Full Focus

[suzanne_taylor1]

<p>Hi Everyone,<br>

Here is a question for all of you. I have been having a very hard time trying to get my camera to focus on the whole image rather then just a small section of it. I have a Nikon D80 and usually shoot with a 1.4f 50mm lens however I seem to be having this issue with all kinds of lens'.<br>

I am not sure if a setting is off on my camera or if I am just not understanding fully. Any help would be very appreciated!!!<br>

Thank You!<br>

Suzie</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>You have asked a similar question before: <a href="../nikon-camera-forum/00Tstw">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00Tstw</a></p>

<p>When you focus, you always focus on just one point in the frame, unless your entire scene is a flat wall or something similar. It sounds like what you need is more depth of field, such as f8 or f11. That topic was also discussed in the previous thread.</p>

[suzanne_taylor1]

<p>It just seems that other people have less of a problem with their D80's and I wanted to double check that I did not miss something that was not extremely obvious. <br>

I appreciate your help!!</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>not a camera issue. You need to practice a lot and learn what different apertures do to you focus distance. You can learn this!</p>

<p>Simply put, at a wide aperture, less will be in focus than at a narrow aperture.</p>

<p>Using automatic settings on your camera will more often than not use larger less optimal apertures. You probably won't get optimal results with them, you'll need to understand exposure, shutter speeds, apertures, etc.</p>

<p>Get the book "Understanding Exposure".</p>

[bmm]

<p>In short - if you are using a 50mm f/1.4 in moderate to low light your camera (assuming you are shooting in an Auto mode) will want to select the widest possible aperture which is f/1.4</p>

<p>The trade-off of a wide aperture is a very low depth of field, which means a fair bit of your image will be out of focus unless - as Shun says - your subject is a flat wall.</p>

<p>The way to get around this is to put your camera in A mode and set it to an aperture like say f/5.6 or f/8 or even higher. This will give you lots more depth of field (though your shutter speeds will be a whole lot slower to compensate for the much smaller aperture - and you'll probably have to bump up your ISO to say 800 if you are in low light to make sure those shutter speeds don't become totally unuseable).</p>

<p>Thats the beauty of photography - its all a wonderful balancing acts of decisions and trade-offs. Oh and I agree 100% with Peter Hamm - the book Understanding Exposure by Pedersen explains this well and is a must-read in my opinion.</p>

[syed]

<p>Are you using Auto Area AF mode? Select from Menu-Custom Settings-02 AF Area-Mode. It will use all eleven sensors and use the one that is closest to the "subject." It's not fool proof, but probably better than just using a single area AF.</p>

[gogu]

<p>In short:<br />1) when you are shooting using a large aperture on your lens (1.4, 2,8) a small zone on and around your focus point is crisp and clear, what is behind or in front of that zone is "blurred". The zone where everything is clear is called "depth of field".<br />2) the shorter the focal length (18mm, 24mm, 28mm, 35mm on FX), the bigger/wider the depth of field. That’s why when you are shooting wide-angle you have a much bigger depth of field with a given aperture and when you are shooting telephoto with the same aperture you have a much smaller depth of field.<br /><br />Hope this helps.</p>

[joe_a2]

<p>Suzanne.... You need to spend $15. Buy a copy of <em>Understanding Exposure</em> by Bryan Peterson and really truly school yourself. It's not the lens and it's not the camera. :)</p><div></div>