what am i doing wrong???

[KVB1085]

focus on statue

focus on flower

focus statue

flowers

statue

 

[passerby]

The focusing mechanism looks fine, plus I can see there was moving cloud on and off.

Without polirizer, higher ISO around 800 and wait till the sun light on the scene and with aperture f11 - you should have at least 1/125 shutter speed. Much more than enough for handheld.

 

[reconstyle]

Looks MUCH better IMO. Looks like the weather was a lot nicer as well.

 

[MarcusM]

Those look a lot sharper. I think it was mostly to do with your shutter speed. You can get a lot sharper since you increased your shutter speed to 1/45 from 1/6 or 1/10 what you were shooting before.

Also I think the fact that you opened your aperture worked twofold:

-it let you shoot at increased shutter speeds meaning less blur from camera shake
-F8 will be sharper than F22 normally

 

[mrodgers]

@KVB1085, your 2nd attempt are much better, good job!

I know it sounds kinda mundane to do all that, but at least you know what speed you'll still be sharp at!! Plus it gives you something else to do while you're at work...

Not at all. I found this quite helpful (or I will when I try it). Sounds like an excellent way to see how steady your shot will be at certain speeds and figuring out which one to use as a minimum for hand-held. Great post!

 

[KVB1085]

thanks guys.... still not quite as clear as i'd like them to be... and i'm not a fan of the 1200 sun light.... but they do look better to me as well.. thanks for all the input/tips/help...

as you can see i tried putting it all to use to get some better shots!

 

[SBlanca]

clearly improved in the 2nd try, nice!

what is the whole statue of though?
from what i can see its a child with a fishy, is that all or is there anything else to it?

 

[KVB1085]

clearly improved in the 2nd try, nice!

what is the whole statue of though?
from what i can see its a child with a fishy, is that all or is there anything else to it?

it's a fountain at my bosses house............... no water comes out of it though.... don't know why... but yes... a child holding a fish..... the water should be coming out of the mouth of the fish...

 

[phox]

As a general rule of thumb, you should be using a shutterspeed that is greater than the mm of your lense when you are handheld, unless you are using flash. So if you are at 50mm you should be at 1/60, 24 mm 1/30 etc.

 

[Sheriff]

auto focus....


no tripod...

i was focusing on the flowers in some shots...

and in some on the statue...


in most pictures the settings were:
iso 200
wb- cloudy +3
shutter-1/10
aperture f16

now my shutter and aperture range a bit from picture to picture... but my meter always read correct exposure...

ss ranged from 1/6-1/10
aperture from f9.5-22.... f13+16 were used more than anything.

With these setting you had to use a tripod, shutter speeds are to low for hand hold shooting. I can see motion blur in some of your pictures.

 

[crotograph]

Just an add-on here. Much has been discussed but I would like to, if I may, make a couple observations. If there is anyway possible, use a tripod.

Always use your DOF preview button on any Nikon camera after setting your ideal SS and APP. I was never so happy as to have these "inventions" since my first Nikon FTn in 1969. the preview button will stop the app down to your selection and give you the actual DOF view that you have set using your combo of Ap and SS. If you once see them you may want to change them and this is your chance. Your preview button is to the bottom right of your lens. It is your friend and you should use it almost always.

Also, I most always use a manual setting for lens and camera. I trust my Luna Pro meter much more than I do any cameras meter. Especially for film but even for digital. I use the D70s also but find its meter to be slightly off for what I do. I rarely use AF on it as I tend to be very critical of my DOF settings. Of course, this is just me. Some of my students have tried my philosophy and their photos, after practice and getting used to the manual settings, have improved 100% over the cameras all auto. Again, this is only my practice and opinion and I realize that many pros use and are extremely successful with full auto.