shooting a wedding- got the jitters- all pics blurry lately!!???

I have been persuaded to do a friends wedding- because she saw the pics I took at a friends' wedding the previous year- I have been taking portraits and doing small family photoshoots for a little while now- the previous wedding was very informal- there were no posed group shots etc- it was very candid type of photography.

This friend wants quite a mix but she definitely wants group stuff in a very short alloted time.

My concern is- in the run up I have been getting as much practise in as possible, and have travelled to the venue- my concerns are there group shots are not coming out in focus at all- even when I took my friend to the venue I felt her pics were awful- the few I shot of her.

I work in manual mostly changing occasionally to A and S modes if I need to photograph running children/lighting changes quickly)

I have the AF set to AF-C/ with focus tracking lock on(short)

AF-A (when I shoot with flash inside at night seems to yield better results -Flash set to REAR)


I have tended to shoot groups at roughly F7
using- Nikon D90
Nikon D7000
lenses Nikon-1.8 35mm
Nikon-17-55mm 2.8 GED
I have borrowed a Tokina/N AT-X Pro DX 11-16mm f/2.8 from a friend for possibly the group shots of shots inside the venue (little tight)

My friend couldn't be nicer as she's said it's the photos I take of children that she loves and that's what she's like lots of- but I am loathed to disappoint her and don't want to give her a poor selection.

Any advice would be very gratefully received.

First thing that comes to mind is either front or back focusing. Does it happen with both bodies? Does it happen with one lens in particular or all of them? Are you putting the focus point on the right spot in the frame?

I did autototune one of my lenses (17-55mm)using one of those charts. I've been playing around with the different AF modes today because I'm so determined to set everything up so I can concentrate on what I need on the day.
When it comes to portraits all lenses are pretty good a along as i'm steady and keep the shutter speed at a decent speed.

Thank you fast glass for taking the time to post. :-D

I'm going to make some recommendations that work for me. I don't shoot weddings, and won't, but when I shoot street photos I use these, and as I see it wedding photography is a lot like street photography with more pressure and nicer clothes (I know, it's a stretch, but just go with me here!!).

Use AF-S and single point focus. Be aware of where your subject is and know how to recompose (grab the focus point on your subject and then recompose the shot with the button 1/2 way down to hold focus - or use the AF-L button on the back). AF-C is not what you should be using for people posing as it will, if set incorrectly, grab anything that it thinks is the subject. AF-C is for moving targets, so if you have kids running around you want to capture then change it and then immediately change it back.

Put the camera in Aperture Priority and use Auto-ISO. You don't want to have to worry about too many things, but depth of field is critical with people and weddings, so you want the look you want and you want the camera to cooperate. Use Aperture Priority and concentrate on that number so you have the DOF you want. Set Auto-ISO to help you do that. With the D90 and D7000 you're not going to want to go about ISO 800 if you can help it, so set that as your MAX ISO, or 640 if you want to be really careful with noise, and your normal ISO at 100. Then adjust the AUTO shutter speed so that it is either at the midpoint of the Slow-to-Fast scale (this will match your focal length) or perhaps one click above to eliminate any potential movement from handheld shots. In fact, given that you do not have VR and seem to be nervous, make sure you set this to 4 or 5 to take that out of the equation. This means you'll be shooting at 1/60-1/100 on those 35mm shots, at the cost of ISO if the light is down.

Make sure the lenses are focus tuned. You can't do it on the D90, but you can on the D7000. But check the D90 for front/back focus and avoid that body/lens combination if you find any issues, or shoot with a smaller aperture to grab the extra DOF.

From there I'd say only use the ultra-wide if you really have to for people. It will give group shots a weird look if taken too close at 11mm. If you're indoors, you're going to want to have a flash, and you're going to want it to be something other than the pop-up. If you've never done this then it's one more thing to pile on you, with no time to practice, but it makes a hell of a difference, even if all you're doing is bouncing a diffused light off the ceiling. The on-camera flash is going to give you very stark shadows and harsh light, which is going to look awful.

I'm sure others will chime in.

BTW, looking at the two photos above I'm getting the impression that ISO-Aperture-Shutter Speed-Focal Length connection might be one you're not comfortable with. For example...

Top Photo - You're outside shooting at f/2.8. That's a lot of light coming in, but you're shooting at ISO 320 and not at ISO 100, which will give you the lowest noise levels. Focus seems to be on with this one at least. Your shutter speed is 1/1600s while your focal length is 20mm. In bright sunlight you'd never have to worry about almost any lens at ISO 100 and f/2.8, but with 20mm you just need to be faster than 1/20sec to inhibit movement. The Auto ISO recommendation above will solve this for you.

Bottom Photo - Again you're outside, but it's shady/cloudy. Still, you're at 24mm so anything at 1/30sec or faster will work for you. You're at 1/125 and ISO 640, which is where noise will start creeping in on your cameras. You're also at f/9, which at that focal length should give you everything from 4 feet in front of you to near infinity in focus (more on that in a second). You could have shot at ISO 100 and still likely gotten the 1/30sec you needed, but for a shot like this you don't need to be at that aperture unless you're more concerned with the wall being in focus. F/5.6 would have been fine. That said, I'm perplexed by the lack of sharpness on her given these settings. I'm guessing your camera focused on the wall, but at f/9 you should have gotten her as well, and 1/125sec is more than fast enough to prevent camera movement. That said, some of what you're perceiving to be softness could be ISO noise creeping in, so again, get used to Auto ISO and do everything you can to keep it down.

Have set the auto ISO jake thank you.

In my case, when ever I am in doubt, I use flash. In daylight with wind or hand shake, flash stops the action. In bad light it enables you to shoot at ISO 100 for clean images.

Other wise in good light use aperture priority for posed shots, and shutter priority (set to at least 1/250) for other shots. In general ISO 200 should be enough in good light, but desist from going beyond 400.

Mostly looking at #2, if the focus point is the wall, she would be standing in the fringe of the DOF and the fringe is softer than the center. (unless of course if the photo has been cropped a fair amount)

Another thought is the scene is good, but the subject is a bit over-exposed. See the no detail in the shirt. My guess as to why the background looks sharper than the subject (speaking strictly of focus here).

The root cause being the bright overhead sun/sky/cloud, so depending on the time of day, may not be an issue.

Thank you guys- I will have an chance to get some beach stuff in on Wednesday and aside from the flash will try and use the methods described here.

Gosh. I hadn't realised how, when quick thinking is required,I boost the ISO dial up ????????