vigilante
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2015
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 1
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
One thing that plagues me are photos that appear ok in the viewfinder/LCD (even when I zoom in) but turn out to be quite a bit out of focus in post.
I tend to use the auto focus just about any time I'm not on the tripod, and almost always on spot focus.
My technique is to center the thing I want to focus on, press half-down to get the focus locked, then move to the frame I want and press down to shoot. I assume this is the correct technique for a center spot-focus shooting style?
In any case, we all know if you take a picture of a living thing, get the darn eyes in focus! But that's such a small area! If I can't get eyes in focus with spot, how else can I?
I thought, well maybe my lens sucks. It's nothing special, just the default Nikkor 18-55mm. My old camera is a D5100. But then yeah! I now have a D7100 also with the default Nikkor 18-55mm but a newer version with a locking button that locks the lens closed.
I seem to have the same problem getting good focus with the D7100 too!
Obviously this could be caused by other things like camera shake if my shutter speed is too slow, but I've toyed with that. When shooting objects, I can get a pretty focused shot with no camera shake at 1/60, but if my technique is sloppy, I like to be 1/100th or faster.
Anyway, I'm just stumped. Is this due to simply having the cheaper "comes with it" lenses? Or less than stellar cameras? Or do I need to use a different focus pattern or technique? Or do I just learn to manually focus as fast as possible? Is it because of where the zoom is? I try not to shoot at the outer extremes of the lens zoom.
Ideas?
I tend to use the auto focus just about any time I'm not on the tripod, and almost always on spot focus.
My technique is to center the thing I want to focus on, press half-down to get the focus locked, then move to the frame I want and press down to shoot. I assume this is the correct technique for a center spot-focus shooting style?
In any case, we all know if you take a picture of a living thing, get the darn eyes in focus! But that's such a small area! If I can't get eyes in focus with spot, how else can I?
I thought, well maybe my lens sucks. It's nothing special, just the default Nikkor 18-55mm. My old camera is a D5100. But then yeah! I now have a D7100 also with the default Nikkor 18-55mm but a newer version with a locking button that locks the lens closed.
I seem to have the same problem getting good focus with the D7100 too!
Obviously this could be caused by other things like camera shake if my shutter speed is too slow, but I've toyed with that. When shooting objects, I can get a pretty focused shot with no camera shake at 1/60, but if my technique is sloppy, I like to be 1/100th or faster.
Anyway, I'm just stumped. Is this due to simply having the cheaper "comes with it" lenses? Or less than stellar cameras? Or do I need to use a different focus pattern or technique? Or do I just learn to manually focus as fast as possible? Is it because of where the zoom is? I try not to shoot at the outer extremes of the lens zoom.
Ideas?