switched from oly to canon 50d ALL photos of people blurry

<p>have a new canon 50d, using a 50mm 1.8, shutter speed above 1/80, if not much more than that. aps have tried between1.8 and even at f10, center weighted metering, one photo, BLURRY all the time! well, got a few good ones in al servo. pill bottles, signs, cups, all come out great, people....FORGET IT...im at wits end here, any suggestions? ive tried all modes, all focusing points, recomposing.....only seem to get a "few" good people pics WITH flash, even though exposure is RIGHT ON, still blurry unless using flash, makes no sense.</p>

<p>Post a sample please - otherwise we are just guessing wildly.</p>

<p>Is it just with the 50/1.8 or also with other lenses?</p>

<p>(And indeed: samples might help...)</p>

<p>"shutter speed above 1/80, if not much more than that"</p>

<p>If you have average hands, 1/80s is the minimum speed at which you should get a reasonable number of sharp shots. If you're less steady than average you may need a faster shutter speed.</p>

<p>Try a faster shutter speed, a tripod or an image stabilized lens.</p>

<p>Flash shots may still be blurry if you're exposing for ambient light when using flash. If you shoot with ALL (or most) of the light coming from the flash, they should be sharp.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>i meant to say, i have tried taking pics well above 1/ 80th..ive never had these probs on my olympus, i can take indoor photos at 1/30th with a steady hand and the photos come out fine, anyway here is one example</p>

<p>sample pic</p><div></div>

<p>What do you mean by "my olympus" ? A point and shoot? A DSLR?</p>

<p>Kelly, please do realize that no one reading this page is standing there with you and, to my knowledge, no one seeing your post can read your mind.</p>

<p>You need to give people more information if you wish to receive help. Please be precise.</p>

 

<p>sorry, its a dslr olympus</p>

 

<p>oh and this is happening with all lenses by the way. i do realize that Rob, how come everytime i post on here, someone has a smyde or sarcastic remark? goodness gracious?</p>

<p>As far as your sample image is concerned, your aperture is inappropriate for your subjects. F/2.8 with a DSLR will give you a depth of field too shallow for two people standing like that. </p>

<p>Play with this handy web application to see how aperture affects your depth of field:<br>

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html</p>

<p> </p>

<p>[[i do realize that Rob, how come everytime i post on here, someone has a smyde or sarcastic remark? goodness gracious?]]</p>

<p>No one in this thread has given you a snide or sarcastic response. Perhaps you're applying a negative connotation to a lighthearted comment?</p>

<p>with the example photo it looks like more of a depth of field issue. Do you have an understanding of DOF? With your olympus what kind of lens did you use? I would suspect that if you can get sharp photos of still subjects ( no moving ) your camera and lens are fine and its user error.<br>

<br /> Many people believe they have faulty equipment when they get poor photos without understanding just how shallow the DOF can get at 2.8 and faster. The first time I shot with my 50 1.4 I thought it was not working properly.<br>

<br /> Kelly would you show a 100% crop of the part of a photo your focusing on. Does what your focusing on appear sharp?</p>

<p>okay, i believe this. and i know the concept. that set of photos i had the cam in continuous mode, shot 5 of these, one was in focus, somewhat. when photographing couples standing together, ive also shot at say, f10, with bad results also. trying to find an example</p>

<p>yes i do believe its operator error, lol.....guess i just thought this camera was not going to be much harder to learn than my olympus. ive done 4 engagement shoots, each shoot ive taken both cameras because of my lack of what the heck to do on the canon, shot each of the poses with BOTH cameras, ended up using all the Oly pics, they turned out great. I appreciate the help, ill post some more examples when i get home, im really distraught, so hopefully i can get this figured out. Oh and Tommy, my understanding of DOF is somewhat limited. its like high school algebra sometimes. My frustration comes from not having any of these problems on the other camera , lol....god help me</p>

<p>Looks like shallow depth of field, the girl is fairly sharp and the man behind is blurred. Can you show the sharp photos of the objects with information like you did on the above shot. </p>

<p>Also you can test you're kit's focus by using this <a href="http://www.focustestchart.com/focus21.pdf">autofocus test</a> . Pay attention to page 13. <br>

It will help determine if your camera has a focusing problem. </p>

<p>I took a photo of a group of people once (focused on their torsos) and they were all blurry. Looks like the camera focused on a wall 30 feet behind them.</p>

 

<p>Kelly, have you a shot where you know exactly where the focusing point is? If not I suggest you try a test as follows :</p>

<p>Select just the middle focusing point and with your camera on tripod (or set the shutter to timer mode and put the camera on something solid). take several shots at apertures from f2.8 to f8 then look at them to see if the sharpness is as you would expect and also if the focus point is where it ought to be. </p>

<p> Best of luck - and remember if the camera is out of adjustment in some way it will be under guarantee. But to nail the problem you need to eliminate the other possible wrinkles first.</p>

<p>Kelly, put your camera on fully automatic (P mode or if there is a 'green' fully automatic setting on the dial, select it) and take some shots to see how they look. Let us know how the pictures come out.</p>

<p>If you are using AI Servo and continous shooting (as I understand you said) that might be part of the problem.<br>

Try using ONE SHOT AF, and do one frame at a time, not continuous. See how that works for you.</p><div></div>

<p>Kelly, at f2.8, your DOF is extremely thin. Try bumping the aperture up a bit. Here's an example from a 50mm f1.4 lens at f4.5 shot indoors with no flash (brightly lit from window).</p>

<div></div>

<p>Crop from same image...</p>

<p>If neither pictures are crops AND the point of focus is the geometric center (not a given as it depends on camera setting) then the images might suffer from slight front focus.<br>

Naturally this would not be the case if the images are crops.</p>

<p>Kelly you don't need to know everything about depth of field but do understand that 1.4 to 2.8 is very thin, especially thin if you are close to the subject as the lens gets longer. I am guessing this is your first time with a prime? Everyone seems to freak out ( as I said I did too ) thinking that is not working right.<br>

Play around with it. As mentioned above use the 1 shot setting and the center focus point. For a test I would find someone to use as a model. Focus on an eye and use a tripod if possible. Experiment with different settings and see how they turn out.<br>

Also Flash helps freeze motion so you will get sharper photos with a flash ( I assume your not using the built in flash ) </p>

<p> </p>

<p>what are the main differences between the canon and the oly? it seems that had you shot this at f/2.8 with the oly you would have unacceptable sharpness in the gentleman as well. Is the oly automated and now you're using more hands on approaches, like M,A,S (i'm nikon so substitute those weird letter combinations, canon has to put 'value' after everyone for some reason ;) ). i can't imagine what has fundamentally changed from the oly to the canon. did the oly have image stabilization built into the body? are you used to that and now must purchase IS on every lens, instead of once onthe body?</p>

<p>Hi Kelly,<br>

I agree with some of the other posters about it being a DOF problem. For a shot like the one you posted, I would use f5.6 or f8 to make sure both people are in focus.<br>

-Aubrey</p>

<p>hello,<br>

the four third sensor in the olympus would provide you with a little more depth of field anyway. the zuiko lenses are exceptional and perhaps the canon 50mm 1.8 is struggling. if you used the 510 or 520 oly body, the in body stabilisation would have helped as well. with the canon, i think you should think about a tripod, shutter release remote cable and try to manually focus. all these should allow for a little more sharpness. try to shoot around f4 and see what the results are.</p>