Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

My bolding above.
I don't know the camera or what these references indicate for it. Just guessing......

nikon123 Loc: Toronto, Canada

[quote=abc1234]I wonder if the focus of this picture was automatic or manual.

In Lightroom, the plugin Show Focus Points seems to indicate all the focus points were off. This surprised me so I wondered if the plugin did not support this file. I uploaded it to metapicz.com and if I read the report properly, auto-focus was off. Here is the link to the raw file which was too big to upload here. [url]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gyPPCkOFCwJuRAenBBrmfQs2YFvqL4Ku/view?usp=sharing[-url] I do not know if the attached jpg can answer the question.

Metapicz reports that thought the shutter speed was 1/1000, image stabilization was on. Please note that I am not asking if the picture is in focus but rather if the focus mode was set to automatic.

Thanks for the help.[/quote]

As a photographer and not an IT specialist, I don’t honestly understand your issue. The holy grail in photography is the quality of the image. The ability of the photographer to create an interesting image that keeps a viewer in the image and not wandering off. Its about light, leading lines and exposure, among other things. I wish that we could have some discussion in this forum about composition and not something that only an engineer in computer and software development could care about. Throw away your computers and all that nonsensical software and go back to the basics of photography - to create pleasing and artistic compositions!

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I will first address basic photographic issue. I do not find this an interesting composition. What makes it more difficult for me is that nothing is clear enough to draw my eye to it. That is why I wondered if anything was really in focus. And that lead me to this post.

Second, I want to address your last sentence. Since that is your clearly stated belief, then dump all your digital cameras and related equipment, go back to the darkroom and close your account here. I spent over forty very enjoyable years in the darkroom but believe that digital is much better.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Disregarding the original question? What was the focus mode?
A critique, or opinions of the image was not asked.

"Please note that I am not asking if the picture is in focus but rather if the focus mode was set to automatic."

STILL trying to figure what the question has to do with a darkroom.

nikon123 Loc: Toronto, Canada

But that’s the point, isn’t it. A question was posed that really has nothing to do with photography. The photo was in truth not very good. As a photographer, I cannot but help to critique the composition. What else is there about the image that one could care anout, other than the story of the cemetery. Where is it, how old are the grave stones, of what lineage are the people interred there? Please tell a story and not ask some ridiculous question that has nothing to do really with the image. Here’s a question or two: how can I improve the composition? Is there a crop that could focus the eye? Is there a sharpening tool that I could employ?
I’m done!!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

In your mind...

I'll have to keep that in mind.
When I ask a question, I may get totally unrelated answers.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I did not ask for a critique because I know this is not picturesque and little can be done to make it so. The purpose of the shot was to document the cemetery. It was not meant to be artistic.

Your darkroom comment. I presume you read the entire post including the last sentence. Mr. Nikon railed against information technology and photography. If he finds no place for computers and digital cameras, let him go back to the darkroom.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I will repeat, in part, what I just posted. I know this is not a good photo with little potential. However, it is for documenting the cemetery. To that end, the photo serves a purpose. No story required, no critique of the composition necessary. Since it is a documentary shot, I would not sharpen it and edit it in a way as to alter what is there. I thank the readers who addressed the original question of whether the focus was automatic or manual.

Finally, I did not take the picture but am using it to document the cemetery. If anyone wants to know more about that cemetery, please pm me.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You actually posed two questions.

First was...



CHG_CANON answered this. While your Lightroom plug-in didn't show any AF point, the Sony viewer does show one that was active.



And that's precisely what appeared to be the point of focus in the image in the original post.

It appears there's an issue with the Shot Focus Point Lightroom plug-in. I've used that with some other camera systems and did not find it entirely reliable. It sometimes is unable to show the active point(s). I have no idea way. Sony Viewer shows what AF point was active and used in this image.

Other than that I don't see a problem.... Unless the original poster was wanting more of the scene to be in sharp focus, in which case they should have used a smaller lens aperture. (Focus stacking probably wasn't a possibility, since there's so much in the scene that might move from shot to shot.)

As to the second question whether the AF was auto or manual...



As I read the above...

Autofocus was enabled and set to AF-S ("single shot" AF)... and it was, in fact, used (as proven by the Sony Viewer report that CHG_CANON uploaded).

Flexible spot was the focus pattern mode selected (I'm not familiar enough with Sony to say what this means or what the alternative focus patterns might be).

No AF point was selected by the user, so the camera simply chose a point itself, focusing upon the one tombstone near the tree.

I have no idea why it says "AF Points used: None". Obviously the camera and lens did, in fact, autofocus by using one (or a group) of the AF point(s).

I suspect the last line of info probably will always show "Off" when AF-S mode is being used... That mode should acquire focus, then stop and "lock". AF tracking should only occur in AF-C or "continuous autofocus" mode. The purpose of this line of info is probably to let you know if you enabled or turned tracking off or used focus lock or in some other way prevented AF tracking... while the camera was in AF-C mode. It's not applicable to AF-S mode, is it?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

You mean you can't help forcing the thread into another direction.
Your discussion has absolutely NOTHING to do with the original question.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Ditto! I saw only limited EXIF data. Very little info was there.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Check the EXIF for the RAW file at the link above.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Alan, yes, CHG_CANON did answer the question and you added another important piece. Show Focus Points misses them. That is not surprising because it has not been supported for quite a while. It probably could not interpret this particular file format. That is why I posted this question.

Thanks for the input.

LLC Loc: Ontario, Canada

I used Exiftool from exiftool.org. They have zipped exe download link, so no installation needed.
Amount of information in exif is mind boggling...
See attached...

Attached file:
(Download)

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Must be one helluva box 😯😯😯😯