The traditional process of auto focus adjustments is a long drawn out procedure that requires quite a bit of accuracy in the alignment and setup of the targets and some skill and guesswork in reading the results. However, there is an alternative method that works just as well but requires a whole lot less prep work. In addition there is now software that automates this process making it virtually painless.
From start to finish it took about 2 hours to get everything setup, designed, groomed, ready to go and shot. Fortunately, I already had my lighting designed so it was a matter of quickly dialing in the power settings. The real chore was herding popcorn where it needed to be.
The setup overview image below, shows …
For faster working with bounce flash, rotate the flash head so that you only have to bend it though one angle when changing from horizontal to vertical.
Last time we looked at focusing using a ground glass and the problems it presents as frame sizes and view finders get smaller. This time we’ll look at how to find the distance to something with out leaving the camera or using a ruler.
Finding the Range
What’s needed is a way to measure the distance …
A look at the early years of focusing cameras, the selective pressures that necessitated focusing aids, and the science behind some of those solutions. This time we cover the most primitive focusing screen, the ground glass.
Canon introduced 2-frame brackets to the EOS 1D Mark 3 and EOS 1Ds Mark 3 but didn’t obviously provide a way to change the bracketed frame from being an under-exposure to an over-exposure. That is until you play with another custom function.
This one comes from DTown TV but works equally well on Canon bodes.
If you’re ever in a situation where you want to set the white balance in camera but you don’t have an appropriate target, there’s hope. If your camera has Live View it will show you in real time the affect changing the color …
Creative uses aside, accurate white balance is critical to insuring the proper reproduction of colors in a photograph. In cases with difficult lighting conditions frequently we create and turn to custom white balances to insure the color in their images is correct.
However using the common copy or printer paper, which usually contains optical brighteners-chemicals that …
Today concluded round 2 of serious focus testing. What’s different this time from the last? A new target, a new alignment strategy, and some new results. Last time I looked at autofocus, I had enough problems focusing fast lenses that I was growing concerned that there was either a systematic design flaw or similar …
Professionals and serious amateur photographers alike know that lens hoods are an important part of the lens. A properly designed lens hood shades the lens’s front element or protective filters, from stray non-image producing light. The stray light can bounce around inside the lens and reduce contrast as well as create flare (if sufficiently close …
If there’s one thing I’ve learned today, it’s that auto focus alignment tests are not for the faint of heart. Better yet, as I’m slowly becoming convinced, anyone. I certainly wouldn’t recommend even bothering unless you are almost certain that your lens is consistently misfocusing with significant repeatability.
I spent the better part of today working …
Summer, for many photographers it’s a welcome relief from oppressive cold and snow and a chance to get outside and start shooting again. For me, it’s the beginning of months of oppressive heat, humidity and bugs. That is, it’s time to start looking for ways to stay cool. One solution that still lets me go …
A quick test of the practical implications of diffraction, at 1:1 and web resolutions.
Something other than another news post about some lens or camera that’s way out of any reasonable budget for a change. Since writing my original Camera user settings post, I’ve discovered I omitted an SLR as wells as many point and shoots that were capable of using camera user modes. The SLR is the venerable …
