Brand new and need a bit of help please... Thanks

[Ross_Hunter]

Hi,

Ive got a 1100d with the basic IS II Lens 18-55mm, I tried to take a (practice) night shot with a tripod and I just couldnt get the camera to focus properly on the tree..

I tried AF & MF but becasue it was dark i couldnt quite see if it was focused through the view finder hence MF didnt work out... :blush2:

Could anyone give me a few pointers please?

Thanks

[jetrim]

A flashlight can be a big help when trying to focus at night, just turn it off before you trip the shutter. (or not, you can actually paint things with light during long exposures using just a flashlight)

[GB1]

Welcome.

Hmm.. this focus is really far off. Did you shoot this through a window? Seems like it. It's also possible that the camera was moving during exposure, as no place in the frame looks focused.

If you can't really tell if it's manually focused and auto focus won't work, switch to MF and estimate the distance to your subject and, assuming your camera lens has them, use the len's distance markings to set it.

If it doesn't have distance marks, just use approximations. Find out which way is the infinity setting, and the other way will be the closest point. The tree will probably be close to the same as infinity.. set it to infinity and then back it off a little. Use wide angle so that most things are automatically sharp.

Hope this helps a bit -
GB

[Ross_Hunter]

Welcome.

Hmm.. this focus is really far off. Did you shoot this through a window? Seems like it. It's also possible that the camera was moving during exposure, as no place in the frame looks focused.

If you can't really tell if it's manually focused and auto focus won't work, switch to MF and estimate the distance to your subject and, assuming your camera lens has them, use the len's distance markings to set it.

If it doesn't have distance marks, just use approximations. Find out which way is the infinity setting, and the other way will be the closest point. The tree will probably be close to the same as infinity.. set it to infinity and then back it off a little. Use wide angle so that most things are automatically sharp.

Hope this helps a bit -
GB

Thanks for the reply, I'll try the infinity zoom and move back in a bit and see how it goes... I didnt think of doing that :blush2:

Thanks a bunch