Pls comment on the pic...

[wee_wei]

my 1st few shots with e500...

[drakon09]

Which lens did you use? Seems slightly soft/off-focus, handshake perhaps?

I gather this was taken in your room without flash with the light source from the lower left?

[wee_wei]

Originally Posted by drakon09 Which lens did you use? Seems slightly soft/off-focus, handshake perhaps? I gather this was taken in your room without flash with the light source from the lower left?

i used the kit lens for it... yah.. without any light source...

think my hands not too stable as well...

been practicing these few days... hopefully can improve..

[wee_wei]

by the way, how do you know whether it's really focused or not.. i looked in the viewfinder and it seems ok for most pics.. but when i see it in the computer, which is bigger in size, then i notice that they are not focused correctly.

[moriahphotos]

for focusing, best is to focus on the subject itself, i.e. do the edges appear sharp in yr viewfinder? most of the time it is not an issue of focusing that causes the off-focus effect but rather the handshake (although minimal but the camera captures it and magnifies it in low light especially) so best if you have strong/sufficient lighting. Otherwise use a tripod or a stable platform to place your camera.

just to sidetrack a lil, if you are takin landscape, make sure your anti-shock is on as it will prevent shake cause by the viewfinder mirror mechanism swinging aside/up.

my 2 cents worth...

[wee_wei]

Originally Posted by moriahphotos for focusing, best is to focus on the subject itself, i.e. do the edges appear sharp in yr viewfinder? most of the time it is not an issue of focusing that causes the off-focus effect but rather the handshake (although minimal but the camera captures it and magnifies it in low light especially) so best if you have strong/sufficient lighting. Otherwise use a tripod or a stable platform to place your camera. just to sidetrack a lil, if you are takin landscape, make sure your anti-shock is on as it will prevent shake cause by the viewfinder mirror mechanism swinging aside/up. my 2 cents worth...

ok, points noted!
but, if the lighting is sufficient, i will not be able to capture the shot as what the ambience colour are. Any suggestion on that? I will need a tripod?
Sometimes if the subject covers like half of the picture, will the auto focus be intelligent enough to detect it? or i will need to use the mode with MF as well?

[drakon09]

Originally Posted by wee_wei ok, points noted! but, if the lighting is sufficient, i will not be able to capture the shot as what the ambience colour are. Any suggestion on that? I will need a tripod? Sometimes if the subject covers like half of the picture, will the auto focus be intelligent enough to detect it? or i will need to use the mode with MF as well?

Bumping up the ISO is one option, however there is the noise issue.

If mounted on tripod, slow shutter wouldn't be a problem so you can afford to go ISO 100 or 200, thus capturing ambient colour to its fullest.

If I'm not wrong, the AF works by contrast edge or something like that, basically if it's of uniform colour and texture, you might need to go on MF.

[moriahphotos]

if auto focus is unable to focus on the subject, chances are you are too near the subject... Even using manual focusing wont work cuz your lens can only focus from a minimum distance onwards (for kit lens usually its 1.5feet to infinity). However you may want to consider buying macro lens to shoot close-ups where your subject fills more than 50% of your frame ( spreading the BBB virus... )

[wee_wei]

if i were to take a picture of a group of say, 5 persons infront of a scenery, which focus do I use? If i want both the person plus scenary to be sharp...

[OlyFlyer]

Originally Posted by wee_wei if i were to take a picture of a group of say, 5 persons infront of a scenery, which focus do I use? If i want both the person plus scenary to be sharp...

Since I am also new to the camera, I would start testing with the portrait/landscape combination auto mode. Than if you have enough memory take a few shots with different settings.

[moriahphotos]

Originally Posted by wee_wei if i were to take a picture of a group of say, 5 persons infront of a scenery, which focus do I use? If i want both the person plus scenary to be sharp...

In your case, its not much of an issue of where to focus but how to control Depth of Field, i.e. how much of your picture appears sharp. To do so, set your camera to lock at either f8 or f11 (its called the "sweet-spot" of sharpness) and focus on your main subject.

To make more objects/scenery near your subject even sharper, set it to a even smaller aperture, i.e. f16 or f22 but it will need longer shutter speed.

Basically what you need to play with is DoF (Depth of Field) where you adjust your aperture until you get the kind of focus you want.

Hope this helps in your understanding of focusing....