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#1
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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 |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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 |
#4
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"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 ... |
#5
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"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 ... |
#6
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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! |
#7
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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! |
#8
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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 |
#9
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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 |
#10
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"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. |
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