help! dslr photos coming out blurry?

Are you shooting on all automatic settings? If you're going all-auto, the camera is picking ISO, shutter speed and aperture for you. Without actually seeing the picture, my guess is that your depth of field is too shallow to focus properly on more than a small area (i.e. your doll's face). If you set your camera to aperture-priority auto, the camera will pick a shutter speed for you, but let you choose the aperture. A larger f-stop number will give you a smaller aperture and deeper depth of field, therefore allowing you to focus on more in both the foreground and background of your image. Of course, with a smaller aperture, you will also need more light because smaller apertures let less light in. Getting more light will mean either using a slower shutter speed (and that tripod) or shooting with a flash unit, preferably a separate unit that you can either tilt/rotate or use off the camera entirely.

So, this is what I think you mean. Please correct me if this is not actually the problem.

Only the doll's face is in focus; the rest of him is blurry. I did this on purpose...it's supposed to look that way in this shot. You can see how only the area around his face is in focus, and the stuff in both the foreground and background of the shot is soft and blurry.
This was shot with the aperture practically wide-open, at f/3.0 (the max aperture for this particular lens is f/2.8). Also, this lens is a fixed 40mm lens with a 1:1 reproduction ratio, so it behaves a little differently than the lens I shot everything else in these examples with. You can get similar results with your kit lens though, which is probably an 18-55mm lens, yes?
Anyway, for this shot, ISO was 200, shutter speed was 1/60 and the light source was an external flash unit.
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My Heart Is Yours by SapphireStargazer, on Flickr


With an aperture of f/5.6 in this shot, I have the subject in focus and a nice soft background in which you can still see what the background is. This is admittedly not my best photography, but I think it'll work for this example.
Shot at ISO 100, shutter speed 1/125 and aperture of f/5.6

Noé's Winter Coat by SapphireStargazer, on Flickr


This one has the entire subject and stuff in the foreground in focus, but still has some softening of the background. Same lens as the second picture
It was shot at ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/15 and f-stop of f/8.0
With shutter speeds lower than 1/50, you likely will need a tripod.

A Doll A Month Photo Story Challenge 2015 - JANUARY - "Plan" by SapphireStargazer, on Flickr


In this shot (REALLY not my best photography!) not only is the subject in focus, but quite a bit of the background is too.
This one was shot at ISO 100, shutter speed 1/400 and aperture of f/13.0
It was easy to use a fast shutter and a higher f-stop number for this one because the area was absolutely saturated with light and the snow was just one big reflector.
Three O'Clock Shadow by SapphireStargazer, on Flickr


The "blurriness" factor in a shot has a lot to do with how close you are to a subject as well. I can achieve a very similar effect as in the first photo with a an aperture as narrow as f/5.0 depending on how close in I get. In shots where you want the scenery as well as the subject, physically move back from the subject, zoom in and use a smaller f-stop number. This also works well when you're shooting groups and you want to focus on all the faces at the same time, particularly if your camera has "face priority" focussing. That example would look like this:

Shot at ISO 400, shutter speed 1/60 and aperture of f/8.0 with focal length 42mm

All My Resinsoul Mini Dolls! by SapphireStargazer, on Flickr

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM.

 

Sapphirestargazer gave you some really good advice! I'd add to check WHERE your camera is focusing. Most DSLRs have many focus points (some have MANY MANY focus points), and they tend to like to focus on whatever's closest, if you leave them to your own devices. I personally set my camera to only use the center focus point most of the time, so I focus on whatever I want in focus, then recompose the shot. If you're using a large aperture (meaning a small f-stop number - it's like wire gauges, small numbers mean big, big numbers mean small), you have a very thin depth of field that is in focus, so sometimes it's better to select the specific focus point that is over the part you want to be sharp. (I've also seen aperture numbers explained as small numbers give you a smaller amount of the photo in focus, larger numbers give you a larger amount of the photo in focus.)

It might help, if you're shooting in auto of any kind, to check the exif data and see what settings your camera chose for each shot. If it's choosing a large aperture, then it might be a depth of field issue. If it's choosing a small aperture but slow shutter speed, there might be some camera shake causing blur. (And both of those indicate the camera probably wants more light to work with!) If it seems OK on both those counts, it could be that it's choosing the wrong spot to focus, which is a separate issue from the exposure settings.

You can do an experiment by putting your camera on auto, getting your focus where you want it, and then looking at what settings it chose. Take the shot, see how it looks. If it did not turn out how you wanted, you can then work on tweaking the settings to get it to look more how you want it.

 

SapphireStargazer just said most of what I was going to and far more eloquently, but I do have a couple of tips to add.

First, if you're looking to avoid using your tripod (I hear you, I'm usually too lazy), crank up your ISO to 400 or 800 when you're shooting in low light. It allows the camera to take in more light at once, so you aren't forced to pick a slow shutter speed that'll make even breathing ruin the focus of your shot. This will cause some noise in the background, but for just for fun doll shots I personally don't mind.

I shot this one at ISO 800, because it was at night and I was too lazy to get out my tripod. XD



Also, if you go into live view (the little preview pic on your camera's screen), it helps sometimes to zoom in one or two times on the part of the picture you really want in focus (I usually zoom in on the doll's eyes to make sure they're the focus of the shot). It's easier to tell if you're really as in focus as you think you are on that tiny screen if part of the image is a little larger.

 

Yes, on your Canon "AV" is your aperture priority. I shoot with a Nikon. It's actually called aperture-priority mode on Nikon cameras, but AV is exactly the same mode.

Echoing what Amet said, the eyes are the most important feature in portrait work. A good portrait will have the eyes in focus. If other parts of the image are slightly softer, it'll still be a good portrait. I don't see anything wrong with that first shot at all. The depth of field looks really shallow, that's all. Second one isn't bad either. It just seems to have the same or similar depth of field going on.

As for ISO, the problem with going above ISO 400 is that you start to get grainy / noisy images, especially in shots where there are areas of shadow, or when there are varying degrees of brightness across the frame. I'd actually recommend not cranking up your ISO unless you're really in a low light situation (probably ISO 800 is the absolute highest I'd go, and that only rarely). You'll find your camera behaves differently if you lock your ISO at a certain number and not let the camera choose it for you. You will need more light and you'll most likely need a tripod, but the extra effort will be worth it, I promise.

You should also be able to get a wide variety of angles with a good tripod. I shoot off the tripod a lot and I don't seem to have too much difficulty with finding the right angle for the shot. Stabilization is worth it every time.

Good luck!

 

lacerbeam, I see what you're saying now. I have a Canon too, and trying to photograph Pukifee with the kit lens is a pain and a half. (And my other lens has an even wider aperture so forget it! XD) I always felt like I could only get their faces in focus, and that's really because they're so tiny and even the widest depth of field I could get out of that kit lens just ate their poor little bodies. You could try physically backing away more when you photograph and making sure the subject is in focus, then cropping the photos you take down to make them seem closer to the camera in a photo editing program later, but other than that you may just have to experiment to see what angles work for you. Unfortunately the smaller the object, the harder it's going to be to get it totally in focus with a larger aperture, so a lens that works fine for the most part with a 60+cm doll is going to eat a Pukifee's entire body.

It probably seemed easier to photograph with a point and shoot because they're generally set for photographing big things like vacations and landscapes, so the apertures only get so wide and the background is generally part of every shot. Personally I feel like if you're honestly not into blurring things out and controlling the focus of the shot, a decent point and shoot is just as good as a DSLR.

The problem is that you're trying to do two different things here that conflict with each other. You want everything in sharp focus, which requires a small aperture (a bigger aperture number on your screen). You also want to hand hold your camera, which requires a lot of light, so if you're too afraid of noise to crank up the ISO that requires a wider aperture (a smaller aperture number on your screen -- the reason apertures with bigger numbers are still called "smaller" is because they actually make the hole in the lens smaller to take in less light). You could also try experimenting with lighting, but you're right, your camera sensor looks at what to your eye is sunlight streaming through your windows and freaks out like it's in a dark cave unless you tell it not to. I think try experimenting with some settings and see what works for you. Also if you feel super overwhelmed by your camera's settings I'd recommend reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It's a quick read and tbh I could not wrap my brain around how the heck aperture, ISO, and shutter speed interacted until I did. XD He explains it with bees.