Mountain Flowers w/o glasses

Borga Voffe

Senior Member
AKR_3861cerastium.jpg

This is Mountain Chickweed (Cerastium cerastoides) its growing in front of glaciers high in the mountains. These flowers are only 1-2 cm across. I didnt see them. even with my prescp glasses.
When I was younger I did :-(

I had to rely on my d7200 af to get this photo, takem with Tokina 100 macro, yesterday Handheld, noway I could have brough a tripod up here.

I hoped that d7200 would have focused on the center of the pistil, on the stigma. Instead it focused on the petal behind it.

Any thoughts about this dilemma, not seeing the object to be pictured, solely relying on the AF?
 

dullbird

Senior Member
If you want a specific area in focus you will have to focus manually no two ways about it.

If you are struggling to see use live view and zoom in


Sent from the right side of the brain
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I hoped that d7200 would have focused on the center of the pistil, on the stigma. Instead it focused on the petal behind it.

Any thoughts about this dilemma, not seeing the object to be pictured, solely relying on the AF?
Were you using AF-S with a single focus-point? That's one of the better ways to choose, or pinpoint, what part of the subject is in focus.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Looking at you EXIF data, seems for little flowers standing still on a mountain side, you could have closed the aperture down a few stops and get a deeper depth of field
 

nickt

Senior Member
I would use back button focus with single point. If you are not familiar it is just using the ae/af lock button to auto focus. Hold the button and it focuses. Release it and it stops focusing and you can recompose. Its like computer assisted manual focus.
Also, try your onboard flash to get a higher f stop. You should be able to grab focus anywhere you choose, recompose and have enough depth of field to get both flowers sharp. Don't be afraid to step back and crop, you have a lot of pixels there to crop some out. The extra depth of field and the flash will make up for body movements so you don't have to hold so still.

Here's a quick try of what I am suggesting. I tried to find similar size flowers. I'm still learning myself, so I take any chance to practice. Raining here, so low light with onboard flash as described above. Shot in raw, iso 320, f20 and I stepped back a bit for even more depth of field as well. I focused on the rear of the front flower. Original and edited version.

D72_1266.jpg



D72_1266-2.jpg
 

Borga Voffe

Senior Member
Hm Now I see something new. My d7200 has three settings AF-A AF-C AF-S

What is this? Always used the af-a auto, when shooting flowers af-a s
 

Borga Voffe

Senior Member
Just tell me, which one to use with that cerastium. I was thinking af-s should do the trick, might be what I was used to with that canon d30 of 2007. I never grasp what what af-c is. Maybe something new and fancy. So I have been shooting at af-a to be on the safe side;;)
Then there is a wast array of focus pts setting. Im using s and autu the rest I dont dare to explore....

This one is a more simplified version of your link.

Autofocus Guide | Everything D7200/D7100/D7000
 
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nickt

Senior Member
Af-a, af-s, as-c are how the motor behaves once focus is found. Af-s will acquire focus once and stop (as long as shutter button is held). It allows for recomposing. Af-c will continue to servo as long as the button is pressed. You cannot recompose. Af-a in theory will start out in af-s and move to af-c if the subject moves.

There is no right answer on whether you should use af-s or af-c. You can do fine with either as long as you know how it works. Many would use af-s, that is fine. I would use af-c as I did in the picture above. It might come down to if you need to recompose (af-s is better for that). Most would agree though not to use af-a. I don't think anyone here likes it and I would say in a macro situation af-a stayed 100% at af-s anyway, so no harm
I like af-c for macro along with a single focus point. This allows me to wobble all I want while trying to take the picture and focus will keep up with my movement.

I don't want to push a new technique on you, but using af-c with the back button lets you have the best of both af-c and af-s modes for an instant decision as you take each picture. But learn what you like about af-s and af-c before exploring a new technique.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
Just tell me, which one to use with that cerastium. I was thinking af-s should do the trick, might be what I was used to with that canon d30 of 2007. I never grasp what what af-c is. Maybe something new and fancy. So I have been shooting at af-a to be on the safe side;;)
Then there is a wast array of focus pts setting. Im using s and autu the rest I dont dare to explore....

This one is a more simplified version of your link.

Autofocus Guide | Everything D7200/D7100/D7000

You know the old saying. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll never go hungry. (something like that)
 
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