I got a chance to photograph a bunch of young girls for a technology camp, and I thought it would be nice to make a nice poster for them of a group picture. I got the standard posed group shot, but I was so amused at watching them follow directions (I don't think I was nearly so well behaved when I was that age), I asked if I could get a picture of them jumping up and down.
From an aesthetic perspective, the jumping shots are much better, everyone is smiling more, they look less serious and more like they are having fun. From a technical perspective the jumping shots are much worse, at 100% they look just a little blurry.
The two pictures were with the canon 16-35mm zoom on a D60 both at 1/125 s, F4, ISO 400; the posed shot at 17mm, the jumping at 16mm.
I'm trying to figure out whether I just got motion blur (I did ask them to jump up and down), it I just screwed up and wiggled the camera while I took the picture, or if I screwed up and got the focus wrong somehow.
What should I be looking for to tell the difference between these three possibilities?
Thanks,
-Eric