Sharp photos

This photo is not sharp on the horses. Is this a case of not having the right settings? The s6.3 asa 200 1/800 s.s. oev auto 1.0.0ettings were D7100 18-270m.m F

Or did I just have the focus point in wrong place. Cause the background is sharper then the foreground. Thanks

It's like you had focus on infinity since nothing in the shot is really in focus.

I don't see much motion blur so shutter should be about ok but you need to focus in at the horses to get a sharp shot. It looks like you shot either in between autofocus or weren't using it.

I believe i just saw the difference in settings with the next photo.

ISO 200 f 3.5 S.S. 1/3200

It's not really about settings but about focus. No matter what settings you use, perfect or not, you still need to make sure what you want sharp is in focus.

OK To get focus off infinity what needs to be done? Cause I don't remember setting it to infinity?
I'm on the road right now so i can't look at my D 7100 book to see how i did it and how to get off?

The D7100 has autofocus so all you have to do is set your focusing method and press the trigger while hovering the focus point over your subject. It's fairly obvious when it is in focus when you look through the viewfinder. That's all there is to it.

I don't know all the options of the D7100 but check if you are using the right AF mode. If you're using AF-S as an example, it would work less well for these kinda shots.

Have you fine tuned your lenses? It does make a big difference on the D7100

@DonKuykendall

No I have not been on the road for the last 4 weeks and have another 3 weeks to go.
Is there a way i can do it while I'm on the road?

[MENTION=31330]J-see[/MENTION] no i have it on af-c. all the time.

@J-see answered your questions. One pont is did you have a single or multiple focus point selected ? You need to have only one and fix it on the horse you want.

donaldjledet said:

@J-see no i have it on af-c. all the time.

Click to expand...

AF-C is no guarantee.

I use it all the time when shooting birds but since it adjusts focus while pressing the button, some shots can be out of focus. You have to make sure all the points you use remain on target but that's often easier said than done. If you use too many focus points, it might jump to the wrong ones.

donaldjledet said:

@DonKuykendall

No I have not been on the road for the last 4 weeks and have another 3 weeks to go.
Is there a way i can do it while I'm on the road?

Click to expand...

Probably better to wait till you are at home. You will need a tripod, and good lighting at a minimum. I recently bought the FoCal system and it is amazing on how good my lenses look after I went through setting them all. My wife's D7000 with 18-200 lens looked like an entire new camera after I set it properly.

FoCal Pro | Reikan FoCal Automatic Lens Calibration SoftwareReikan FoCal Automatic Lens Calibration Software

OK that could be it also i was using 51 point.

O.K. Thanks Don for the site. @DonKuykendall

Using AF-C in combination with 51 points will most definitely cause your photo to be soft. With the camera constantly trying to focus and taking into account that that many focus points will constantly cause readjustment. I don't know how far you are from them, but I will bet (get it horse... bet... I funny guy) you could get sharper on AF-S and focused on the horse you want. Just don't focus lock and linger. Lock and shoot. Unless you're going for a sequence then I would go to AF-C and choose a 9 point focus area.

Ditto what Don said on tuning your lenses for the D7100.

I have found AF-C extremely frustrating in the D3300, so in general I use AF-S. I believe it works much better in D7100. For fast moving objects you can use a small aperture, say F11 to get the DOF. If you use AF-C, it is better to use it with single focus point - central one, that should get you sharp focus.

I mostly use Group mode when shooting AF-C or if the target is smaller, Single point since even while using the smaller group mode, I noticed getting too many shots in with the focus point set on the sky next to the bird.

Single point is hardest especially when the path isn't predictable.