vikkiolds

<p>Kerry, I have put that 100 2.8IS lens on my wish list. It looks awesome.<br>

<br /> Jochen the tripod did help but as you mentioned panning doesn't work so well for what I was trying to do. Moving my aperture up a few stops got me almost to where I wanted to be.<br>

<br /> Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. I've been studying everything all of you have mentioned and have learned quite a bit. Had to come back here several times to really get it all to sink in.<br>

<br /> I am embarrassed to say when I viewed the video about recomposing I missed some very important points. One of them, the most important, is that you only get one main focus point unless there are other things at the same distance which explains why the grass blades have some focus. The parts that were in focus were at the same distance as the dandelion. For some reason when I watched the video I got the mistaken impression that if I set focus on one object and then recomposed that both subjects would be in focus and I would also get a nice bokeh for the background because of the aperture setting. Of course I have learned now that is not the case.<br>

<br /> Recomposing is for setting focus on your main subject and then composing the final image with the subject for the rule of thirds or at least recomposing to balance everything in the full image nicely.<br /> I thank you all again for taking the time to explain and I'm still practicing on all the things you've said.</p>

<p>Thank you Jochen and Dan. Yes, I got my terminology wrong.<br>

First it sounds like I should be using a tripod at f1.4 and not handheld and it sounds like I need a subject that is not influenced by wind/movement when attempting to shoot at that aperture. <br>

I was under the impression for some reason that increasing my shutter speed would make up for camera/subject movement and didn't realize that it wouldn't help with such a wide aperture. <br>

I'll look up AI Servo AF in the manual, do some reading on that today and I'll get deeper into the AF system to learn more about setting other AF points. <br>

I will practice with both of your suggestions today. Thank you again for such detailed answers. They make sense and are extremely helpful.</p>

<p>Hi,<br>

I am trying to learn about focus tracking but I'm having some trouble and maybe someone could help me figure out where I've gone wrong. I watched a tutorial video on the web to start learning this focus technique but I am doing something wrong and I can't figure it out. It looked really simple in the video...lock the focus on a subject and then recompose and take the shot.<br>

Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II<br>

Lens: Canon 50mm<br>

My manual says that I can use One Shot AF for still subjects to lock focus and then recompose. It was a little windy for the daffodil shot but I thought I handled that with such a high shutter speed.<br>

I started practicing with a daffodil.<br>

ISO 100<br />f 1.4<br />shutter speed 1/1600<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17994640<br>

I locked the focus on the stem just below the flower and then recomposed on the flower. As you can see I ended up with an out of focus stem and the center of the flower is also out of focus but the petals behind the main flower are in focus.<br>

I then tried with a dandelion, a different lens and different settings.<br>

Canon Lens: 55-250mm<br>

ISO 100<br />f 5.6<br />shutter 1/160<br>

http://www.photo.net/photo/17994641<br>

I focused on the juniper berry on the left of the flower and then recomposed. The juniper berry is out of focus, the outside edges of the petals of the flower are out of focus but some of the blades of grass around the edges are in focus.<br>

I was trying to get a nice out of focus background and then a clear focus on the berry and the flower. What would make the juniper berry be blurry but the blades of grass in focus? Was it because the grass might have been closer to the lens and the juniper berry further even though I thought I locked the focus on the berry?</p>