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I was hanging out with my family last weekend and brought out my new 40D with EF 85mm 1.8.

I took this pic of my niece blowing bubbles and wanted to capture the bubbles in action.Im an extream amature but based on what Ive learned so far is that I was going to need to work with the shutter speed.I had it set to "Shutter Priority".The sun was setting and we were under some shade and I didnt use a flash.



I caught the bubbles without the "motion blur" however they got blured into the background when they were in front of her.What could I have done to bring the bubbles into focus?Should I have used flash?Im thinking it would have came out a lot more sharper if I did.

Heres another pic of my nephew I took.

Sorry, cant help you with the focus. But i actually like the unsharpnes in the first photo. I actually like the first one the best. Because it's telling a story. It has feelings.

You wouldnt be able to get such nice photo if it was an adult tho, because they allways "act" infront of a camera. You can tell they know the camera is there.

The girl is just playing with her bubbles and seem to have fun and is relaxed.

/K

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Canon EOS 40D - Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM - Canon EF 50/1,8 II - Canon EF 70-200/4L IS USM - Speedlite 430 EX - Lowerpro Nova 4 AW
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Hi Josh,

To get more in focus you could try using aperture priority mode and selecting a larger f-number (ie. smaller aperture). The down side of this is that the camera may select a slower shutter speed than you want and in this case the bubbles may be affected by motion blur. I this situation boosting the ISO would allow the sensor to pick up more light and therefore use a faster shutter speed, but this would induce more noise. It's all about compromising really and getting the right combination of factors correct.

You could also try full manual mode. This can be trickier, but if you experiment you'll get the effect you want.

Hope this helps, and if you need any more clarification, just ask.

Mark

Josh, those are both great shots and I actually like the smaller depth of field in the first - the 85mm f1.8 is great for this effect...

As Mark says, you can get more in focus by closing the aperture using a bigger f-number, but I'd say artistically the shot would look worse for it.

The nice thing about small f-numbers and a small depth of field is isolating the subject from what could otherwise be a distracting background. And if the bubbles were all in focus, you'd be looking at them and not the girl. I think it's perfect as it is.

The girl with teh bubble is an awesome picture but it would of been cool if a bubble that just came out of the stick was in focus, but still awesome photo.

The second photo is great but it needs something, i think it looks like a good photo for advertisement personally.

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Camera: Canon 40D, 17-85mm IS
Knowledge of Photography: Hours of reading and videos.
Computer: iMac 24inch 3.06Ghz 4gb ram 500gb HD Nvidia 8800 GS 512mb