quick question

[jamesparker1250]

Quick question if you guys don't mind ? I'm still pretty new at photography but in the last couple weeks I have been taking photos at night or poorly lit areas and i'm having a hard time locking on focus points is there anything you can suggest .

 

[Josh66]

Manual focus. That's about all you can do when you don't have enough light for AF to work.

Do your lenses have distance scales on them? In my experience, they're fairly accurate.

 

[tirediron]

What camera and lens are you using and at what distances are you typically shooting?

 

[ronlane]

Quick question if you guys don't mind ? I'm still pretty new at photography but in the last couple weeks I have been taking photos at night or poorly lit areas and i'm having a hard time locking on focus points is there anything you can suggest .

Carry a flashlight with you to help with focusing. I try to do that at times.

 

[Mr.Photo]

Most modern DSLR's have a built in focus assist light that will come on momentarily to assist with focusing in low light. If you don't have this then as Ron said above carry a flashlight.

 

[jamesparker1250]

got a Nikon D3200 and been using my nifty fifty

 

[wfooshee]

The focus assist is only good out to a certain distance, but unless you're shooting with a very long lens, a good guess on the focus distance in manual focus should have enough depth of field to keep you covered. And as suggested, a good flashlight will illuminate something well enough to focus on it.

 

[tirediron]

Make sure your AF-Assist light is on; use single-point AF, and consider Ron's suggestion of the flashlight.

 

[Josh66]

got a Nikon D3200 and been using my nifty fifty

Does the Nikon version have a distance scale (a little window that shows what distance it is focused to) - the Canon 'nifty fifty' doesn't, but I've never handled the Nikon version.

 

[TJC]

A lot depends on the distances you are trying to cover. For anything over 30 feet i find a light of some sort, focus on that, and then reframe. That sets the lense to infinity. Also switching to wide angle lense focused at about 7 to 10 feet, at F16 or higher, will usually render everything from the focus point back in focus.
Much night photography is on the street learning. Don't be afraid to experiment.

 

[KmH]

got a Nikon D3200 and been using my nifty fifty

Which 'nifty-fifty'?
Nikon makes 7, 50 mm prime lenses. 3 are f/1.8, 3 are f/1.4, and 1 is f/1.2
To me the only 'nifty-fifty' Nikon offers is the AF 50 mm f/1.8D, and it will not AF on your D3200.

But as pointed out AF needs some light to work and the small and not to powerful AF-Assist light has limited range, so using a more powerful flashlight might be helpful.

 

[Stradawhovious]

Another thing to consider is your DOF/aperture. At night/low light situations it's really tempting to shoot wide open with the fastest lens you can to allow for the most light entering the lens. Nailing focus with that recipe is difficult in the best lit environments, let alone one with poor light. Try to avoid shooting wide open if you can, and use the smallest apreture possible to help increase your DOF.

Flashlight, DOF calculator, and intimate knowledge of your lens' characteristics. Those things will be your best friend in low light. In my experience, the AF assist illumination is all but useless past about 10 feet.

 

[dannylightning]

I try to focus the camera on a light that is off in the distance, it will usually give me a good focus, if its pitch black and there are no lights to be seen in the distance than I need to use manual focus

the focus assist light does seem to help allot of the time but not when things are far away that you are trying to focus on, I have noticed it wont always come on though, depends on what metering and focus point settings I have set in my camera, some times I have to change the settings for those at night to get the assist light to come on.

 

[wfooshee]

Focus assist won't come on in Continuous AF modes. You have to be in AF-Single. If in AF-A, the camera has to have selected Single for the assist light to work. Keep in mind it's only meant to be useful out to about 10 feet or so.

Also, if your focus-point selection is multi-point automatic the light works, but if you have a single focus point selected, it has to be the center for the light to work.

Finally, many of the "scene" modes disable the AF assist light.