Make me better at this......

[davidd]

So, most of my photos are 'snaps' trying to capture a split second of time, usually involving my family.
Also with small children being highly mobile tha moment is pretty fleeting.

I'm trying to leave the camera (350d) on M as much as I can to force myself to learn how to use it and therefore I'm deleting a lot of images, however there are still plenty I like, for instance...

www.donnan.org.uk/Holidays/cornwall2006/slides/IMG_0956-01.jpg

Can I have some pointers as to how I could have taken a better picture?

Then we'll talk about post processing..

cheers

D

[Andy M]

That image doesn't look too sharp to me.

Have you tried aperture or shutter priority before leaping into the deep end (manual)?

[TonyHetherington]

I can see what Andy means - there's an element of fuzziness about the subject (assume your son?)...?! Did you use manual or auto focus, and if so did you set the focus and then he moved then you took the photo?

I like what you were trying to do with it though

(should say, I'm still a beginner also, but urmmm, well, urmmmm....nope that's it, just to say I'm a beginner so don't listen to me too much )

[davidd]

Yes it was on auto focus. I have had a play with AV and TV but thought that leaving it on manual might be a
steeper but better route.

Thanks

[Gemm]

Looks like miss-focusing to me. There are other areas on the image that are in focus, but not on the boy's face (eyes).

Looks like you were trying to achieve a shallow DoF but it's difficult to say how it can be improved without EXIF.

Edited by Gemm on Wednesday 4th October 16:00

[davidd]

exif on here..

www.donnan.org.uk/Holidays/cornwall2006/slides/IMG_0956-01.html

I think the mis focus is probably right, possibly a hand wobble aswell....

D

[miniman]

What setting have you got the AF set to in terms of focus point? I've found I get much better results by setting the focus point to centre only rather than auto-select from all 8 or so points.

[davidd]

miniman said:

What setting have you got the AF set to in terms of focus point? I've found I get much better results by setting the focus point to centre only rather than auto-select from all 8 or so points.

It is at the centre only.

[miniman]

davidd said:

It is at the centre only.

And if you view the image in Canon ZoomBrowser and switch on the AF point display, does it think the focus is dead on the lad's face?

[davidd]

miniman said:

davidd said:

It is at the centre only.

And if you view the image in Canon ZoomBrowser and switch on the AF point display, does it think the focus is dead on the lad's face?

Now I did not know I could do that, I'll try later.

Cheers (and whats the betting that the focus point is on the wiper blade).

D

[poah]

miss focus and very shallow DOF.

[davidd]

poah said:

miss focus and very shallow DOF.

The shallow dof is intentional, I suspect it makes the mis focus much worse...

D

[miniman]

davidd said:

Cheers (and whats the betting that the focus point is on the wiper blade).

That would be my bet for sure.

Focus aside, I like the picture - shallow DOF is something I'm particularly keen on.

[cbcbcb]

davidd said:

Yes it was on auto focus. I have had a play with AV and TV but thought that leaving it on manual might be a steeper but better route.

As a relative beginner, I don't think this isn't really true. If you use Av or Tv to control the effect you want, and look at what the camera will do with the other setting you can gain the same understanding with much less faff. Even in full auto mode the camera records what it did, and you can use this to understand what happened.

For example, if you are taking a sports shot, you'll choose Tv and a shutter speed of say 1/200 sec. Then half-press the button, and the camera will tell you what aperture it will use. Then decide if that's OK, if it is, you can take the shot; if not, you can alter the shutter speed or ISO setting and try again. For the shots you've shown here, I would start with Av with an aperture of around 4 or 5.6 and look at the shutter speed to see whether it is OK (ie allowing for camera shake, movement of the subject etc)

You should continue to use M in cases where the camera can't automatically expose the subject correctly, eg when there is a strong back light or taking photographs of the moon.

[davidd]

miniman said:

davidd said:

Cheers (and whats the betting that the focus point is on the wiper blade).

That would be my bet for sure.

Focus aside, I like the picture - shallow DOF is something I'm particularly keen on.

Thanks, right checked the raw image in zoom browser, the focus point is his left eye. I guess the focus was a little off (me being unsteady).

I think I need to try to take my time a bit more.

D

[Gemm]

As well as the focus point, focus mode plays a major part here too. For example, AI Servo used on a static subject can cause an focusing error. And in this case, the boy may have moved. Also, actual focus points are in fact larger than shown in the viewfinder (red rectangle), so this is another point to consider when focusing.

(And I won't even mention the back/front-focusing of the camera/lens)

Edited by Gemm on Wednesday 4th October 21:51

[davidd]

Gemm said:

As well as the focus point, focus mode plays a major part here too. For example, AI Servo used on a static subject can cause an focusing error. And in this case, the boy may have moved. Also, actual focus points are in fact larger than shown in the viewfinder (red rectangle), so this is another point to consider when focusing.

AI servo is off (well I'm pretty sure it is off). As I have only just used zoombrowser I se what you mean about the focus point, I had thought it really was a point.

D