Please Help Me:(

[fatima91]

Ok. So i'm very new to photography but i've fallen in love for sure. But I have a problem.. when I take pictures of people from kinda of far back their faces get all grainy and awful!! Like this one.. can someone please tell me what the heck am i doing wrong.

I have a sony alpha 330 and i used a sigma lens 75-300mm on this photo.

[mapota]

Looks to me like the camera has focussed on the fence just in front of the boy. Leaving the boy slightly out of focus.

[RLucas]

This may get moved to another forum, but your focus fell on the fence in front of your subject.
What focus mode, and focus point are you using?

[inkista]

Agreed. This is about depth-of-field.

While your aperture setting is one way to control how thin/thick your depth of field is, it's not the ONLY way. The focal length of the lens you use (the longer, the thinner the DoF), your subject distance (the closer, the thinner the DoF), and the subject-to-background distance can all affect what's in focus. Using the 70-300, even if you're at f/5.6 or f/8 is still going to give you some out of focus blur.

Secondly, you probably aren't controlling where the autofocus is "aiming". Using a single AF point, rather than the entire grid might be useful, here. AF systems often choose subjects that are closer to the camera to focus on, vs. your real subject. You need to override the AF system and tell it to look at your subject's face. A half-press of the shutter button to lock focus, and then recomposing the frame will let you place your subject's face where you want it in the frame, even if you're using the center AF point.

[fatima91]

yea i thought about that also.. but none of my photos are sharp. look at this one

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/fatima_09/4.jpg

[fatima91]

Thank you soo much for ur advice!! i will try it out tomorrow! and let you know

[ravncat]

The second photograph you have posted appears to have the sharpest plane behind your model`s head. She`s within the depth of field. How much sharpening has been applied? What aperture did you use for that shot? Was it fully zoomed in? It`s possible that it`s a combination of misfocus, shallow aperture, soft lens, weak sharpening settings.... All of those things together will add to be quite noticable

[jml79]

With the Sony Camera's you can force the AF point to centre any time in AF-S mode. Simply press and hold the centre button of the 8 way switch (nav button) and then half press the shutter. It will lock on to what ever the centre AF point is looking at.

I tend to use AF-S and select mode. Then you can use the 8 way switch to select and AF point, again the centre button selecting the centre AF point but once it's set you don't have to hold it. Then aim for the eye, half press the shutter and re-compose the shot without letting go of the shutter button. You can lock the camera into the centre AF point as well using spot focus. I am not sure if the A330 can do it but my A100 can be set so that the AE lock is a toggle instead of having to hold it. I use spot metering, metered on the cheek, hit AE lock toggle and then spot AF on the eye with a shutter half press. Re-compose and viola.. Perfect focus and exposure every time.