The choir

[Yisehaq]

This preparation of a choir for an outdoor performance. Your c & c please.

[tomorrowstreasures]

Yisehaq - I love the effect of this photograph!

I would suggest that it be sharpened up a bit.

[Marko]

I agree with TT - this is a very interesting image that is much too blurry.

What was your shutterspeed? It should have been close to 1/250 IMO.

[Yisehaq]

Thanks. the exif is
Tv( Shutter Speed )
1/2500
Av( Aperture Value )
5.6
ISO Speed
400
at 300 with my sigma 75-300. I used ISO 400 to enable me to use higher sutter speed to avoid the blurr but
your advice please

[tirediron]

Agree with both the above; great capture, but a little soft.

[kiley9806]

i think you missed the focus - was it manual or auto?
the cleanest part of the photograph is in the middle, where the group of men/boys heads are bare. i think it would be much improved if the faces in the front row were the sharp & clear, with the focus going gradually blurrier deeper into the group. as it is, the foreground has no detail, and my eye wanders around to find something it can focus on.

that being said, it looks like an amazing group & i wish i were able to have seen the performance!

[tegan]

I repeat what I have said before. You need to get detail into dark faces through whatever process works best for you: exposure compensation, fill flash, postprocessing etc.

Tegan

[Yisehaq]

Thank you all.
Kiley9806 it was autofocus. am I right to assume if I miss the focus point and used aperture of 5.6 it will have the blurring effect on the front guys because 5.6 has shorter depth? The picture was taken almost from 80-100m away.

*The performance was day of bonfire celebration called meskel (The cross). We(Ethiopians) claim one of our queen excavated the cross of Jesus Chirst and we have celebration for that every year. I will try to work on more pictures.

tegan, Do you have any solution for cameras without spot metering.I use 350D. I use the partial metering but not as effective as I hope it should be. Other than budget related solutions

[Marko]

The lighting is not the problem here IMO, it really is the focus. Besides for shots like this you don't have much lighting control unless you hired all these people. You can use fill flash but it won't hit the whole group.

You simply missed the shot. It happens often to many photographers so don't feel bad. You are still learning and this is a valuable lesson.
Manual would have helped and checking the viewfinder after the shot would have revealed it is blurry. Personally I only check the viewfinder occasionally, but for a moving group of people, I'd be checking the sharpness regularly.

Hope that helps - Marko

[kiley9806]

thats a really interesting sounding celebration - thanks for sharing the explanation!