Focussing in the dark.

It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a Christmas
tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few different settings
but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera shake.
www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus C-750, and it
was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had focussed correctly, the green
indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor, but the
result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre of the
display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image, but there's no
noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4 ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It was my
wife's idea)

--
Chris Pollard


CG Internet café, Tagum City, Philippines
http://www.cginternet.net

Christopher Pollard wrote:
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few
different settings but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera
shake. www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

Agreed.

Try:

- setting the camera to "landscape" or whatever fixed infinity focus is
called on yours.

- stopping down to f/8

- perhaps, with the longer exposure you will need to use whatever noise
reduction feature is offered.

The exposure looks nice, though! Actually, your coud try taking two shots
one at, say, two stops more (to bring out the details in the building) and
combine them.

Actually, looking more closely, some of the railings do seem to be almost
in focus. More so towards the left edge. Maybe? Perhaps your lens isn't
so good when wide open?

Cheers,
David

Christopher Pollard wrote:
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few
different settings but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera
shake. www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

Agreed.

Try:

- setting the camera to "landscape" or whatever fixed infinity focus is
called on yours.

- stopping down to f/8

- perhaps, with the longer exposure you will need to use whatever noise
reduction feature is offered.

The exposure looks nice, though! Actually, your coud try taking two shots
one at, say, two stops more (to bring out the details in the building) and
combine them.

Actually, looking more closely, some of the railings do seem to be almost
in focus. More so towards the left edge. Maybe? Perhaps your lens isn't
so good when wide open?

Cheers,
David

"Christopher Pollard" wrote in message
...
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas
tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few different
settings
but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera shake.
www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus C-750,
and it
was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had focussed correctly, the
green
indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor, but
the
result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre of
the
display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image, but there's
no
noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4 ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It was
my
wife's idea)

--
Chris Pollard

Was it at all windy when you took the picture? If so, it's possible the
tripod wasn't completely steady ...

"Christopher Pollard" wrote in message
...
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas
tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few different
settings
but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera shake.
www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus C-750,
and it
was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had focussed correctly, the
green
indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor, but
the
result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre of
the
display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image, but there's
no
noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4 ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It was
my
wife's idea)

--
Chris Pollard

Was it at all windy when you took the picture? If so, it's possible the
tripod wasn't completely steady ...

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 17:43:51 +0800, Christopher Pollard
wrote:

It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a Christmas
tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few different settings
but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera shake.
www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus C-750, and it
was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had focussed correctly, the green
indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor, but the
result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre of the
display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image, but there's no
noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4 ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It was my
wife's idea)

Try this again. Don't let the day get too dark (in fact, do it when
it's dusk about 1/2 way between sunset and darkness) so we can still
see the sky/roofline.

f2.8 is too wide, most lenses (and I don't know what a C-750 is BTW)
are sharpest at f5.6 to f8 and suffer other issues when zoomed fully
wide. There is no reason this exposure can't be several seconds long,
other than wind blowing the palms (but it adds interest 'life', so
what).

It's a digital camera right? so bracket.

A smaller aperture will give you less of a problem with manual focus,
set it to half way between infinity and 4 ft (take a guess, and
bracket the focus too). I wouldn't trust auto-focus at night on a
timer, who knows what tricks it'll pull.

--
Owamanga!

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 17:43:51 +0800, Christopher Pollard
wrote:

It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a Christmas
tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few different settings
but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera shake.
www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus C-750, and it
was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had focussed correctly, the green
indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor, but the
result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre of the
display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image, but there's no
noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4 ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It was my
wife's idea)

Try this again. Don't let the day get too dark (in fact, do it when
it's dusk about 1/2 way between sunset and darkness) so we can still
see the sky/roofline.

f2.8 is too wide, most lenses (and I don't know what a C-750 is BTW)
are sharpest at f5.6 to f8 and suffer other issues when zoomed fully
wide. There is no reason this exposure can't be several seconds long,
other than wind blowing the palms (but it adds interest 'life', so
what).

It's a digital camera right? so bracket.

A smaller aperture will give you less of a problem with manual focus,
set it to half way between infinity and 4 ft (take a guess, and
bracket the focus too). I wouldn't trust auto-focus at night on a
timer, who knows what tricks it'll pull.

--
Owamanga!

Christopher Pollard wrote:
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few
different settings but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera
shake. www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus
C-750, and it was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had
focussed correctly, the green indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor,
but the result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre
of the display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image,
but there's no noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4
ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It
was my wife's idea)

Seems to me the barricade is in pretty good focus. Just ever-exposed and
blooming, my view.

Where do you live? Whose idea was the barricade? Just curious.


--
Frank ess

Christopher Pollard wrote:
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few
different settings but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera
shake. www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus
C-750, and it was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had
focussed correctly, the green indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor,
but the result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre
of the display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image,
but there's no noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4
ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It
was my wife's idea)

Seems to me the barricade is in pretty good focus. Just ever-exposed and
blooming, my view.

Where do you live? Whose idea was the barricade? Just curious.


--
Frank ess

"Christopher Pollard" wrote in message
...
It's Christmas, almost, and therefore my house is lit up like, erm, a
Christmas
tree. So I decided to take a photograph of it. Tried a few different
settings
but they all seemed out of focus.
At least I think it's a focus problem, it doesn't look like camera shake.
www.xmastree.34sp.com/images/pc140023.jpg
See what you think.

The camera was on a tripod, and I used the timer. It's a Olympus C-750,
and it
was in program mode, auto focus. It thought it had focussed correctly, the
green
indicator was steady.
That shot IIRC was f2.8 1/1.6. I was also using a wide angle adaptor, but
the
result was the same without it.

I tried the manual focus, but it's very difficult to use. The centre of
the
display shows an enlarged version of the centre of the image, but there's
no
noticeable change from infinity until I get to about 4 ft.

(comments about the 'tastefulness' of the lights will be ignored. It was
my
wife's idea)

--
Chris Pollard

It looks to me to be an over-exposure of the lights. Look past the lights
at the building, which is much darker. That part isn't much - if at all -
out of focus.

The image has a very large range of intensity. Try to fill in the
background with a floodlight, then reduce the exposure.