Why are my photos so blurry?

[candidrachel]

It was my daughter's 8th Birthday Party on Sunday and I used the experience to try something a bit different and use just the ambient light instead of my speedlight.

I read that it's best to use a wide aperture say, 1.8 and increase the ISO to 400-800 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed to prevnt blur but my photos were so burry!!

I've included a few here just so that you get what I mean.

f1.8
50mm
ISO 400
1/13



f1.8
50mm
ISO3200
1/30



f2.0
50mm
ISO 800
1/60




Under normal circumstances I would use my 430ex and set the camera on P because any other mode I just get blurred shots even on AV or TV!

Help!!

[NicolaB]

Hi there

You are right re increasing av and iso to get a faster shutter speed.

Your shutter speed should be at least that of your lens, ideally twice for a still subject to avoid camera shake (ie 1/100 sec for 50mm lens). However for moving subjects aim for around 1/250 to 1/500 sec to freeze the action (depending on speed of action).

Also wide open you do get nice boke (blur) which can look great.

Nice shots though. I like the eye contact in the second.

Hope this helps.

[edbayani]

that is correct, higher speed and wider opening solves the blur but not the oof and dof.
except for the last photo which is really fast action the others are not focused on the faces.
the candle blowing photo is focused on the tray. and the second is focused on the edge of the table. at 1.8, the dof is very shallow at your shooting distance.

[sk66]

It's motion blur due to too slow of a SS. Also wide open will have a very thin DOF especially if you are working close.

I don't use Canon, but I think that in AV/TV by default the camera is using the flash only as fill which might not be enough to stop motion.

[jml79]

Like everyone has said, wide open you have a very shallow DOF.

You want to learn to master your camera's AF. For shot's like this I use spot AF (centre spot usually) and AFS (single shot AF) which locks the focus as long as I hold the shutter button half pressed. I always focus on my subject of interest, usually a person, right on their eyes and then holding the shutter half pressed I recompose the shot to what I want to capture.

You camera will have all of these settings, I am just not sure what Canon calls them. Sometimes going full manual can help as well, lock your ISO and aperture and then just vary the shutter. You will be able to decide if underexposed is ok to get the shutter speed you need.

[candidrachel]

Thanks for the replies. On balance I think I was happy with what I had to work with but the lighting generally was awful. I mentioned that in another thread.

I was really confused because I assumed that wide aperture + high iSO = faster shutter speed but then I forgot about the really shallow DOF and also some of the lighting was just so challenging that I switched to manual and manual focusing and I wasn't wearing contacts or glasses! My eye sight isn't the best!

jml79 - I did have my camera set to centre spot but I forgot to focus and recompose hence the tray in focus.

A friend of mine asked me if she can have a couple of pics to give her mum for Xmas and I was a bit but quickly said "I think it would be better if take some outdoor photos like last time (at a local park) because the light will be so much better".

Is there any way for next time I shoot in low light, hand held to get a wider DOF and fast enough shutter speed without using flash?

I did try TV and set it faster but the photos came out really under exposed.

[sk66]

Nope, you can't have it all. If there isn't enough light all you can do is add more...But set your ISO as high as you are comfortable with. Wide and High will be as fast as you can get.

[ororockcrawler]

I would use a flash, but decrease the SS to allow some ambient light to fill in

test some low light shots and see if you get results you like

[kristenh]

Rachel, i have a similar problem. on the advice of sk66 here, i have started to try AF-C, which is a continuous focus auto focus tracking mode- if you push the shutter down halfway and lock on your subject, the camera will then follow the subject. i thought that was more for wildlife photography, but now i've realized that my kids are wildlife. i am practicing and of course am not perfect, but it is working better for me.

but of course you get to the point where you can't really solve the low light problem- just today i was outdoors and taking shots a little past sundown- iso of 3200, aperture of 1.8 and shutter speed was still 1/30 and i got a lot of blur unless they just happened to sit in one spot for a few seconds...

[NicolaB]

Originally Posted by candidrachel

I did have my camera set to centre spot but I forgot to focus and recompose hence the tray in focus.

I found out to my peril that you can't focus then recompose at very short DOP. I have a lot of nicely focussed jumper shots for my cousin to see of his toddler!