why did this go wrong?

First time out with new 70-200mm canon L lens. IS and USM on a Canon 20d. This pic was

taken on autfocus. shutter at 1/250 and aperture at 4 something. I ask this as a humble

(very humble) advanced amateur photographer. WHAT went wrong and what can I do to make

this right nect time. Thanks in advance.

No repsonse is too elementary for me.<div></div>

sorry about the size...here is this pic in smaller form.<div></div>

You need a faster shutter speed. It's obvious it's the shutter speed cause the left and right girls are pretty much stationary so they are more in focus.

To my eyes you appear to have a great deal of camera movement.I looked at the large file first. If held steady the picture should have been quite a bit sharper. You might even try shooting on manual focus. Just keep practicing.

Just does not look possible that it was shot at 1/250, or maybe you did not let the lens aquire focus or the IS to kick in and you started to moved the camera from your eye before the exposure was finished? Or did you have the 1.4x TC connected to that lens at the same time? Does the image data confirm the 1/250?

according to your exif data this was shot at f/2.8 at 1/50th of a second....you sure IS was on? I never used IS, nor do I have an IS lens, but I always thought IS should do better than this.

This is why I make a point of posting the shortcomings of these incredibly expensive IS lenses in photo.net threads.

 

 

Notice that although the background is out of focus it does not appear to be moving. I will assume that the photo info above is accurate. 1/50 second with IS on has kept the camera and lens still, so that the stationary background is photographed properly. The 3 girls on top are being held by the girls on the bottom, so all of them are moving, and probably quite quickly. You need a shutter speed of 1/180 to 1/250, maybe even 1/350 to freeze the motion of the girls. At these speeds IS would not even be necessary since the 200mm zoom lens would have been held steady enough for the short duration that the shutter would be open.

 

 

IS is invaluable for lowlight still shots of motionless subjects. Not only is it not necessary for fast moving subjects but you cannot expect it to stop motion in lowlight situations.

 

 

The only way to photograph in these conditions is to up the ISO, use a faster lens, or use a flash. I wonder what the exif data says the ISO setting was? If it was at 100, it probably needed to be at either 400 or 800. Good luck!

Yep, IS is IS, and shutter speed is what you need to stop motion. I often shoot indoor sports at 1/320-1/500 depending on focal length and light available. Got to hand it to the marketing people for promoting IS and VR though! IMHO, IS/VR has benifit in travel lenses (28-105-ish 35mm film equivelent) than in sports (300, 400 f2.8 etc.) due to shutter speed one would typically shoot in corresponding genre.

As was said above, IS/VR will eliminate some of the effects of camera shake, but will do <i>absolutely nothing</i> to stop motion blur in your subject. You'll need to shoot at least at 1/160 - 1/200 for something like this, faster if light allows. </p>

 

From looking at the girls on the left and the right, your subject was definitely in focus, but shooting at 1/50 was the problem. Not sure why you thought you'd shot at 1/250th. If you had, results would have been different.