Manual camera settings help needed

[Nelson Bradford]

Picture this please.

There's a farm fairly near us and at the end of one of the fields - lined up in a row - are maybe a dozen hay bales - ROLLS of hay - not rectangular - some farmers around here do that.

And off in the distance is a row of trees - fall follage - beautiful.

I went out there yesterday a.m. trying to get a decent picture - - -

either

a) the hay bales in focus - close to me - and the trees in the distance out
of focus

b) the trees - beautiful fall colors - maybe 50 yards away - in focus but
the bales not in focus

c) both items - hay and trees - in focus.

I was 100% unsuccessful - took maybe 10 pics and NONE of them came out to my satisfaction.

Any suggestions as to some camera settings for any/all of the above?

I have a tri-pod and know how to use it.

But not the camera, obviously.

8-)

thanx
-neb

[Jonathan Long]

What you wanted was more depth of field.

That's controlled by the lens opening and the focal length of the lens.

The smaller the lens opening the greater the depth of field. Len longer the lens the less depth of field that you have. The smaller the lens opening the slower the shutter speed - so you might need a tripod.

Hope this helps you.

Jon

[Hans Deventer]

Jonathan is right. So what you need to do, Nelson, is to use the tripod and select an aperture of F22 or even a higher number, if you have it. Then you'll see the shutter time will be a lot longer (but that does not matter since you're using the tripod) and the depth of field will be just fine.

[Cindi Hammons]

a) the hay bales in focus - close to me - and the trees in the distance out
of focus

b) the trees - beautiful fall colors - maybe 50 yards away - in focus but
the bales not in focus

c) both items - hay and trees - in focus.


Depth of field is your area of concern.

a) & b). For very limited focus, set your depth of field so that the opening is very large...this means the number is very small. I know, it doesn't make sense, but trust me on this.

c). To have everything in sharp focus, you must have the depth set to a very small opening...such as f22 or the largest number your lens will support.

You might also consider using a longer lens...say a 200mm or 300mm lens. This seriously helps with having some items in focus while other items are out of focus. As you said, a tri-pod would be good as well.

Another suggestion I would make. Most of your barn photos look like they were taken in bright sunlight at high noon. Some of the best light you can ever get (often called "sweet" light) is for a couple of hours after sunrise and a couple of hours before sunset. The light is a beautiful color and comes in at a great angle for interesting shadows. Also, I don't know if you have the capability on your lens, but a good polarizing filter will make the skies in your barn photos just "pop." It darkens the blue and lightens the clouds.

Good luck with the Fall photos. Ohio is starting to look brown.

Cindi H.

[Nelson Bradford]

I've BTDT - took the pic with the settings I have avail to me with my el cheapo ($300) camera.

Am fairly happy with the results.

HOPE to use it soon as the background for a hymn or verse of scripture.

Thank you one and all.

Nelson

[Joel Merrill]

Hi Nelson,

Everyone is right about the aperture but I think there is some confusion about the focal length. Like they all said, you need your smallest aperture which would be the largest number on your apertures ring. They are called f-stops. On most lenses the largest number is 22 but it could be 16 or 32. If you can't go that small go as small as you can.

If you are not using a zoom lens, there is probably another scale on your lens that most people don't know how to use. Some zoom lens have this too but they are not as nice as the one on the non zoom lens. How you use that is you first focus your camera on what you are going to take a picture of. Between the aperture ring and the focusing ring there is a red line with numbers on each side. You will notice that the smaller numbers are closest to the red line and the outer numbers become larger. So lets say you focus on something that is 15 feet away and you have your aperture at f16. Look for the 16 (or where the 16 would be between the other numbers) on each side on the red line on the lens barrel. Now look where they line up with the numbers on your focusing ring. Everything between those two 16's on you focusing ring will be in focus. On a 50mm lens it will be something like 8 feet to infinity. "Infinity" looks like a sideways 8 on the scale on your lens barrel. Now here is a trick. Set your aperture at f22. Now set your focusing ring so the the infinity mark is by the 22 on your lens barrel. The other 22 mark on your lens barrel will be around the 6 foot mark on your focusing ring. At that setting everything from 6 feet to infinity will be in focus.

Focal length is how long the lens is from the film. Most 35mm SLR's came with a 50mm lens. A higher number is a telephoto lens and a lower number is a wide angle lens. A wide angle lens has more depth of field but things look farther away. A telephoto lens has less depth of field but it compresses the picture and makes the background appear closer to the foreground when the foreground is in the picture. This can be a very interesting effect. I have to go to work now or I would post some pictures to show you how this all works.

Joel

[Dave McClung]

If you like outlines remember that there are three variables:

depth of field
aperture
shutter speed

Anytime you change one, you impact the others. I find it easier to hold one of them constant (shutter speed), then adjust the aperture as needed to achieve the desired depth of field. If I reach the limit of the aperature adjustment and still need more adjustment, I then change the shutter speed.

As others have suggested, as you use slower shutter speeds holding the camera steady becomes more important. In really low light, it is sometimes better to use the timer function on the camera so that you will eliminate the possibility of shaking the camera while you are pressing the shutter release.

Dave

[BobHunt]

Nelson, you are like me...you are one that people drive by and say "whats he out in that field with a camera for?" I imagine that I am in a strange place trying to get a photo of something and people think, "is that guy crazy..whats he doing?"
I have seen a shot that I would like to get sometime...Canadian geese either on or near a pond....saw it 3 times this week but didnt have my camera...I dont take it with me to work because I dont like leaving it in the car in case its too hot or too cold.