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I took this shot a while ago but it appears to have some sort of

distortion/out of focus areas. It could have been something on the

lens but I did take other shots without getting this effect. Could any of

you fine Pnet experts prehaps tell me how this was caused.

Thanks

Gareth.

Gareth, I am not great on the technical stuff, but Mike Palermiti, who is on PN is wonderful that way. He will ask you for all the details, which you have included, , and will give you straight out answers.

I love the colors and softness in this. I find it a tad centered, but I really like the way the red pops out of the gray, blue fields.  Overall, it has a lot of good qualities.

Hi Margaret thanks for looking, this was just an odd shot I took, it was only when viewing after that the distortion became apparent. I just wondered if there was a technical explanation or if it was something I did at the time. Regards, gareth.

If it helps the lens uesd was nikon 55-300 f4.5-5.6 VR.

Hi Gareth,

I like the contrast  "pop" that is provided by the red flowers.

Did you drop the lens or bump it around ?

I have seen Image Stabilized lens act like this when an element became misaligned inside the lens. 

Also, it does appear that there is no plane of best focus. This , too can contribute to the apparent distortion. If the VR was on, and the hand movement was present, then the combination can make the image appear like this , too.

At 280mm at F/5, your lens does not exhibit true optical distortion. Something else is going on here.

Best Regards,  Mike

Hi Mike, thanks for taking the time to look. The lens hasn't been dropped and was only 3 weeks old when I took this. I haven't seen this effect in any other shot either so I don't think the lens is damaged. This is my first and only VR lens, both my kit lenses 18-55  and 55-200 are non VR (which I am led to believe have slightly better glass than the VR versions?), maybe I need to adjust my shooting style a little for the VR?

Regards, Gareth.

Hi Gareth,

You are correct. It does take a little time with a new lens to get the performance level up to its capabilities. I have tested your zoom lens in the lens and taken images in the field, and it certainly reveals a clearer image across the frame that i saw here.

If possible, it would be good to return to the same field and shoot it again using the same lens.

What is unusual about your image is that only the center shows a reasonable contrast level, but it is not at best focus.

Be certain that you do get the best focus across the center of the frame prior to taking the image. If auto focus is the problem, then try manual focusing the lens at the same telephoto setting and f-stop.

There are times when the zoom lens looses focus position and does not recover. Then , it is best to pint at a different subject at a closer range to get the lens to respond and find itself.

Best Regards,  Mike

Mike, I took some test shots earlier at same focal length, f stop etc and everything seems fine. Image below was taken at the same time as above and while not brilliant does not show the same distortion. Maybe it is one of those unexplained hitches, it was taken handheld so maybe a slight hand movement jiggled an element. I am going to upgrade to a D7000 at the end of the month so hopefully will get better results. http://thumbs.photo.net/photo/14352656-sm.jpg

I don't know how to paste an image into a comment.

Thanks for your time.

Gareth

To me it looks like the focus is just out on the poppies. Th eWheat? looks in focus behind the poppies, I would say it is a focusing issue.

I've had this happen a few times, and I think in a situation like this it may work better to manually focus.  I see you shot this at f5 too, so that would render a narrow band in focus.  I probably would have tried f8 or 11 and manually focused.  I'm certainly not an expert though, so this is just an idea you might want to consider.  It's a lovely idea with the red popping through the wheat.

Hi Gareth,

The Nikon D7000 is an excellent camera.

As for attachments to pate to comments, just resize the image to a maximum of 700X700 or less and it will show up beneath your comments.

If you resize larger, than an attachment will be seen that can be viewed when "clicked" upon to open.

Best Regards,  Mike

Thank you all for the comments, I shot this while in the middle of something else and it wasn't my main project. The image looked ok on the camera screen it was only when viewed at home I noticed the focus errors. I will take all the advice on board though.

Gareth.