Sharp photos

ChrisB1966 · Feb 12, 2013

I have the Canon 7d, I did a shoot with a large group(5-15 at a time) and the photos were soft. What AF settings do i use to get a sharp photo. I was shooting in a fairly large room with adequate lighting.

ph0enix · Feb 12, 2013

Can you post some of the photos with EXIF data intact?

ChrisB1966 · Feb 12, 2013

ph0enix said:
Can you post some of the photos with EXIF data intact?

No the data was stripped in PP. Just trying to find out what AF settings other photogs are using to get those sharp photos. What settings do you use when shooting group shots?

bigal1000 · Feb 18, 2013

Your question is too generic for an answer?

SCraig · Feb 18, 2013

The autofocus SETTINGS won't have a great deal to do with whether you are getting sharp photographs under those conditions; some but not as much as other settings unless you allowed it to focus completely wrong.

Aperture (which control depth of field), shutter speed (which controls how camera and subject movement affect the image), and where you focus on the group (which positions them within the depth of field) have more affect than anything else. Personally I probably would have disabled autofocus and set the focus manually.

weepete · Feb 18, 2013

I use one shot and a manual AF point if I have the time. I'll also check my DOF to make sure eveyone in front or behind the focus point is in the acceptable focus range.

If I'm in a hurry I just whack it up to f16 and hope for the best.

ChrisB1966 · Feb 18, 2013

Thanks for you input. Yeah it was about two or three rows and the people in the front row were in focus but the people behind were soft. I will try the manual focus next time. Again thanks for you input.

studiobetties · Feb 18, 2013

As a general rule, most lenses have a "Sweet Spot", an aperture where they are the sharpest. A good "rule" for group photography, if you have more than one row, is to use an aperture no lower than 5.6 and focus on the middle row. A focus plane isn't from a starting point and then only things behind it. It's more of a point in space and then ahead and in back of that point will be in focus, more or less, depending on how low your aperture is. The best test is to take a row of bottles, set them up like you would your people in a photograph and then do some tests using different apertures. Make sense? And manual focus has nothing to do with why there not in focus. AF should work just fine as long as you set your focus and then recompose.

cgipson1 · Feb 18, 2013

Any suggestion about aperture, or DOF is useless with out knowing several other factors!

How far away were you from the subjects? What lens / body (yea.. 7D) were you using? How many rows of people? Where did you focus, and what focus settings are you using? How were you lighting it? All of this (and Exif) should have been included in the original post. If you actually deleted your EXIF from the originals and saved them... you no longer have the originals, not a good idea! It also really helps to post an image also....

Try using a DOF calculator to figure out WHAT aperture you need, at the distance you are shooting.. with the lens / body you are using. Online Depth of Field Calculator

for instance... if you were 12 feet away with a 50mm... at F5.6, you would have less then 4 feet of DOF. At 25 feet... you would have 18 feet of DOF!

with a 50mm, at F16... 12 feet would give you 13 feet of DOF.... but unless you are using flash, or high ISO, it is unlikely you could get a fast enough shutter speed at F16... so even lighting figures into this.

You did not give us enough information to answer your question properly!

dmunsie · Feb 18, 2013

If you have the time, take 3 pics, focus on each row and then "focus stack" them for ultimate sharpness. Kind of joking... but I wonder if this would work?

Josh66 · Feb 18, 2013

ChrisB1966 said:
ph0enix said:

Can you post some of the photos with EXIF data intact?

Click to expand...

No the data was stripped in PP. Just trying to find out what AF settings other photogs are using to get those sharp photos. What settings do you use when shooting group shots?

Do you still have the originals? So you can check the shutter speed, aperture, that stuff?

I use AI Servo most of the time, not that it really has an effect on sharpness though. What you are focusing on, and which focus point you are using probably matter more than which mode you're using.

manaheim · Feb 18, 2013

The following smart-ass, non-constructive remark is posted ENTIRELY for the humoristic benefit of those who are more experienced with this stuff and is in NO WAY attempted as a slight (sleight?) against the original poster:

"You have to set the camera to 'sharp'. You may have accidentally left it set to 'soft'."

That is all.

In all seriousness, EXIF data or no we would have a much better chance of helping if we could see the pictures.

"Sharpness" is relative. We may see them and go "oh those are plenty sharp". It may be that you actually missed the focus. Who knows? Lots of different stuff is possible but it's hard to tell without seeing the images.

Josh66 · Feb 18, 2013

manaheim said:
In all seriousness, EXIF data or no we would have a much better chance of helping if we could see the pictures.

"Sharpness" is relative. We may see them and go "oh those are plenty sharp". It may be that you actually missed the focus. Who knows? Lots of different stuff is possible but it's hard to tell without seeing the images.

Yeah - it could be any one of a number of things, things that we are unlikely to just 'guess'.

It could be insufficient DOF, camera shake, subject movement, front/back focusing, etc...

Ideally, you'd want to post a 'bad' photo with the settings used. Or at least tell us the settings. Or show us a picture without the settings. Either of those will give us clues as to where it went wrong.

(Focal length, shutter speed, and aperture will be the main settings we'd like to know - but more detail can't hurt.)

ChrisB1966 · Feb 19, 2013

Ok I went back and found the EXIF data on one of the photos and I think I know were I went wrong. I shot the group shot with my 24-70, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 800, 24mm. It was shot in a large hotel ball room. I am not sure how far away I was from the group but if I had to guess i'd say about 8-10 feet.