Second September Assignment

[F, Calla & Luca]

For those interested we can submit photos dealing with focus issues. You can show photos in and out of focus. Or photos where you change the main focus.

I'm copying a response of Mike's to a request for a secondary assignment. As usual it is full of good ideas and an example. See below.

Camilla, I posted this last month on getting the camera to focus.  Have you already mastered this?  The photos you posted that you took with your Canon T1i all had focus on Darwin so maybe you have but I know quite a few of the photos posted last month had the focus not on the doodle which can really detract from a photo.  I bring this up as an idea since it could potentially help for the calendar submissions but requires reading a page or two from your specific camera manual. Mike

 

 

Example from last year.  This is supposed to be a photo of Sheba and Duke but instead is a photo of a flower with 2 doodles in the background since the focus was on the flower.

[Ann Kendig]

A blurry photo may of had the focus in the right area but if the subject is motion shutter speed is very important.  Shutter speed may of been too slow to capture the action without blurring.  Mike

[F, Calla & Luca]

You are making such great points. Do you want to get into depth of field? BTW, what gorgeous rock formations.

[Tina, Clover, Plus 5 More]

In this particuliar situation would using a shutter speed of 1/250 have worked?

[Ann Kendig]

I have read that 1/250 is the bare minimum shutter speed for action shots but from my experiences of shooting running dogs I prefer at least 1/1000.  At 1/1000 you are now needing a fair amount of light or pushing your ISO up.  Mike

[Camilla and Darwin]

1/1000 shutter speed? Thanks for this tip... I have been wondering if I need in the area of 1/500 or 1/1600

[Camilla and Darwin]

Here is an example of me successfully changing the focus of a photo. (at least somewhat)

 

I was so proud because I went into "aperature priority" mode to get these photos in an extremely dark aquarium. My first attempt at semi-manual. LOL

 

But later, there was a lot of shots that I really didn't focus well on at all. Basically, I will look in the viewfinder and the little red focus dots will flash, anywhere near her face and I snap the photo. I'm unsure of how to get them to lock on her eyes and face... clearly I need to read the manual more thoroughly. You can see in this photo that the focus on her face is not great, instead it's... maybe somewhere on her legs?

 

[Ann Kendig]

Camilla nice work the aquarium shots really show how you controlled the focus and changed them from one person to the other.  Make sure you are using the focus mode that locks and not the continuously adjusting type meant for action shots.  Olympus speak is SAF, single auto focus vs CF continuous focus.  Using the single point focus/single target focus press the shutter button down half way with the red dot on an eye then you can recompose and press shutter button the rest of the way.  Cute baby.  Mike

[Camilla and Darwin]

Ah, so you can recompose the shot after the red dot had blinked over an area? and You keep the button pressed down halfway as you do this? I am pretty sure I was in the single point focus mode... but I will double check on that.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yup, that chubby baby thigh is really clear. For a lot of cameras, don't know about yours specifically, you can center on what you want to focus with the shutter half way depressed. Then even if you move the view slightly to center the focused area where you want it,, but don't release the shutter, then depress all the way your object will be focused.

[Camilla and Darwin]

And more failed focus as the focus isn't on the baby's face as much as the lit dome. It seems so self explanatory in the manual but in practice it's been hard for me to get the hang of...

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think this one is good. The baby's face is nicely highlighted and visible.

[Ann Kendig]

Camilla, similar to you the focus can be difficult but practice does result in improvement.  I really like to take action shots of Sheba and Duke and initially I had a ton of blurry mis-focused shots.  I still shoot plenty of deleters but I get a lot more keepers than I used to. I can remember going out trying to get the focus on Sheba and Duke playing in the snow and had about 60 or 70 shots all were terrible but with time my keeper percentage has gotten better. I like your composition of the shots you are posting I find them all interesting. Mike