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turbodls1ta
Joined: 17 Jun 2008
Posts: 440
Location: T'exas, y'all
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:10 am
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So last night I went out to one of our state parks to shoot some water falls under an almost full moon. The light was beautiful, but there was not enough for auto focus to work, and really hard for my own eye to see. Checking its focus with the camera screen was worthless too. Is there any method to helping me focus on something I cant see (does that even make sense?)? Any rule of thumbs? Cheat sheets?
TIA
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pharm
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 9406
Location: Never quite sure
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:15 am
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Take a flashlight. Aim it at the spot you want the focus to be. If you're trying to shoot the waterfall, aim it at something solid, the same distance away. Auto or manual focus on that (you've temporarily added enough light for the autofocus to work). If you used autofocus, turn the autofocus off after you've done that. Recompose and shoot.
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turbodls1ta
Joined: 17 Jun 2008
Posts: 440
Location: T'exas, y'all
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:24 am
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Ha, I guess I had one of those "duh" moments. Unfortunately the only light I had this night was on my cell phone which wasnt nearly powerful enough to light anything besides the ground at my feet.
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pharm
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 9406
Location: Never quite sure
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 11:43 am
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| turbodls1ta wrote: | | Ha, I guess I had one of those "duh" moments. Unfortunately the only light I had this night was on my cell phone which wasnt nearly powerful enough to light anything besides the ground at my feet. |
I have "duh" moments every day. If you're in that situation again and only have your cell phone, you can always try one of these methods:
Set your cell phone so that the screen stays lit indefinitely. Walk the several hundred yards to the edge of the waterfall. Use duct tape to attach your phone to the edge of the rocks. Go back to your camera and autofocus on your phone. Go back to your phone and remove it before the moisture causes the tape to let go and your phone falls in the water. Go back to your camera, turn off the autofocus, then recompose and shoot OR,
Light your feet with the cell phone. Autofocus on your feet. With a ruler, measure the distance from the focal plane of your camera to your feet. Be as accurate as you can. Then, back up about 6 feet from that spot. Using a protractor, measure the approximate angle from your focal plane to the spot where you were standing. Take that angle, multiply it by 64.2239580, divide by 24.94898 and write that down. Aim your camera toward the waterfall. Set your shutterspeed as close to the number you got after your last calculation as you can. Stand perfectly still for a few seconds. Then take your flashlight and use the first method I described because this one won't work and you've just wasted valuable time. Keep in mind that I'm somewhere nearby, hiding in the trees, snickering as I watch. ;)
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mauijon
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 4286
Location: Maui, Hawaii
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Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:44 pm
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You could also guess, as DOF (f-8, f-11) at this distance might cover your error.
From the enlarged pic, it looks like this is the only part in focus, below.
But the vignetting...
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turbodls1ta
Joined: 17 Jun 2008
Posts: 440
Location: T'exas, y'all
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:36 pm
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The vignetting is from a new lens hood that obviously didnt work at wide angles..
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greenfield54
Joined: 21 Jun 2009
Posts: 2619
Location: Philippines
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Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:31 pm
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Just imagine how it was before AF and metering. Been there so I learned to approximate distance and aperure depending on what lens and film I'm using. Anyway this is the modern era so the secret is to adapt but still use something from the past like manual lenses with DOF scales. If the subject is more than 40 feet away, all you have to do is set the lens to infinity and pray. If your aim is hypefocal focus, set the infinity symbol to whatever aperture you are using on the DOF scale. Hope this helps.
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turbodls1ta
Joined: 17 Jun 2008
Posts: 440
Location: T'exas, y'all
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:48 pm
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Thats what I did for this image. Its actually the one in most focus. I was using a kit lens, so unfortunately I have no idea what focal length Im using.
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