Blurry Pictures

[sharpshooter Photography]

This is probably a dumb question, but why do half of my pictures come out blurry, sort of out of focus. I was shooting with the EF 24-105- ISM- on, AF-on. I was shooting in the AV mode, shifting between 400 and 800 ISO, lighting was good, color was good. But a lot of the pictures were out of focus. Do i still have to focus manually even though the AF is turned on the lens? Shooting at the most about 10 feet to 5 feet from my subjects. Any help would be apprecited.

Thank you,

Ed Strehl

[michaelnotar]

what are you shooting? w/what camera? servo or oneshot AF? may need send camera in for AF calibration. are you using the focus lock and recomposing? at your distances it will cause misfocus.

[sharpshooter Photography]

I am shooting 20D, no focus lock,one shot. I get the same results with the Ef 85-f/1/8USM. Should I focus manually?

Thanks for your response,

Ed Strehl

[KevinStecyk]

Hi Ed,

A wild guess, but perhaps you are hitting the shutter buton all the way down immediately. I have a 20D as well and my photos usually come out sharp. On the odd occasion that my picture is blurry it is because I simply "hammered" the shutter button without without allowing the camera to focus. So remember to press shutter button half way down to focus, and then completely down.

Also, make sure that the lense is switched to AF, as stated in your original post.

As an experiment, you might wish to make the center point your focusing point. Pick something in the room and then hit the shutter button half way down. You should immediately see the object come into sharp focus.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

[sharpshooter Photography]

Kevin, you are right on target, when i focus on the subject that comes out clear, but mostly everything else is blurry. I think i am not giving the shutter button the second push. All of my outside pictures come out great, no blurry of any kind. I was shooting with the 50 1/4, they came out horribly blurry. Would shooting in AL Servo be better?

Thank you for your reply,
Ed Strehl

[KevinStecyk]

Originally Posted by sharpshooter Photography

Kevin, you are right on target, when i focus on the subject that comes out clear

Good, so the camera is most likely working properly.

Originally Posted by sharpshooter Photography

but mostly everything else is blurry. I think i am not giving the shutter button the second push.

Yes, if you don't give the camera an opportunity to focus, then the pics will be blurry. It is a quick two step process: 1) press halfway to focus, and 2) press completely for shutter.

Originally Posted by sharpshooter Photography

All of my outside pictures come out great, no blurry of any kind. I was shooting with the 50 1/4, they came out horribly blurry. Would shooting in AL Servo be better?

You should use your AI Servo when you have movement, say a person walking or a car driving by. If everything is stationary, then you shouldn't need it.

Perhaps describe what you are shooting and under what conditions. Then someone can provide more guidance.

I prefer one shot mode AF mode as opposed to AI Servo mode. I will tilt up, focus on the eyes of a person, press halfway to lock the focus, and then tilt back down to recompose the shot, and then press the shutter completely. Autofocus (AF) only works under One-Shot AF mode. So if I were to switch to AI Servo mode instead, I could no longer follow the same sequence of steps.

If I were photographing something that is moving, I would switch to AI Servo.

I hope this helps.

Kevin

[sharpshooter Photography]

Kevin, i was shooting a birthday party. People were moving, and sitting. Thanks for your input.

Ed Strehl