Outdoor portrait focus problems

[3kids1cat]

Hi all,

I am a studio photographer who has been asked to do an outdoor session and I am getting painful results with my practice shots! I have been taking my own kids outside in the early evening (around 6pm) for practice shots before my client comes with her kids. I shoot in the shade. The problem is that I expected to get tack-sharp results as I do in the studio but so far, I have mostly gotten very soft or just plain blurry photos (or sometimes sharp only in an area I did NOT focus on!). I am using a 50mm prime lens with a max ap of 1.4. I am shooting mostly at 2.8 and below and spot focusing directly on the eyes. But...regardless of all I've tried (fill flash, reflector, iso, setting combos) I've not come up with a set of setting that gives professional results. Can anyone help? Thank you!

[OsmosisStudios]

An example would help greatly. You could have a focus issue or a motion blur issue.

Are you shooting Canon or Nikon or other? I know with Nikons if you set the focus mode (AF-A, AF-S or AF-C) you can be screwing your focus up.

[kencaleno]

As a studio photographer, you would be expert at manual focusing,wouldn't you? Also it pays to use flash coupled with bounce card (at 45 degrees) for portraits outdoors.

[3kids1cat]

Yes, I could post an example but with the upload size restrictions and just the nature of the problem, you can't see the issue without viewing the full sized file. The problem is that things look great on the camera screen but anything bigger than a printed 4x6 would show the poor quality.

After posting this question, I did more practicing and got a couple of shots that were excellent. Only trouble is...I didn't do anything different so don't know why I am getting the mixed results. It looks exactly like what you get from poor light conditions....grainy and soft focus. But...light is sufficient so I'm left shrugging my shoulders.

Regarding manual focus in the studio...no...never. I always use auto focus and set the point I want.

Thank you so much for the replies! I welcome any guesses or suggestions.

[OsmosisStudios]

Posting 100% crops or a link to a full-sized image would work.

[rpcrowe]

You probably know this but,

If the area you want in focus is not sharp but, there are other areas in the image which are sharp then the focusing is off. This could be either from the camera choosing the wrong focus point or the camera's focusing system being off. Most likely, since you achieve correct focus in the studio, your camera is choosing the wrong focus point.

When using autofocus, I do a lot of my shooting choosing the center point for focus and then re-framing with the shutter button pressed part way down. I started this when I noticed that my 400mm f/5.6L lens would often choose focus points that I did not want, like a tree branch near my subject, and therefore throw off focus for the subject.

If the entire image is less than sharp, then the culprit is most likely camera movement. If you are shooting in the studio; it is most likely with strobes which would eliminate camera shake.

The above is true for subjects which are still. Moving subjects throw other factors into the equation.