OK, so what does this all mean? How do you apply vanishing points if you were doing something like.......I don't know ...... taking pictures with a camera?

I understand the 66 = 99 since it is an APS-C, so a factor of 1.5 makes sense. But isn't the 7100 also an APS-C. Are you using the same lens in each shot?

There might be something here about lighting for fashion and balancing that with landscape in the same shot. Or something… I think the PR is just muddled. The message has not targeted a clear market for the book. Is there something particular that he thinks this book can teach?

Looking closer at the picture, I don't think you will have any trouble panning at a higher shutter speed. There actually appears to be a still spot in the center of the horse a little below the rider. If it really is still, it means you were following the horse just fine, but the motion of everything else was just too much for the 1/25.

No. At those distances it is amazing. But I had a toy (the sigma hub) and wanted to see how far I could sharpen it. At all the normal distances it is awesome!!!

I did not mean to over state the problem. And it is not softness. I still get a very tiny bit of front focusing at 1.8 35mm around 12 inches out. Without a card, it would be hard to tell.

I do love this lens!

Shoot in shutter priority mode. With that much light you can shoot pretty fast 1/500th or higher. On the other hand a somewhat slower speed might still freeze the horse and still give you some motion blur in the background. It depends on the speed of the horse and a steady hand. Use a wide open lens to isolate the subject from the back ground.

Play with the speed and have fun.

I like it! Would like to know, in general terms, what steps you took to get there!

THANKS! Finally a simple explanation I can apply to my photography!
:lol:

You may not need to give it any thought because you internalized it early in your training.

Out of the box it was forward focusing on the t3i and needed a bit of adjusting, especially at the 35mm end. To be quite honest, I was a little bit happy that it needed adjusting. What good is a new toy, if you can’t play with it?! But, having done that, it is great!

When I get a FF (2014 I hope) I am thinking of picking up the Sigma 35 that a lot of people seem hot on.

Yes. I have done this. Not at a large competition, which I would leave to those hired to cover it. If you are doing it informally, and have been asked by the organizer you might be able to be on the edge of the dance floor and moving. Otherwise you have to work around the audience members, who have a right to see the performance minus your butt in their faces. If you are on a short step ladder (or stool or chair) you get a little height and avoid the viewers (unless you want them in the lower part of the frame.) And YES, I have used a step stool. I was at an Elton John concert recently and there was a photog running around in the good seats with a step stool taking shots of the stage! If it can be done in that kind of crowd you can do it in the relatively spacious environment of a dance competition or event. This approach also works at conventions and political rallies. Further, to take really good shots of a specified couple from the edge of the floor requires a lot of luck and skill. Being further back you can watch and frame your shots better. You can follow the couple and predict when they will enter a good spot.

On the other, if this is not a competition or an active ballroom setting it might be an annual recital held by a studio. If it is then the couple might have the floor to themselves. That would change the dynamic.

Also if you are considering trying to lighten the dark areas in post processing shoot in both jpeg and raw. You will get better results with the raw files when you try to bring up the background. Even if you have never shot raw before, you will still have the jpeg and can try working with the raw if you can’t get the results you want with jpeg.

OK. Stick with the train tracks.

Now focus on a point half way between you and the vanishing point. Or better yet 2/3 of the way. Now the vaishing point and the focus point are different. What do you now have? Dynamic tension.

If you place an object (say a small child) at that 2/3rds point that stands so that a line drawn between your eye through the child's head hits the vanishing point, what happened to the tension? How about the head below that line keeping the focus on the head? Above it? to the left or right? Each arrangement provides a different level of tension.

Move the child to 1/2 the distance and 1/3 the distance and repeat the above arrangement of the geometric and focus lines. Now realign the points in each experiment with the nine standard focus points in your view finder. Each has a stronger or softer dynamic.

We could also go in to why a focus or vanishing point to the right side or left side are different, but that is cultural (and seems to be related to reading from the left to right, right to left, and up or down)

Edinburgh,

It is hard to take a bad picture there. Have fun.

Excellent link. The vanishing point was the breakthrough concept for Renaissance art. I also think the example photo has a vanishing point formed by the arch of the horizon and the line of the clouds. It seems to sit at 1/3 from the bottom (on the horizon line) and 1/3 from the left side. The vanishing point is used to provide both depth and to draw the eye to a given spot (or to keep it from wandering aimlessly around the image.) It can be used in conjunction with DOF which serves the same function.