I use a canon 600D. You ideally want to be using back-button focus. (Find the setting in the manual) or flick the af/mf swrich on the lens after you have focused.
I light the object I want to focus on, check it’s actually focused and then leave the focus well alone whilst I sort the lighting. You can still move the camera a bit to the left or right providing you don’t move forward and backwards.
I’m not sure what settings you are using, but it’s all a bit of a balance if you’re shooting handheld with video lights rather than strobes/flashes. You’ll get a deeper depth of field (less sensitive to exact focus) at tighter apertures but then you need more light or longer shutter times to get the same exposure. Then you start getting blur from the camera movement which loses definition too.
If you can’t get it to work, you’ve got two options - flashguns (lots more light, instant exposure) or tripod (works with low light, needs stationary people, have to carry it)
To see some easy improvement, maybe try offsetting the lights from the camera so you can see the shadows of the ladders in the shot. This will give the shot more depth / 3D feel. Currently they appear to be close to the camera.