blur in shots

[megan_stone]

<p>i just did a portrait for a client, Nikon D700, lens 80-200<br>

two locations were done, one with a tripod and it looks fine, shot 2 wihtout tripod<br>

and having looked at the shots now, they appear a bit soft on the face, though<br>

i feel the rest of the body is sharp, cant quite work it out.... i havent used this lens<br>

in ages, is it normall considered too heavy for handheld?<br>

i was shooting at F5.6/125 .. ISO 200 and a touch of flash.</p>

<p>thank you</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Can you post it? It's always hard to tell without the photo.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>1/125th at what focal length? That's certainly a slow enough shutter speed to show some motion blur by your subject, or by you, or both. Your own camera movement will definitely show more dramaticaly as you get out towards the long end of that lens's range. <br /><br />Given the D700's excellent behavior at higher ISOs, you shouldn't feel shy about going to at least ISO 400 in order to buy yourself a faster shutter speed.</p>

[john_a5]

<p>I actually found as I got older, I couldn't shoot at the same speeds as when I was younger. For some reason, I now seem to have more success as slower speeds, really slow like 1/20th, than I could have achieved ever before--maybe I crossed over......</p>

<p>Anyway, 1/125th is really too slow for any handheld lens, IMO, if you are really <em><strong>needing</strong></em> the shot to be sharp-not that we all don't do it.</p>

[nigel_charman]

<p>Normally a heavy set up will be easier to keep still, within reason, owing to inertia.<br>

The old rule on shutter speed was 1 over the longest lens length giving at least 1/200th here as a minimum.</p>

<p>I also find how I stand has a big effect on camera shake - both legs slightly bent (not locked) and one foot a little ahead of the other, like a boxer. Tuck in your arms and you should be rock solid!<br>

This gives a really stable platform and with "squeezing" the release should help get the sharpest results for any given speed.<br>

Alternatively, it could be that they moved their face and not their body and it's not down to camera shake at all, but just an overly slow shutter speed...</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>We still need a photo. It could be mis-focus. It could be subject motion. It could be camera motion. It could be some other problem. Everything here is just speculation. If you upload the photos, you could get some real value out of the comments.</p>

[bgelfand]

<p>Without seeing the image, it is hard to give an exact cause.</p>

<p>You write the face is soft but the rest of the body is sharp. That would rule out camera shake. Camera shake would cause the entire image to blur. Did you perhaps focus, lock focus, and recompose? This could cause the problem, although at f/5.6 you should have decent DOF.</p>