Focus

AKA:Dick · Jun 15, 2007

Thanks in advance for critique comments!

I'm starting to play with the manual setting on my Sony 1-100, but having trouble with focus.
The lenses I've used in the past had crosshair focus, but this one doesn't. Is there anything to make focusing easier (not auto)?

Picasa from Google to edit.

This photo is of a dragonfly I saw at Sitting Bull Falls that kept landing on the same branch:
70mm 1/800s f/5.6 ISO100
I went with the wide aperature to blur the background, but didn't get a good overall focus on the wings.
-1-

Sitting Bull Falls
18mm 1/80s f/10.0 ISO100
-2-

This is a wild cactus flower growing behind my house:
180mm 1/640s f/6.3 ISO100
-3-

WDodd · Jun 15, 2007

Nice capture with the dragonfly. To me it looks like the left side wings are sharp and the right side ones are not. What do I know though.

In #2, there are some hot spots on the rocks and stuff. Also, if it were me I would use a slower shutter speed and try and get some "motion" of the water.

Cool shot of the cactus. I was just in Texas not to long ago to visit relatives. They asked me why I was so amazed, to them they are just weeds.

New England Moments · Jun 16, 2007

I think your focus isn't all that bad, ( Dragonfly )... What appears to be the problem, is the harsh lighting washing the focus detail...

The waterfall pic is on the over exposed line... water and light just don't mix..

I think a polarizer would help on all these shots ...

Wow that waterfall pic... sure shows how man can screw up a scene,,, who in there right mind wolld place a sign that close to this scene... GO FIGURE!

your cactus shot is nice , shows better lighting and saturation of exposure...just break off that little wooden stem ... when shooting a macro, or close up, ya gotta watch every detail in camera frame, cause they sure highlight in finished product... like that little stem I mention, it might as well be a giant Redwood tree, when finished shot processed...