Focus, Focus, Focus (or the usefulness of focus charts)

Homo_erectus · 12-21-2014, 10:06 AM

That makes sense, you could probably raise the hit rate with some time spent experimenting and practicing.

I spent a few months shooting my dogs playing fetch in my backyard and trying out different settings on the camera and different techniques and all of that really paid dividends. It sure was disappointing at the time though. Thousands and thousands of not-quite-in-focus shots litter my LR catalog. But now I know the camera, lens and my capabilities and I can always get a few shots that are perfectly focused no matter how challenging the shooting scenario. Sometimes they are even well composed and correctly exposed too!

micromacro · 12-21-2014, 11:49 AM

Yep, I've tried for a year. Cats, dogs, birds, kids... Different cameras, AF modes, different settings, primes, zooms, old manual lenses, newest AF lenses. But the ratio of in focus/out of focus is still the same in average with all my cameras and lenses no matter what. I'm not complaining, my ratio is not bad, but not perfect.

Today I took different approach: think about shooting moving subjects like gun shooting. (no gun discussion please!

) That means "cold" head, steady arms and hands, steady posture, breathing right, and predicting. Predicting when my subject will move and where. At least trying to predict. I tend to be overexcited to catch the action. And I miss it often because of that.

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12-21-2014, 10:06 AM	#31
Homo_erectus Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 410	That makes sense, you could probably raise the hit rate with some time spent experimenting and practicing. I spent a few months shooting my dogs playing fetch in my backyard and trying out different settings on the camera and different techniques and all of that really paid dividends. It sure was disappointing at the time though. Thousands and thousands of not-quite-in-focus shots litter my LR catalog. But now I know the camera, lens and my capabilities and I can always get a few shots that are perfectly focused no matter how challenging the shooting scenario. Sometimes they are even well composed and correctly exposed too!

12-21-2014, 11:49 AM	#32
micromacro Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Florida Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,722	Yep, I've tried for a year. Cats, dogs, birds, kids... Different cameras, AF modes, different settings, primes, zooms, old manual lenses, newest AF lenses. But the ratio of in focus/out of focus is still the same in average with all my cameras and lenses no matter what. I'm not complaining, my ratio is not bad, but not perfect. Today I took different approach: think about shooting moving subjects like gun shooting. (no gun discussion please! ) That means "cold" head, steady arms and hands, steady posture, breathing right, and predicting. Predicting when my subject will move and where. At least trying to predict. I tend to be overexcited to catch the action. And I miss it often because of that.