CHG_CANON wrote:
Alas, the posted version is not the original file from the camera where we would be able to see the details of the EOS body and EF-S lens from the EXIF data. Can you post the original file rather than this Photoshop version?
Without the EXIF details, we can only assume the lens was focused on the woman in the center backrow. The image is so detailed, we can see the individual hairs on her face and inside her nose. We can see the individual facial hair of the woman next to her in glasses / Tigers logo and the partial head of the person obscured in the center of the frame. The "where" of this combo where the camera is focused is insanely sharp and detailed.
The location of the AF and the depth of field at f/5.6 are incorrect as needed to capture this entire group at the same level of sharp focus. My experience is to always focus on the nearest eye of the person nearest the camera, being the woman in light blue and glasses on our left of the image. Or maybe in this group, maybe the eyes of the child in the foreground. Still, f/5.6 is too wide to cover the entire group and 1/60 is likely too slow to reliable freeze the motion of this small group.
I mean "focus" via setting a specific AF point (or zone / group of AF points) to the specific location of focus. This is completely different from "focus and recompose". For event photography, this takes practice and skill and preparation. You won't get a good candid response if the subjects are sitting there waiting for you to configure the camera and focus. For this group, you need to look at their arrangement, decide the AF location and the exposure settings needed to capture them, and prepare the camera. Then raise, enable the AF and shoot / "cheers" all in one smooth and quick motion.
Program Auto lets the camera make an initial decision. Sometimes, the camera needs the 'help' of being told where to focus and it will determine a smaller aperture is needed for the composition. Otherwise, you have to tell the camera what to do, adjusting the Program-determined parameters or using another shooting mode. Manually setting the AF point to the child or the woman with glasses on the left is the primary change, then adjusting to probably f/9 would give the result you're likely looking for in this image, preferably also at 1/100 to assure the subject's small movements are frozen.
Finally, in your processing workflow, create your JPEGs in the sRGB colorspace, another change that will improve the shared / posted results.
Alas, the posted version is not the original file ... (
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The original file is a 30M RAW. Way to big to send. How do I get around this and keep the original data?
I used Camera Raw to make the JPG. I changed nothing.