Trouble focusing,,is it me ?????

Hi There-

I recently shot a wedding using my 50mm 1.8, and it was a great time and I did get some GREAT shots throughout the whole thing, so with that said,,,on to my issue.

I noticed during post processing,, that some of the images were kind of blurry,,,I was shooting a Nikon D200 in Aperture mode, F1.8, at 1/60th of a second for the example photo that I have attached. I'm not sure if I was in the wrong focusing mode or what,,and I can't remember now what that setting was,,,but any tips on focusing and ways to get better shots would be much appreciated !!!!

I know the D200 is a good camera and it has worked properly for some time and it only has about 22,000 clicks on it. the 50mm is spotless and has no fungus or anything like that,,,so I'm at a loss as to what it could be,,,,so any advise would be great.

Thanks- Doug


So ,,,thanks for looking

Hi there. Just a couple of quick thoughts:

For a 50mm lens on a DX body that translates into an effective range of 75mm. Therefore it is recommend that your shutter speed be a minimum of 1/FL or in your case 1/80 - the 1/60 is a tad slow for hand held shots and will likely result in shots with blur caused by the subject (if they're moving) or the photographer or both.

Also, f/1.8 gives a very shallow depth of field where focus can very easily miss the intended target. In the photo above, it almost looks like you locked focus behind the front couple.

Were you using AF-S or AF-C - AF-C would be recommend here for dynamic subjects to help with focusing.

Not sure if flash was permitted but if so, properly used, it could have certainly aided in getting a better pic.

You said you got many great shots on the day so it really is to be expected that you would get some less good ones with such a shallow depth of field and slow shutter speed. I know that the D200 is not a great high ISO performer but bumping up the ISO to say at least 800, upping the shutter speed to at least 1/80 and using AF-C would get you more keepers. No one goes to an event and gets 100% perfect shots - I'm happy if 15% to 20% of my shots are keepers!

Along with everything bluenoser said, another issue could have been not enough light for accurate focusing. While shooting indoors at 1.8 was enough light for the image, it may not have been enough for the auto focus. If your camera has a focus assist lamp, you might have been out of its effective range.

f1.8 has such a narrow band of focus that your subjects have to be darn near standing still. Like mentioned crank up the ISO.

Hi Guys-

Thanks for the info. It's good to know I was thinking about the same thing. I was ranging between ISO 500 to ISO 1000 throughout the night as the venue and the lighting was changing. I was able to use flash and in certain areas, it did help. But because I had no high ceiling to bounce off of, I was very concerned about casting shadows.

But none the less, I guess I'll have to keep playing to get the right focus.

What other lens would you recommend besides the 50mm that would give me tack sharp images in relativity low light ???

Thanks again for your great (as always) help !!

Sincerely Yours- Doug

Thanks James-

I have to say that of the 455 shots I took that night, about 150 to 200 or so were keepers. and those I ran through Lightroom to add effects or give it a bit of a boost.

Thank again !!!

cnyram said:

Along with everything bluenoser said, another issue could have been not enough light for accurate focusing. While shooting indoors at 1.8 was enough light for the image, it may not have been enough for the auto focus. If your camera has a focus assist lamp, you might have been out of its effective range.

Click to expand...

thanks so much for the information. you see, I encountered the same problem, but now things seem way clearer
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Thanks for the info, This leads me to another question. is there a way to turn off the focusing light or set my focusing to something that will yield better results indoors???

My D3100 has the option to turn the light off, not sure about the D200.

I have always been taught that it's the focal length of the lens that generates camera shake and is not related to the sensor size. Whichever is the case it's not camera shake that is the problem, its the shutter speed. 1/60 sec. is slow. Images will blur with movement of the camera or tracking a moving subject just based on that slow shutter speed. For weddings I would try to keep the shutter speed at 1/125 sec. +. I would also use spot focusing, to focus on the subject you want. That will help with the shallow DOF caused by f/1.8. The AF-C mode is a good suggestion.

Hi There-

Thanks for those suggestions. I will keep those in mind and try to practice the spot metering for a sharper focus.

Sincerely- Doug

Along with what everyone else said, Doug, make sure you know how to use the "focus lock". What might have happened also (with the shallow DOF) is you focused, then recomposed the shot, and the focus changed.

Hi Helene-

Thanks for the thought. I'm not sure if thats what happened. I was trying to keep up with the moments of the wedding so I was focusing. and when I hear the focus beep, I'd snap the foto. I've seen the fucus lock button on the back of my D200, but never really looked into how it works or for that matter,,,if it would help with getting a sharper photo in lower light.

More than anything else, you need an external flash.

There are some great suggestions in this thread already, but none of these would really even be an issue if you had better lighting. This will bump up your shutter sync speed to around 1/250. Using flash also instantly stops motion, so camera shake and slow shutter speeds are taken out of the equation. With a powerful enough flash (or two or three), you can shoot at ISO 200, even indoors at reception halls where there is usually crappy lighting.

Thanks for the info. I do have an SB-600,,,which I know is powerful enough, I just didn't use it cause I didn't want to blow out the photos and the ceiling was like an urban open ceiling with all the duct work exposed and it was pretty high as well so I had nothing to bounce off of either. I'll learn for next time (LOL).