FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga

You can see the focus point , but everything else around is fuzzy , what I'm doing wrong ?

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

It is "depth of field" - how much of your image is in focus from front to rear. A great way to calculate ahead of time is at:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

It appears that the actual focus point is in the upper left portion, not in the red box. It also seems that you used the macro setting on your lens. Macro photos generally result in a very shallow depth of field (dof) which is why most of the photo is out of focus. Take it off of macro and use an f/stop that will provide at least 4-5 inches dof in front & behind the focal point. Alternatively, use macro with focus stacking (much more complex process).

lovelylyn Loc: Fort Wayne, IN

I like that! Beautiful people and things don't need a lot of creativity to look good but the ordinary need that extra ump to cause it to be extraordinary. That's the challange of photography. I've seen folk on this forum make weeds look good. I've even been empressed by bugs, birds and even rocks posted on here. Composition and prospective change the way we see. This is an ever learning journey and I'm enjoying every turn.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

The water drops appear pretty sharp. That would indicate that the camera achieved focus, and also it wasn't motion blur. The depth of field (DOF) was not sufficient. F3.5 is not a high enough f-stop setting for this type of shot. I shoot these types of flowers (I have some African Violets) and they require a lot of DOF, and worse up close DOF decreases for a given setting. You can try a higher f-stop, which will mean a lower shutter speed and so you may want to use a tripod. Alternatively you cold try the focus stacking method, which also requires a tripod and software to process the stack. I'd suggest trying a higher F-stop + Tripod first. Shoot a series at f8 and higher, f11, f16.... and see how you like the results.

One other thing, when on the tripod up close, switch to live view and use manual focus to set the focus plane. Then you can use DOF Preview to see the effect of different F-stop settings.

Kuzano

There seems to be a fixation with shooting lens largest apertures. Apertures like f8 and f16 are quite often much better to use in many situations.

Shallow depth of field will often not be the shot you want. That (large apertures) and being quite close to the subject will often blow the shot. Back up a bit, zoom in, and in the type of lighting you had,shoot the shot at f16 if you want that batch of flowers sharp from front to back.

Since the flowers probably have not gone anywhere, try those three things on the shot... And forget about all those focus points. If you reduce your f-stop you will have all those flowers in focus.

Frankly the number of focus points increasing on camera's is a real screw up on the camera's today.

Remember this, no matter what the camera chooses with 7,000 focus point, when you consider the the aspects of exposure and focus, in the final analysis there can be ONLY ONE point of focus...use that instead. The camera cannot create multiple points of focus when the shutter is snapped. Multiple focus points can only average those multiple points, creating out of focus in many area's you may think you are getting focus.

The solutions is to increase the plane of depth of field, which is a function ONLY of aperture chosen.

FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga

Thank you LInda this is very helpful :thumbup:

MS

Thanks Linda, very helpful chart. TY again

FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga

Thanks Kuzano I will try all this :thumbup:

FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga

Thanks for your advice :thumbup:

FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga

:lol: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

FRENCHY Loc: Stone Mountain , Ga

Thank you for your advice :thumbup: :thumbup:

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

Did you lock the focus and then recompose the shot? Was this hand held? It looks like the area under the focus point is out of focus, but the area above (the pistils) are in relatively sharp focus. You shot at f3.5 which gave you a shallow depth of field. Perhaps try shooting this kind of picture at a smaller (higher number) f-stop like an f8 or f11.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

You are looking at the effects of depth of field. The closer the lens get to the subject the shallow the depth of field.
Here is where small lens openings shine but with a caveat and that is refraction.

twowindsbear

Maybe post the actual photo rather than (what looks to me to be) a screen capture from PP on your 'puter?