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Post by thill25 on Jun 15, 2011 19:02:54 GMT
Yeah, that automatic focusing really screws me up now and then. Little wildflowers, it focuses on the ground instead of the posy. If two people stand together, it focuses on what's behind them. Yet if I try to USE the spot focusing to my advantage, it never seems to work. Then the other problem is that my eyes don't focus closely anymore, so I can't really tell if I've gotten a good "capture" when I review my picture immediately after shooting it. Even with spectacles on. Does your camera have a macro setting?
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Post by Kimby on Jun 15, 2011 19:05:55 GMT
Yes, of a sort. It has a closeup setting, indicated by a flower icon. The other two choices are infinity, indicated by a mountain icon (I use that for shooting through glass mostly), and the default setting.
However, there are a whole lot of other options I need to explore. But I think/thought you could focus/meter on an object with the button halfway depressed, then, holding the button there, compose the frame the way you want and press the shutter all the way, which should over ride that pesky tendency to overexpose or poorly focus images. But it hasn't lately....
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Post by thill25 on Jun 15, 2011 19:12:25 GMT
Yes, of a sort. It has a closeup setting, indicated by a flower icon. The other two choices are infinity, indicated by a mountain icon (I use that for shooting through glass mostly), and the default setting. However, there are a whole lot of other options I need to explore. But I think/thought you could focus/meter on an object with the button halfway depressed, then, holding the button there, compose the frame the way you want and press the shutter all the way, which should over ride that pesky tendency to overexpose or poorly focus images. But it hasn't lately.... The picture above looks like a macro composed shot, but the lens was too close to the subject to properly focus. There should be a minimum focus distance for the lens. I find that on my LX3, the AF will sometimes focus on the background in macro mode. I usually back off, refocus, half press to pre-focus, then snap the pic. Kinda like hitting the reset button...
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Post by Kimby on Jun 15, 2011 19:20:33 GMT
Except I remember taking the photo and don't think I was that close as I had to zoom from a boardwalk...
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Post by thill25 on Jun 16, 2011 15:45:01 GMT
Similar situation because of the zoom...
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Post by Kimby on Jun 16, 2011 18:20:44 GMT
So what IS the best way to get crisp focused closeups with a point and shoot?
Take a zoom shot. Take a regular shot and crop to show only the portion you're interested in. Use the <flower icon> setting that comes with the camera. Something else?
One trick I have used with wispy wildflowers is to put a piece of paper behind the flower, so the camera doesn't focus on the ground behind it.
In lieu of that, and if I want to see the background, just not in sharper focus than the plant, I will stick my hand or finger or a stick in the frame while halfway depressing the shutter, then remove it to snap the photo. I've had intermittant success with that.
Time to break out the manual and see if any of the modes I haven't been using work better than these.
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Post by thill25 on Jun 27, 2011 1:12:15 GMT
So what IS the best way to get crisp focused closeups with a point and shoot? Take a zoom shot. Take a regular shot and crop to show only the portion you're interested in. Use the <flower icon> setting that comes with the camera. Something else? One trick I have used with wispy wildflowers is to put a piece of paper behind the flower, so the camera doesn't focus on the ground behind it. In lieu of that, and if I want to see the background, just not in sharper focus than the plant, I will stick my hand or finger or a stick in the frame while halfway depressing the shutter, then remove it to snap the photo. I've had intermittant success with that. Time to break out the manual and see if any of the modes I haven't been using work better than these. Flower icon for sure...Sorry I was so late in my response. You might want to see if there is a way to zoom in on the focus area. My friend's Canon has this function. It helps if you use reading glasses or bifocals by magnifying the image on screen to ensure proper focusing.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2011 17:27:35 GMT
One thing that a lot of people don't seem to know is that if you leave the button partially pressed, once the camera has decided to focus on something, you can then move the camera to a different position to take the picture, and it will keep the same focus that was originally decided.
To make this more clear, if you want to take a closeup of somebody standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, you want the camera to focus on the person, not that big thing in the far distance. So you position the camera dead center to focus on them, keeping your finger on the button. Once you have done that, you can 'move them to the side' with the Eiffel Tower showing behind them on one side or the other.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 3, 2011 20:50:56 GMT
However, if there are TWO people, you must be careful that you don't accidentally focus between them. Focus on one of them, then include them both in the frame as you wish.
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