Forgive me if you already have thought of and eliminated any of these as the issue:
1. Are you certain that the subject was picked up by the AF points? In one of the images I look at the sharpest portion seems to be in the leaves behind her, and that would happen if an AF point over the leaves fired. This could happen for a variety of reasons: the AF picked up the contrast on the sun spots there, you have picked a single AF point that was not on the main subject, etc.
2. I know that I've been guilty of selecting specific focus points and then neglecting to change them after the shot. Is it possible that you did something like that in this case?
3. This is a tricky exposure situation with the child in shadow and the very bright spots of sun. It looks like you tried to compensate by perhaps underexposing the child in the shadows?
4. If this shot was made w/o a tripod and remote release (I know you have them but I'm not certain they were used in this shot) could be be dealing with slow shutter speed and/or camera motion?
AlyceNWndrlnd wrote:
Allstair:
From the top of my head: AI-Servo, tripod, AF. Flash was not focused on the girl, but bounced (I hate direct flash).
Alistair, with an i
Sorry to be a pain, but what were you bouncing off? You were under a tree at the time unless you had an assistant holding a reflector bouncing the light DOWN onto the childs face.
Just because you are on a tripod it doesn't mean the AF is locked on.... either way, I think 1/50s shutter speed is far too slow for a shot like this and I think this the cause of your problem.
Hopefully this next comment won't sound rude but I believe this shot is flawed by poor technique with both the camera and flash.
Do you happen to have another shot showing poor performance with your 1D3?
Sorry to be a pain, but what were you bouncing off? You were under a tree at the time unless you had an assistant holding a reflector bouncing the light DOWN onto the childs face.
Just because you are on a tripod it doesn't mean the AF is locked on.... either way, I think 1/50s shutter speed is far too slow for a shot like this and I think this the cause of your problem.
Hopefully this next comment won't sound rude but I believe this shot is flawed by poor technique with both the camera and flash.
Do you happen to have another shot showing poor performance with your 1D3? ...Show more →
Plus, if this is the original shot, uncropped and just resized for web, then if you were using the centre AF point only, like you say you were, then the centre AF point is no where near the girl and the focus area is the leaves and stuff behind the girl's knees, in which case the focus is exactly where it should be.
No problem about the spelling, I just find spelling mistakes, especially of my name, annoying, especially when done twice!
Sorry if I sounded negative before, but a shot like this isn't difficult if you approach it the right way.
You have a happy child in front of you, sitting in the leaves obviously enjoying herself. Pointing the flash directly up into the tree will be of no help whatsoever. In fact, without looking at the EXIF I would say the shot hadn't been flashed at all, so therefore your flash has put absolutely no light down on your subject at all.
I doubt even using the flash at 45 degrees with the bounce card out would have helped that much either in Av mode, to get the benefit of it, exposing close to the ambient light in manual and letting the flash figure it would in auto would have been a better bet and you could adjust the FEC according to the 'look' of the image you are after. Triggering the flash remotely (with the flash located more at the girl's level than the level of the tripod) could have helped as well, or bouncing the flash directly off the camera and having someone hold a small portable reflector angled down at the girl. Whichever way you do it, your focus point must, and I do mean MUST, be located on your subject for this kind of shot.
AlyceNWndrlnd wrote:
Alistar: Sorry about the name! You have a good point with the shutter speed. I should have shot in manual mode.
Manual mode is not the only way to ensure a safe shutter speed. In any event I have to disagree with Alistair that that is the source of the AF problem here, although I would certainly never shoot people shots at 1/50s outdoors during the day.
I still couldn't figure out what you did exactly. Why don't we keep it in the picture taking portion only and worry about the cropping later. When you pointed the camera at the girl, or the girl's face, she was in the center of the frame and the AF point in the center that you used to focus her lit up, correct? You took the picture without changing anything else. Is that correct?
Alistair Watson wrote:
What are you disagreeing with me about exactly, it isn't clear.
This (sorry for being unclear):
Alistair Watson wrote:
Just because you are on a tripod it doesn't mean the AF is locked on.... either way, I think 1/50s shutter speed is far too slow for a shot like this and I think this the cause of your problem.
I never said you said that shooting manual would solve the OP's problem.
Jeff, perhaps we should take one step back here rather than try overanalysing one particular photo which went awry. Arfter all, all of us have had plenty of those.
If you suspect your camera might be misfocusing, it is best to simplify all shooting conditions as much as possible and focus on, well...on camera's AF performance.
In order to do that, pick an object with high contrasts, like black and white coffee mug with some lettering/design on it, to serve as your test target. Make sure it is lit well by constant light, so that you don't have to worry about shutter speed and exposure. No flash.
Then shoot the target from a solid platform at different lens apertures, in one shot AF mode, center AF point only placed on the target's highest contrast boundary.
That should start you on verifying your notion that the camera focuses differently depending on lens aperture. From there, you can take it then further, as required, perhaps to see if your setup is back or front focusing, etc.
Just an observation, but you seem to be a real a-s .................
Just an observation, but so do you.
If you want to be offensive, just do it, you won't hurt my feelings, because I know what the hell I'm talking about, unlike an awful lot of posters here right now on what is supposed to be a pro-oriented site, sadly.
It's obviously not the shutter speed, the leaves are sharp. It's just a simple focusing mistake, everybody does it occasionally. That or the lens or camera is majorly back focusing.
