No Focus

[shrimperblue]

Last night I thought I would try some low light – long exposure shots out in the garden.

Obviously I am still learning and thought someone more experienced could give me some insight into the problem I encountered?

My AF just wouldn’t “lock on” to anything in darker areas and it was way too dark to see through the viewfinder to MF. Very annoying as I could see the shot I wanted but couldn’t capture it.

I had the aperture wide open and dof was wide. I tried all sorts.

Where am I going wrong?

Thanks

SB

I had a thought, should I increase the exposure?

[mmcp42]

fair play
if it's so dark you can't focus
what chance does the camera have!
you could shine a torch while focussing
or some flashguns will project a pattern
or you could measure the distance like they did "in the old days when I were a lad"

[barsbyart]

Hi shrimper! I've only recently bought my first digi and haven't used it at night yet so I din't have any experience of this but I don't think you're doing anything wrong - a lot of AF have probs locking on in very low light. I have experienced probs manually focussing at night but I pre-set the focus using the distance scale (you prob don't have one on your camera) and use a mid-range aperture never wide open.

I'm sure someone here will be able to help so I'll keep an eye on this thread. Thanks for raising the point.

[daftbugga]

My AF just wouldn’t “lock on” to anything in darker areas and it was way too dark to see through the viewfinder to MF.

that is the key point , if you cant see enough to manually focus then the cameras af system has the same problem.

using a torch to light up the point you want to focus on does help a lot ,do you have a maglite or similar??

increasing the exposure wont help the autofocus BTW.

EDIT must learn to type with 2 fingers

[shrimperblue]

Im glad you see my piont, I dont feel so silly now!

I previously posted some examples of two shots that came out "alright" but im not happy with them.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=47909

On #1 I had to focus closer to a tree next to a street lamp to get the AF then crop the pic. There is a row of 5 washing lines that looks nice and spooky but I simply couldnt get them.

I like the torch idea. I'll dig out my old mag light then. thx.

[AndyBorzi]

Whilst you have your torch out...do some light painting as well!!