Frustrated with focus

[Drea K]

I took this shot of my son this morning on our back porch. I used my Canon Rebel XS with the kit lens (High Dolla Stuff LOL). Anyhow, I shot it at 1/30 F/8. There was decent light too. I can't figure out why it's a bit out of focus. I can really tell by looking at his eyes. I wanted his whole face to be focused and I thought I would get that by shooting at F/8. It may be hard to notice in this pic, but you can really see it when you blow it up larger. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[ramirez0715]

First off nice shot. The photo is set to private on flickr.
Do you have photoshop or other software? Try sharpening it up a bit see if that helps.

[SusanH1970]

Shooting at 1/30 is very slow. The issue is most likely camera shake. What were the focal length and ISO?

[chalkie7]

For hand-held, your shutter speed was too slow. Try bumping up the ISO to increase the shutter speed. I'm pretty sure the lack of sharpness is down to camera shake.

[Gina9942]

I forgot where I heard it or if it is true, but it seems to work and make sense. I was once told that the slowest shutter speed shoult be what focal length your lens is. Example if you shoot 50 mm you shouldn't shoot below 1/60, if its 200mm shouldn't shoot below 1/200. This might have just been made up somewhere but I tend to follow it as I can almost see it making sense. A 200mm lens is pretty heavy so the faster you shoot, the less you have to worry about camera shake.

[Drea K]

You know, I remember reading that rule about focal length and shutter speed. Maybe that's where I went wrong. I must not have had enough light, like I thought I did. Regarding ISO, I had it set to Auto. I don't think it was too high since I don't see much in the way of noise. I'm still new to photography rules. LOL. I've only been studying this art for the last 6 weeks.

[irishmuth]

If you bump you ISO a notch, you could change your shutter speed to 1/60 and still have the same exposure, but probably with less camera shake. Because of low light, I often end up shooting with my 50mm and find that anything below that is difficult to keep sharp. You could also afford to go a few stops lower on aperture and keep his entire face in focus; the wider aperture would again allow for a faster shutter speed.

[Swisstony10]

If you're shooting with the Canon kit lens, I'm guessing that's an 18-55mm lens? Either way, despite that rule about shutter speed vs focal length, you really don't want to be going below 1/60 hand-held, unless you can stand properly and hold the camera absolutely rock steady.

You wanted his whole face in focus - to be honest, if you're shooting at the zoomy end of the lens, then for a portrait like that you're probably a reasonable distance away, so you could get away with opening the aperture up a little bit more and still have enough depth of field. If you were shooting at the wide end, then back away from your subject a little and go in with the zoom, then you can open the aperture by a stop or two, which will let you speed the shutter up a little.

Also, you could have minor issue with your autofocus - do you use a set focus point when you shoot, or do you use the automatic setting where the camera decides which focus point it wants to use? If you're using the former, then you might want to make sure you're putting the one you use right over one of the eyes when you focus. If you're using the latter, then you may find as I did that whatever you take a photo of, and however you compose it, the camera will ALWAYS pick the wrong point..

As a tip, if you have an Iphone (or an Android-based smartphone), you can download a really handy depth of field calculator which will show you exactly how much d-o-f you'll have with subjects at whatever distance based on the focal length and aperture stop you're using.

Russ.

[newbad]

Very cute kiddo! His face does look a little distorted, but I'm guessing that is from the wide-angle lens. And it does look like you are looking down at him a little bit. Maybe try getting a little bit lower when taking the picture. I think it is a really cute shot though!Russ, what is the name of that app? It sounds interesting, thanks.

[Drea K]

The focal length was 55mm. Also, I looked and the ISO was 800. The general thought here seems to be that I should have gone with a wider aperture and faster shutter speed. The only problem I seem to have with a really wide Aperture is getting the whole face in focus. If the subject isn't looking at me dead on, then part of the face gets blurred.