Help!!!! What did I do wrong here???

[wulf]

Camera shake is a fuzzy principle. Different people will have steadier or shakier hands and, even then, it will vary from shot to shot. 1/focal length and faster than that if you can is a good rule of thumb. Even better, take several shots, improving the chances of catching one that is perfect.

Wulf

[Homebrew]

Originally Posted by candleman

so you cant get shallow DOF (like f/2.2 would give) and have everything in focus.
theres the trade-off..
shallow DOF + lots of light (f/1.8).. OR wider DOF + less light (f/5.6)

Specifically, it looks like you were standing about 6 feet away for that shot, yes? If so, at f/2.2 with a Rebel using a 50 mm lens your entire depth of field is only a little over 4 inches. That's why it looks like Grandpa and your daughter would have been in focus but for the camera shake while your daughter's friend was starting to become part of the bokeh, as it were. Sometimes it's just not possible to get exactly the shot you want and you have to get the best shot you can with the limitations given you. That's especially true in candids and with multiple subjects. Here, I agree with others that a low-level flash would help quite a bit, but you've really got to open the lens enough to get all three subjects and/or back up some. 8 feet at f/5.6 would give you a DOF of 1.66 feet. There's a very nice depth of field calculator which will help you work through this.