Please help with my photography :)

[W00DY]

Ok went to a fair today and took this shot (not the best one but good for this example):



Now it seems to me like the entire image is in focus (except for the railing in the left corner) & (especially the grass next to the slide and the slide itself) but my wife and son are not in focus.

Now they were going pretty quick but I had a shutter speed of 1/3200 sec (I thought that speed would freeze a formula 1 car!!!). See the full EXIF info below.

Can anyone please explain why the main subject here was out of focus. It can't have been camera shake or the background would not be in such sharp focus. If I remember correctly I turned off the automatic focus on this photo and focused manually before hand and then snapped the shot when they came into the frame.

Any hints would be much appreciated.

Focal Length - 70mm
Exposure Mode - Aperture Priority
Metering Mode - Center Weighted
1/3200 sec - F/5.6
Exposure Comp - 0 EV
Sensitivity - 200 ISO
White Balance - Direct Sunlight

Cheers,

W00DY PS: Is there any way to get the EXIF data out of the image so I can copy and paste for future images?

[phillipb]

Hi Woody
I'm probably not the best person to answer this, but to me it seems that the focus point is somewhere behind your wife and son and the D.O.F. is a bit shallow.

[christiand]

Did you say that you were manually focussing ?
If that is the case, did you trigger the shutter when the object was exactly at the same point that you had manually focussed on ?
See, I noticed that just behind the wife and child there is a well focussed spot on the slippery dip.

Cheers
CD

[MCWB]

The black smudge on the slide to your wife's right doesn't look in focus to me, so it looks like you've focussed too far back.

[W00DY]

the D.O.F. is a bit shallow.

Is this due to F/5.6???

Am I correc tin thinking that a greater F Stop (or is that a smaller F stop?) so like F/8 would work better?

Did you say that you were manually focussing ?

I did say that

I thought they would be going to fast for the auto focus to work so I focused on the slide (I guess there's my problem) and then triggered the shutter when they got to that point.

So am I right in thinking that if I was going to use that technique (pre focus) then I should be using a different F-Stop?

W00DY

[W00DY]

The black smudge on the slide to your wife's right doesn't look in focus to me, so it looks like you've focussed too far back.

That seems to be the general reply... How would you suggest I take this shot?

W00DY

[Onyx]

It appears to me in your posted image the focus point was set a little too far back. When you were manual focusing, you would have pointed it at the yellow slide. When the people came down the slide, their distnace in relation to the camera is shorter than the empty slide. Shooting f/5.6 is a fairly wide aperture, so it's rendered them slightly soft.

If I were taking that shot, I would have focussed on the part of the slide next to your wife's right knee in that picture. If in doubt, I always focus closer rather than further away. As there's more depth of field behind than infront of the point of focus.

My tip: use a smaller aperture say f/11 or so, judging by the amount of available light you had there this is feasible. Yes you're right at 1/3200th shutter you can stop action of virtually anything. 1/500 is enough to stop people in motion.
If manual focusing, make sure you have the diopter on the viewfinder correctly set for your vision. Keep in mind the range is between -1.5 to +3.0 or something, so the slider in the middle is not true zero.

[Killakoala]

remember correctly I turned off the automatic focus on this photo and focused manually before hand and then snapped the shot when they came into the frame

I think you might have answered your own question tight there.

I looks most likely that your subject just wasn't the focussing point.

As Philipb said...

You should have prefocussed on the part of the slide where your wife's right leg is, then it would have been fine.

That's my opinion.

edit: Onyx was faster on the submit button than me

[MCWB]

Whilst a larger DOF may have given you the desired result (more margin for error), if you had the correct focal point they'd be in focus regardless of whether you were shooting at f/2.8 or f/16. I'd have focussed on the hump in the slide to your wife's right, better too close than too far! As you correctly say, you don't need 1/3200 s for that kind of shot, even 1/500 s should be fine.

Edit: Holy crap, quick and the dead around here!

[Onyx]

You know what they say about great minds, and the thinking thereof...

[W00DY]

If I were taking that shot, I would have focussed on the part of the slide next to your wife's right knee in that picture. If in doubt, I always focus closer rather than further away. As there's more depth of field behind than infront of the point of focus.

Thanks for this info. It makes sense now I am sitting in the lounge room at home

My tip: use a smaller aperture say f/11 or so, judging by the amount of available light you had there this is feasible. Yes you're right at 1/3200th shutter you can stop action of virtually anything. 1/500 is enough to stop people in motion.

Cool. That clarifies my earlier post in regards to F-Stops.

Thanks for all the replies, I have gotten the tips and advise I needed.

I will let you know how I go next time we go on a slide.

W00DY

[W00DY]

Whilst a larger DOF may have given you the desired result (more margin for error), if you had the correct focal point they'd be in focus regardless of whether you were shooting at f/2.8 or f/16. I'd have focussed on the hump in the slide to your wife's right, better too close than too far! As you correctly say, you don't need 1/3200 s for that kind of shot, even 1/500 s should be fine.

Edit: Holy crap, quick and the dead around here!

Yep, got it

[gstark]

Basically, what everyone else has said. The focus point seems to me to be behind your wife. fucussing slightly shorter, bumping the aperture to f8, shutter down to 1/1600 would have helped.

What about adding flash to the mix, to brighten the faces of your wife and child too?

[bwhinnen]

Basically, what everyone else has said. The focus point seems to me to be behind your wife. fucussing slightly shorter, bumping the aperture to f8, shutter down to 1/1600 would have helped.

What about adding flash to the mix, to brighten the faces of your wife and child too?

That was my first thought as well...

This is a slightly different idea, just something I'd like to experiment with (not that I have a youngun to photograph yet) and that is using continuous focus mode using the central focal point and panning them as they come down the slide with a slower shutter speed.

Cheers
Brett

[gstark]

Brett,

This is a slightly different idea, just something I'd like to experiment with (not that I have a youngun to photograph yet) and that is using continuous focus mode using the central focal point and panning them as they come down the slide with a slower shutter speed.

Interesting idea.

Be sure to use the rear curtain setting for this, but you'll probably need to use a fairly open aperture as well if you're intending to take more than one image in a sequence. Otherwise, you might run into flash recharge issues, in that the flash may not be ready for the second image when you and the camera are.

[bwhinnen]

Brett,

This is a slightly different idea, just something I'd like to experiment with (not that I have a youngun to photograph yet) and that is using continuous focus mode using the central focal point and panning them as they come down the slide with a slower shutter speed.

Interesting idea.

Be sure to use the rear curtain setting for this, but you'll probably need to use a fairly open aperture as well if you're intending to take more than one image in a sequence. Otherwise, you might run into flash recharge issues, in that the flash may not be ready for the second image when you and the camera are.

I was actually thinking of using as wide as I could with spot metering, perhaps even centre weighted, after all I'm interested in the subjects on the slide. The builtin speedlight just doesn't have the oomph for any sort of continuous firing, hmm did I hear an SB800 calling my name? Good call about the rear curtain, that certainly makes sense now it's been mentioned, why is it I never think of these things ?!?

Cheers
Brett