Sharpness at 1/60?

[JClishe]

I did a set in a studio today under continuous lighting, was shooting at f/5.6 1/60. After reviewing the photos I'm noticing that I'm getting a lot of softness. I'm not used to shooting people under CL, should I expect them to be softer when compared to strobes at faster shutter speeds?

 

[cgipson1]

If there is any subject movement at all.... or any camera movement, at 1/60, it will be noticeable....

 

[Dominantly]

Were you on a tripod? What focal length?

I mean if you were handheld at 1/60 with any real focal length, with a subject that prones to move as well, and an aperture that in itself is inherently softer..... you've mixed yourself up a soft cookie.

I would just be guessing, but I would imagine you were at 1/60 because of the lack of general power of most CL that folks get there hands on, and were less than inclined to bump your ISO up too high to compensate.

 

[JClishe]

Handheld, 50mm prime, ISO 640, roughly 8 feet from the subject. I was standing at the foot of a bed and she was sitting upright against the headboard.

 

[gsgary]

You will only get sharp photos at 1/60 with studio flash, using 1/60 with CL lights is the same as shooting outside at 1/60

 

[Village Idiot]

Wellll....shoot at ISO 1200 and 1/120 shutter speed. That should help. Unless you're shooting with a P&S or 7 year old camera, you shouldn't be afraid of the ISO. If you are, open the aperture wider to compensate. f/4 is one stop from f/5.6 IIRC and that'll get you to 1/120 shutter speed.

The general rule of thumb is your shutter speed should be equal to or faster than your focal length. You're shooting with a 50mm so 1/60 should be OK, right? Not exactly. If you're shooting with a crop sensor that's say 1.5, your FOV = 75mm so your shutter speed should be over 1/75.

 

[imagemaker46]

Like any speed, if you're moving the camera while shooting, you will end up with what looks like softness. Hand holding a camera and 50mm lens at a 60th shouldn't be a problem, unless you are dealing with a physical reason.

 

[Big Mike]

I believe he's shooting with a 5DmkIII, so increasing the ISO should be no problem at all.

Basically, every photo will have some degree of motion blur. Hand held and/or with a moving subject will be much worst that shooting still subjects on a tripod, but even then, it's almost impossible to take a photo that is 100%, absolutely free of motion blur. So the issue becomes, 'what is your acceptable level of blur?'. If you evaluate your images by loading them on the computer and zooming into 300%, then your acceptable level will likely be less than if you print out an 8x10 and hold it at arms length.

The old 'rule of thumb' about using a shutter speed that is 1/focal length (for hand held shooting), is based on acceptable sharpness. But with the way that most people evaluate their images these days, I actually teach my students to double that rule.

Of course, if you shoot with strobes as your main (or only) source of light, the exposure time from the burst of light will be much faster than your typical shutter speed, and that is what will help to freeze the movement and give you sharper images.

 

[JClishe]

Thanks everyone.

Part of the issue here is something I mentioned previously in another thread, which is that I initially struggled a bit with the shallower DoF when I moved from my 50D crop to the 5D3 FF. My first few sets with the 5D3 had some obvious missed focus, and I eventually came to the conclusion that the DoF on my 50D was allowing me to be a little sloppy with my focus points, and the FF 5D3 simply isn't as forgiving.

So when I saw the soft images from this weekend I was pretty disappointed as I thought I had already gotten over the missed focus issues. But upon closer inspection I realized that the focus wasn't so much "missed", as the entire images were soft. There are a couple of images that are pretty obvious motion blurs, so that's what I'm chalking the others up to.

Live and learn.

 

[analog.universe]

I really make every possible effort not to shoot slower than 1/125 unless I have [strobes OR [an inanimate subject AND a tripod]]. If I'm shooting longer than 50mm this number gets even faster. I find doubling the 1/focal length rule as Mike suggests works pretty well in most circumstances.

I've learned that a little ISO noise (sometimes more than a little) still looks better than a little motion blur most of the time. From what I've seen of the 5DIII you should be able to shoot 2000 or 2500 without even thinking twice about it. I push my 60D to 1600 before I go slower than 1/125.

 

[Big Mike]

This is a fairly common issue/mistake. People are too weary about increasing their ISO and instead opt for a slower shutter speed (probably because it's easier to do that on the camera, than it is to adjust the ISO).

But it most cases, the images will look better with a faster shutter speed, than with an equivalently high ISO. And this becomes more and more true, as cameras & software get better and controlling noise.

 

[STM]

You did not mention what kind of continuous light. Some of that perceived lack of sharpness may also be lack of contrast.

You also made no mention of lens focal length. 1/focal length is a good rule of thumb for minimum hand holdable shutter speed. Granted that is for full frame/35mm. If you are shooting DX, with a smaller sensor size, use the appropriate correction (focal length x 1.5) and use that as a rule of thumb.

 

[Big Mike]

Handheld, 50mm prime, ISO 640,

...

 

[Vtec44]

Even at slower shutter speed, strobe/flash should still be able to freeze motion up to a certain point. I've gotten great results with night portraits at 1/60 to get the ambient lights in my pictures. I'd assume that the continuous lighting didn't put out enough power like gsgarry hinted. Post some pix so we can see. =)

 

[JeremyDueckPhoto]

I ditched CL for strobes and have never looked back even with 1000watts of CL.