On Jul 19, 2010, at 3:24 PM, Larry Colen wrote:
I was photographing a friend playing in a small club in Capitola the
other night. When I reviewed my photos, I found that an awful lot of
them were focused on sharp edges in front of the musician:
The tip jar, drum kit, microphone etc.
I understand how this happens with autofocus. The camera is too
stupid to know what to focus on and focuses on the sharp edge. What
I don't understand is why this happens on manual focus. *I* should
know better.
One challenge that I have in low light is actually seeing the line
of the split prism to try and line that up on the musician.
Especially musicians that tend to move around a lot. As such, I may
rely a lot more on the microprism ring, and wonder if I just focus
until I see whatever is in that ring come into focus, and not notice
that it's not actually the subject that I'm trying to photograph.
More a case of my brain saying "something is sharp, press the
shutter".
I'm curious if other people have this problem when manually
focusing, and what they do to fix it.
I simply use a plain matte screen and pick the spot on which I want to
focus -- frequently an eye. I find that split prisms are a distraction
for people pics. On my Leica rangefinder, I'm forced to align split
images, but I still target my spot, and judge the alignment as best I
can. Targeting the point of focus is the most important step.
Paul
I got what I thought was an amusing compliment on my dancing that
night. I had a rather nice slow blues dance with an attractive
young lady. Afterwards, she said in a rather husky voice "I need a
cigarette". Unfortunately, she was married. Even worse, her husband
doesn't share.
I did get a couple shots of the lead singer which turned out pretty
well:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/4807504309/in/set-72157624409188927/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/4808124360/in/set-72157624409188927/
In the second one Amy Lou isn't as sharp as I'd like, but I do like
the way the composition worked out with Gary (the bass player) in
the background.
--
Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est
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