I can set it appropriately. I have always been afraid of the outcome of setting it manually but it is something I need to learn how to do. As I do not do this for a living and just don't have the means to go full fledged into it, I am picking up bits and pieces here and there through this site, trial and error, books, and other stuff on the net. But mostly trial and error.

The day was quite bright, although I did have her standing in the shade. I think the diopter was most likely off as I switched it to manual focus but still didn't get a clean shot. I used ISO400 until I figured out that the shots were blurry, and then I used 800 towards the end of the shoot so that I could feel free to play around with the shutter speed and aperture to try to pinpoint the problem. I didn't really NEED 800 but it allowed me to mess around a bit. Unfortunately, my friend was short lived in focus so I had to pack it in.

 

[Dao]

Here is something you can check. (if you are using one shot AF mode)

- Use the software Digital Photo Professional (DPP) that shipped with your Canon camera.
- Within the DPP software and in the folder browsing mode, choose the folder where your photos were located.
- Locate the photo you like to check. Single click on the photo and press "CTRL-O" (Windows environment) or double click to open the photo in edit mode. If you are using Mac, try double click and see if it work.
- Once you are in the edit mode of the photo you like to check, press (again in Windows environment) "ALT-L". This will show you all the focus points available with your camera (black rectangles) and if you are using AF, it will show you which focus point, the RED rectangle(s), did the camera use for that particular photo. From that point, you will sure if miss the focus due to choosing the wrong focus point or not.
- It works in RAW or JPEG photos and both of my 40D and 7D cameras.

 

[zcar21]

Her clothe and hair are very dark, and I think that's why the camera had trouble focusing. All the canon lenses I have tried tend to front focus when correct focus is not achieved.
In that situation I would had reviewed the picture, and if the autofocus can't get it i'd do it manual.

 

[Jeff92]

When you guys talk about spot metering and selecting one focus point, do you just point the camera so the spot you want to meter is on the center point, then hold down the exposure lock button and then move the camera to frame it? I am still learning. Also about the focus points, I know you can choose which point you want to focus on in the menu, but how do you focus on say a face, then move the camera to the right or left and not change the focus