BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Body shots seem to be out of focus

thanks for any help you can give...my eyes are a bit old to focus manually these days and I have yet to get a sharp image for a body shot.

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April 27, 2006

What do you mean when you say the body shot isn't sharp? Is it due to motion blur (where a slow shutter speed allows for movement of the subject to streak the exposure) or focus blur (where perhaps a too-wide aperture leads to shallow depth of field so only a narrow slice of the scene is in focus?

Center weighting is a style of light metering, and has nothing to do with sharpness.

Perhaps you could upload an example or something?

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April 27, 2006

Here goes:

I think you are shooting “body shots” outdoors. Therefore I think you are stabbing the shutter release. This technique causes camera movement during exposure; the results will be out of focus images. Countermeasure is two-fold. Buy higher ISO film, minimum speed 400. This causes the automation in your camera to use a faster shutter speed which minimizes camera shakes.

It’s possible that your outdoor body shoots depict a spacious vista. If the subject of the body shot is not centered in your composition, the autofocus feature of your camera may be the culprit. In this case the camera will autofocus at maximum distance (infinity) and near objects will be out of focus. Countermeasure is to center up on body shot subject. Also, most cameras allow for a “focus lock” function, used when you want to compose the image with the principal subject off center. Place subject in center of the viewfinder, press and hold the shutter-release button partway down. This locks the focus on the principal subject. Now, still holding the shutter button, re-compose and then continue taking the picture by pressing the shutter button all the way.

Good luck,

Alan Marcus
ammarcus@earthlink.net

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April 28, 2006