Fuji Dave
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Oh god lol!
That`s why I said take your next shot on Full Auto, if it still does it then it`s got to be a fault somewhere I think.
and help to keep the site free for all
Could be my first job, advice needed
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That`s why I said take your next shot on Full Auto, if it still does it then it`s got to be a fault somewhere I think.
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Phil answered that about 15 posts ago. Are you even reading the replies on here?
OP
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I’m trying to mate. But a lot of the replies are people taking off topic. I’ll go back and look.
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Here is a better photo guys
I wonder why the first photo I took wasn’t as good as focus as this?
One question I do have.
Before I switched to BBF I would half press the shutter buttons, hear the beep and wait for the green light to come on so I know the subject is in focus
Now I’ve switched to BBF and when I press the new focus button there is no beep or green light so how do I know the subject is in focus
An idle moment with my cuppa.
What you are seeing sounds to me that you have combined AI Servo with BBF this combination is ideal for motorsport and wildlife......not for static portrait work.
In AI Servo the focusing does not lock and the shutter will fire without the focus locking. I suggest, if you wish, stick with BBF but do stop using AI Servo and go back to One Shot.
I feel I have interpreted the reason for your current ongoing problem......though perhaps I am still wasting my time
Edit ~ seeing Mark's @DemiLion post....yes, I recall Phil mentioned AI Servo,so take this as a nudge from me
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OP
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15 posts ago he answered my question why there is no beep / green light.
My question is now I am on BBF how do I know the subject is on focus when I press the button?
Am I just trysting the camera ?
OP
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An idle moment with my cuppa.
What you are seeing sounds to me that you have combined AI Servo with BBF this combination is ideal for motorsport and wildlife......not for static portrait work.
In AI Servo the focusing does not lock and the shutter will fire without the focus locking. I suggest, if you wish, stick with BBF but do stop using AI Servo and go back to One Shot.
I feel I have interpreted the reason for your current ongoing problem......though perhaps I am still wasting my time
Edit ~ seeing Mark's @DemiLion post....yes, I recall Phil mentioned AI Servo,so take this as a nudge from me
Think I am going to turn off BBF for now
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Take it off of BBF mate, not needed in your present situation, it’s more for moving, eractic subjects
Fuji Dave
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IMO plus show her your pictures and ask her (a picture paints a 1000 words they say) how you can improve them.............all being well she will take you through the required steps to correct any rookie errors and teach you how to grow your cameracraft?
Fraser Euan White
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Look at my advice higher in the thread @willkia - you MUST learn this first before you learn you camera!
You HAVE to learn shutter speed/aperture/Iso - how they are linked and the effects they will have on the photograph.
If you don't know these then you will NEVER know if what you are doing is correct.
To show you understand these write a description under each title on this thread explaining what they do
You HAVE to learn shutter speed/aperture/Iso - how they are linked and the effects they will have on the photograph.
If you don't know these then you will NEVER know if what you are doing is correct.
To show you understand these write a description under each title on this thread explaining what they do
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OP
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Thanks I’ll have a look tomorrow on YouTube
Fraser Euan White
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I’m afraid I agree with you, I could never get on with shutter button focus, it’s the work of the devil.
I like bbf because it requires an action to focus thats distinctly different to just firing the shutter... imho it’s far too easy to just press past the focus without thinking.
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Again.Look at my advice higher in the thread @willkia - you MUST learn this first before you learn you camera!
You HAVE to learn shutter speed/aperture/Iso - how they are linked and the effects they will have on the photograph.
If you don't know these then you will NEVER know if what you are doing is correct.
To show you understand these write a description under each title on this thread explaining what they do
I couldn’t disagree more, people get hung up on the exposure triangle, Will’s issue is he can’t get his head round focussing.
I always advocate taking control of and learning how to focus before anything else. A modern camera will auto expose well 90% of the time, but get focus right less than 80% left to its own devices.
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I’ll happily bow to your experience, it was more based on this thread only not generally, didn’t think will needed anything else to learn, think about, thought he had enough from the other posts and didn’t see the need for more.
I only learnt to use BBF early this year and even when I try the other way just feels awkward now.
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Its out of focus.A photo I took today
Let me guess, she is out of focus and the tree is! Hahaha
Stop shooting ‘headshots’ till you’ve practiced.
Spend an evening shooting the table lamp, pictures on the wall, the telly, your feet, anything you can see.
It’s a piece of p*** (when you haven’t got the extra pressure of pleasing someone else, communicating with them etc), using your cameraproperly should become 2nd nature within days.
There’s a picture on the wall in my dining room...
I’ve got about 200 images of it, because it’s handy for testing stuff, and I’d been shooting 20 odd years when I bought that picture. I don’t shoot it cos I’m a learner!!
A racing driver doesn’t ‘practice’ racing, he practices driving, he doesn’t wait till he has someone to race, he hones his skills and learns how his car works. So then when he has to race, he doesn’t have to think about how his car works, he can concentrate on the racing, because the driving is 2nd nature.
Once you’ve learned to use your camera, you can take pictures for others.
You try to pretend you’re getting contradictory advice, but that’s b****x. You like to think you’re shooting ‘jobs’ cost makes you feel great. Practicing your photography on your mates when there’s no guarantee you’ll get them in focus isn’t a ‘job’ or a ‘gig’ or ‘headshots’, it’s not asession; it’s just you learning to use a camera with your mates as guinea pigs.
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The importance of the Exposure Triangle isn't really about correct exposure - the camera will pretty much take care of that anyway. It's about understanding how the three main camera controls are used for creative effect, so you can get an out of focus background, or depth of field extending right to the horizon, or use an action-freezing shutter speed, or one that will deliberately blur movement etc etc. When you've got a good grasp of the Exposure Triangle, you can maximise all these things while working within the inevitable compromises that every situation presents, and still achieve correct exposure.
That's the basic craft of picture making. Then compose carefully, focus accurately, choose the right moment - and you're on the way to being a decent photographer.
Overriding all that though is a an interesting subject and good light. Silk purse and sow's ear spring to mind. What the OP is lacking primarily IMHO is good light, both in some of the examples here and also on his previous thread https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/too-much-for-me.687419/ He has an attractive subject, a location that shows potential, but a dull overcast day results in dull and unflattering images with dead eyes. If the light isn't right, then find somewhere different, or wait till it changes, or create some of your own with a reflector or flash gun.
That's the basic craft of picture making. Then compose carefully, focus accurately, choose the right moment - and you're on the way to being a decent photographer.
Overriding all that though is a an interesting subject and good light. Silk purse and sow's ear spring to mind. What the OP is lacking primarily IMHO is good light, both in some of the examples here and also on his previous thread https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/too-much-for-me.687419/ He has an attractive subject, a location that shows potential, but a dull overcast day results in dull and unflattering images with dead eyes. If the light isn't right, then find somewhere different, or wait till it changes, or create some of your own with a reflector or flash gun.
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It’s not that you were wrong to say he shouldn’t use BBF, it’s that there’s no simple advice that works for everyone.
For me, the advice to use BBF means that he should be making a conscious decision about his focussing, but for others, it means a needless complication (horses for courses)
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One of my sons got married, he got his wife's sister, who allegedly is a pro photographer, to photograph their wedding and every single shot was out of focus, to some degree or other. For some reason she took every shot wide open!
She got married herself last week, hopefully she had a real pro for her own wedding
The reality is that dead accurate focussing is essential (and risky) when shooting at maximum aperture, I suggest that you stop doing it until you know enough about the DOF at every shooting distance, and until you have developed your camera skills - relatively few shots benefit from being shot wide open and there's no point in making life difficult for yourself and creating unecessary risk - it's a bit like driving at twice the speed of every other car on the road - best left to the police, they're trained to do it and they have a reason to do it.
As Phil says, photograph inanimate objects. If this achieves nothing else it will tell you whether it's your focussing technique that's at fault or whether your camera isn't focussing properly, and either is possible.
She got married herself last week, hopefully she had a real pro for her own wedding
The reality is that dead accurate focussing is essential (and risky) when shooting at maximum aperture, I suggest that you stop doing it until you know enough about the DOF at every shooting distance, and until you have developed your camera skills - relatively few shots benefit from being shot wide open and there's no point in making life difficult for yourself and creating unecessary risk - it's a bit like driving at twice the speed of every other car on the road - best left to the police, they're trained to do it and they have a reason to do it.
As Phil says, photograph inanimate objects. If this achieves nothing else it will tell you whether it's your focussing technique that's at fault or whether your camera isn't focussing properly, and either is possible.
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Here is a better photo guys
I wonder why the first photo I took wasn’t as good as focus as this?
What Richard said above, but from a slightly different slant.
It’s about learning to ‘see’!
You can’t see that she’s out of focus?
See the tree growing out of her shoulder is a distraction
See other needless clutter in the background (making it OoF doesn’t mean it’s still not important)
The lights not bad, but you’d be amazed to see the difference tilting her head up 5deg would make
Learning to ‘see’ these things is crucial.
People will tell you that these things don’t matter to ordinary people, only to photographers, but if you ask people to pick between a well focussed image andthe same image OoF, everyone picks the in focus one. Likewise well composed, well lit...
I don’t have to be a pro footballer to see that Messi is better than my mate in the pub league up the road.
It’s ridiculous to presume otherwise.
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Use a longer lens to achieving both an out of focus background as well as sufficient depth of field for good sharpness on the main subject.
If you move back to twice the distance and double the focal length, you get background blur equivalent to two stops lower f/number (rough rule of thumb). In other words, you can shoot at two stops higher f/number to get greater depth of field on the main subject, but background blur will be the same.
Edit: the perspective change with a longer lens will also reduce cluttered and distracting backgrounds.
If you move back to twice the distance and double the focal length, you get background blur equivalent to two stops lower f/number (rough rule of thumb). In other words, you can shoot at two stops higher f/number to get greater depth of field on the main subject, but background blur will be the same.
Edit: the perspective change with a longer lens will also reduce cluttered and distracting backgrounds.
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I think you may also need to practice your camera technique, as in are you holding it right, are you standing in a stable position, are you really as still as you think once you've achieved focus and pressing the shutter button (this is one reason I use bbf in servo, because the camera is constantly focusing, all the while I've got my thumb on the bbf button), the act of pressing the shutter button can move the camera in your hands (don't stab at the button, squeeze it). Get in the habit of keeping the viewfinder to your eye for a couple of seconds after you've pressed the shutter. This should help to keep you and the camera in a more stable position.
GarethB
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I agree with you Nostromo, it's what troubled me when I first started....wobbly hands/poor hand holding technique etc.
I couldn't understand why my shots were soft - blamed the camera/lens etc - until I realised it was me.
Even the tiniest head movement forwards or backwards will throw the image out of focus with such a narrow depth of field at max aperture and close to your subject.
One has to think like a tripod!
Also worth bearing in mind that most lenses are not the sharpest wide open, and if you have the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 'Art' lens, then this is a very nice, sharp lens, but it would benefit from stopping down at least one stop....you won't lose much background blur....but 'bokeh' isn't everything!!
I couldn't understand why my shots were soft - blamed the camera/lens etc - until I realised it was me.
Even the tiniest head movement forwards or backwards will throw the image out of focus with such a narrow depth of field at max aperture and close to your subject.
One has to think like a tripod!
Also worth bearing in mind that most lenses are not the sharpest wide open, and if you have the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 'Art' lens, then this is a very nice, sharp lens, but it would benefit from stopping down at least one stop....you won't lose much background blur....but 'bokeh' isn't everything!!
Fraser Euan White
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^^^ This exactly!
You must learn how each function of the camera effects the final image; there is no point telling someone to focus on the subject closest to the camera when they want other subjects in focus as well or vice versa. Telling a beginner to 'stop down a lens' will mean nothing to them; you might as well talk in a foreign language!
Every camera (just about) has Shutter speed, ISO & aperture; if you learn how to use them it applies to all cameras. This is why I said in the post you completely disagree with @Phil V :
Fraser Euan White said:
i.e. A beginner needs to understand that to get more 'in focus' they need to use a smaller aperture but that will restrict the light entering the camera so the shutter speed will be slower and result in a blurred image again due to camera shake, to avoid this increase the ISO. Once you fully understand these controls you can determine what you want from the resultant image. (hope this helps explain why I feel it is important.)
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And Richard and I fundamentally disagree about this and very little else
In my world view, photography is about making pictures, and for a beginner the important things to concentrate on are
Getting it in focus
Experimenting with the creative process, depth of field, light and composition.
*added* Exploring the relationship between items in the frame as you change FL and position
You can leave a modern camera to expose well enough* whilst you’re doing ‘interesting’ stuff that makes pictures.
*itll sometimes fail, and when that becomes a major concern, learning the exposure triangle is the next step.
But we are all different, my method means people keep making interesting pictures whilst learning, if you get hung up on trying to super control exposure, you shoot a load of under/over exposed crap and lose interest in my experience.
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Good point well made.And Richard and I fundamentally disagree about this and very little else
In my world view, photography is about making pictures, and for a beginner the important things to concentrate on are
Getting it in focus
Experimenting with the creative process, depth of field, light and composition.
You can leave a modern camera to expose well enough* whilst you’re doing ‘interesting’ stuff that makes pictures.
*itll sometimes fail, and when that becomes a major concern, learning the exposure triangle is the next step.
But we are all different, my method means people keep making interesting pictures whilst learning, if you get hung up on trying to super control exposure, you shoot a load of under/over exposed crap and lose interest in my experience.
Fuji Dave
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For me it did take a while to get use to BBF, but now I use it all the time on the camera I could never go back to shutter focus.
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It's not for everyone and it really is down to personal preference. I use it and have done for a few years now, it's second nature. I'm sure if I had to I could go back to the other way and get used to fairly quickly.
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It's just one of those little things that makes me brain fart a little, I couldn't shake half-pressing even when set up for BBF.
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This is an extremely good point and should make things much easier for the OP.
Many years ago when I was using a vast number of different camera/lens combinations ranging from 35mm through medium format to large format, I sometimes struggled to work out what the DOF would be and it mattered a lot, because of course we had to develop the film to see whether it worked or not - so I forgot about f/numbers and did a bit of very quick and simple mental arithmetic instead, based on effective aperture instead of f/.
And you know what? I still do because if, for example, I know that the f/number that will give me the required amount of DOF on say a 50mm lens is f/8 is 6.25mm then obviously the same aperture on a 200mm lens would be f/32, i.e. F50/8 = 6.25mm therefore F50/6.25=f/8, F100/F100/6.25=f/16 and F200/6.25=f/32