RE: Lake Superior Rocks & Gems - Spotted Agate
The minimum focusing distance for the two lenses (60mm and 105mm) is 7 and 12 inches respectively. Unless you really need that extra working distance, what you have is more than enough. Just make the best of it. Read up how your auto focus select points work. Learn the different focus modes, and learn about back focus button for Nikon. @aperterikk has a brilliant video lesson on that on dtube: https://steemit.com/dtube/@aperterikk/u1g9yhix
His gear is Canon, I think, but you'll just have to refer to your manual and online articles to get a hang how it works on your system. Like I said, move back till the autofocus can work well. Take with the extra spaces in the frame, and crop in in post. 24 MP allows you a lot of room to do that.
Truth is, autofocus technology in recent cameras are pretty sophisticated and very rarely do you need to use manual focus. No one deserves that 😁
Following your blog and I'll look forward to those lovely rocks. Maybe soon I'll know enough to be initiated into "hounders league." 😉
" I'd like to have one of those big lenses that you mount to the tripod instead of the camera."
You could well be on your way to shooting sports or wild life by then.
P.S. I should add this tip. When focusing with auto-focus, try to drop an auto focus select point on an area of the subject where there is higher contrast. Maybe a demarcation of a particular spot on the rock. Anything... just don't choose a flat spot on the subject. It helps the processors compute the focus.
Thanks for clarifying -- I am still learning all the proper verbage. When I compared the 60mm and the 105mm the clerk told me the 60 was good enough as well. I'll definitely try the auto focus and read up and check out that video.
I'd say since I've been using manual mode with manual focus it allows me the tedium that all other photographers have gone through in the past and will only help me understand my camera more.
Again I really appreciate the feedback! This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for as I grow my photography skills. Do you suggest I crop them all? I also understand I'd want to crop out the blurr? Is it common practice to consider the rule of thirds everytime I crop a picture?
Thanks for your time and answering my questions!
P.S. awesome tip! I watched a video that briefly told me about the auto focus select point so I had completely forgotten about that.
Good point you have there. It's a great idea to get a hang on manual focus. You never know when the machines will rise against man and we ought to be prepared for such onslaught.
Your composition is on point, in my opinion. You don't need to crop or always adhere to some compositional "rules". My suggestion of cropping is only so you can be able to take back the lens further, maybe up to a 10 inches distance, for optimal focus performance, and then crop later on to whatever you choose to have in your frame.
One thing is certain, you have a brilliant set of gears. Another is certain, you are learning really fast :)
I was looking for a perfect candidate to perform a crop on and I chose the moon picture above.
So I wanted to thank you again for the tip. So much detail that I was taking away by scaling the pictures instead of cropping first.
Well that certainly makes my day thank you! I did not consider optimal focus performance, I was simply focusing on minimum distance focus. Backing out a bit may just get me the desired results. I learned something today!
Wow. Now look at the details you were hiding 😊