>buy a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 for an anime convention
>50mm f 1.8 lens
>shoot with Full Auto and automatic focus
>go back home
>all the photos are blurry and just a bit out of focus
Why. I also tried manually rolling the focus ring but it produced even worse results.
>just took hundreds of photos of cosplayers
>maybe 2-5 pictures are focused and sharp enough
The ability to take good photos is for neurotypicals/normies only. Photos taken by robots are always blurry garbage. Take the camera pill.
>shoot with Full Auto and automatic focus
retard
photography of nature is comfy as fuck
Why's that the issue? Shouldnt the camera's AI be a lot better than my brain?
Are you implying that with a faster shutter speed I'd take crisper photos?
First, understand how autofocus works. Secondly, shoot in RAW, if you suddenly miss the exposure, you will correct it in post-processing. You chose a good camera and a good lens, although 85mm for portraits will be a little better, but that's not the point. Learn to use everything in manual mode. And yes, it's not the camera that takes the pictures, but you, and only you, can know which shot you like.
well, your super smart camera decided to pick a shutter speed too long for your shaky back2thefuturestar hands to not catch blur on because it was prioritizing light bullshit instead
(or picking the wrong focus because camera's do not indeed have human brains; not sure which was the bigger problem here, your description is vague)
now
if you dont want blurry outoffocus bullshit, since I'm assuming these anime con photos are of people posing, you should definitely use manual focus and shutter priority (with at least 1/30 or shorter I think I forget portrait numbers) at least. Then 'super smart' camera brain can deal with light for you and you can still play with shutter speed some if camera brain still making it too light/dark.
>and here's the biggest trick, I've highlighted it for you stupid smooth baka brain
>turn on fucking focus zoom (called MF / Manual Focus Assist on my camera): it'll zoom in your display while you focus so you can know you got it right instead of guessing looking at a giganticpixel image on a business card size screen
also, ask /p/ you imbecile; no one here has the confidence or social abilities to take portrait photos of real living people, myself included.
Thank you user. I kinda guessed this part:
>decided to pick a shutter speed too long for your shaky back2thefuturestar hands to not catch blur on because it was prioritizing light bullshit instead
But this was valuable news to me:
>>turn on fucking focus zoom (called MF / Manual Focus Assist on my camera): it'll zoom in your display while you focus so you can know you got it right instead of guessing looking at a giganticpixel image on a business card size screen
I've always had trouble seeing if the photo is actually sharp from the small preview screen.
In my defense, I tried to do manual, but I couldn't even use the manual controls. The battery was almost dead (seller sold me a shit battery that could hold charge for like 2 hours), and my camera refused to shoot in anything but full auto when the battery light was blinking. No idea why.
I think I need a new battery, and I want to get the focus screen / mirror cleaned because there's dirt in the viewfinder. Then I need to shoot like a motherfucker before the next convention. I feel extremely bad about the photos I took, I don't know what to tell the cosplayers when they email me.
>no one here has the confidence or social abilities to take portrait photos of real living people, myself included.
Thank you user. I'm an autist but this makes me feel a bit better about myself.
>battery stuff
yeah I'm not sure if canon does the same buy my sony after a firmware update refuses to use the one aftermarket battery I bought a long while ago, dont really feel like wasting another bit of money to test another aftermarket to confirm but yeah. Of course the actual sony batteries are made in the same bullshit chinese factory but cost 2-3x as much.
But point is my only battery that works is an official sony one, so you might need to fork up for official canon.
Also could be your charger is fucked up. My official sony charger that came with camera doesn't work at all, only an aftermarket one works, but I feel like thats where you can get into cheap halfbroken massscrap chinese shit that might cause a battery to not charge as much as it should.
Bonus, an additional safety net against the blur is setting your shutter to take 3 pics instead of one with a button hold (called 'Drive Mode' > 'Continuous Shooting' on mine; thought there was a setting to just auto take 3 for you without holding but ah well) [try this one out a couple times first, make sure it doesn't fuck shit up worse], or just regularly pressing the button (carefully) 3 times. >And then LOOK AT THE PIC, zoom in and check your focus on your key areas, say "alright ma'ams you are free to go, I have a FANTASTIC photo desu ne!!"
And yes user, great job, I'm getting better at a lot of social stuff but still scared shitless of 'being the photographer' at any social event.
If we fused into one single person we'd make a hell of a cosplay photographer.
Keep the shutter speed at double the focal length ideally so 1/100th i'd say at maximum have it at 1/80th. Those f1.8 lenses tend to have really bad edges wide open so keep the aperture no wider than f 2. Use ISO to get the shot exposed properly (or leave it on auto) and like the other one said shoot in RAW. I personally only bother with manual focus in really low light and use spot AF 90% of the time. Once you get used to it it's fast and accurate but use what you find easiest. I would always keep the camera in Av since changing the aperture is probably the most useful function to have instant access to. You don't have to do everything manually because cameras are generally pretty good at managing exposure but if it wants to use a shutter speed thats way too long (i.e over 1/50th) then switch to manual with the settings i said earlier
I still don't get the RAW thing. I have an 8GB card because CF cards are expensive
>when you just Lightroom + AI sharpen every photo you take
I'm starting to get the hang of it. Shot this in a poorly lit room on manual.
My question is how do I get rid of the vintage in the corners? Is it even normal?
Isnt even that bad. use any free photo editor that has a white vignette option and just cancel it out if thats your biggest issue and you like everything else
looked different in editor but this is literally changing a slider and overlaying it with white corners instead
could finesse it even better adjusting other things
RAW is a file type that preserves more information about the shot than JPEG. It means that in post any changes you make in terms of exposure will not affect the end quality as much and especially with photos at night can help bring out extra details (like this photo). Thats not to say you cant do post-processing with JPEG. RAW files tend to be considerably larger so if you arent so concerned or wont need to crank up the exposure in post then stick with JPEG.
Vignette is common with 'cheaper' lenses and is made worse on full-frame cameras like yours. Its down to the image the lens is transmitting not covering the whole sensor. Post processing is probably your best solution and also making sure you are shooting mostly in bright daylight
You can definitely get rid of all the vignette provided you try out some software and get good with it
bump for comfi thread