Help fixing softness in flash portraits

5 months 2 weeks ago #758111 by brianhopkins88
Hi - I'm a wildlife photographer that got into flash and family portraits just a few years ago, but sometimes my faces are out of focus or soft. I thought that with a flash, that isn't supposed to happen, even when your shutter speed is lower that it should be. Can't figure out what the problem is, because other times that seem identical, everything is tack sharp. Check this photo out. I was shooting with an off camera speedlight 600 RT in a magmod Octabox 24 at about 10 feet away. Why would the mom be sharp that the baby be blurry? They are in the same focus plane, baby's face was moving but shouldn't the flash have frozen that? I was shooting on a 70-200 @ 115 mm 1/80 f5.0 ETTL and there appears to be plenty of flash. At some point I turned ETTL down to -3.0 because the batteries were going and it was over flashing, but I can't remember if it was before or after this shot. I should have turned to manual switched batteries but this was a precious moment so I just turned a fired. Anyway have many more like this and it has happened in other shoots. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks. 


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5 months 6 days ago #758604 by Whynaut
Perhaps move to f/8 or f/11 and where do you have your focus set too?  


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5 months 6 days ago #758617 by Garbo
+1 increase aperture to f/11 or f/13 should do the trick 

Nikon D300: 24-70 2.8 | 70-200 2.8 VR |Sigma 150 2.8 | 50 1.4 | SB-800
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5 months 5 days ago #758669 by Stanly
+1 bump up your aperture and you should be good

Nikon Z6 | Nikon FM10 | Nikon D80 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8D | Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR | 35-105mm f/3.5 Macro | 80-200mm f/4.5 | SB600 | Pocket Wizard II
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5 months 3 days ago #758695 by Ontherocks
Agree, aperture and point of focus seems to be off. Shift and I bet that fixes everything


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