Camera Labs

hey guys
i`m travelling this tuesday to turkey for a week and i want to take some good shots there,so i thought you guys might give a help in this

and i`d like to ask how to bring everything in focus , i watched gordan`t video (make the aperture small), i tried that but it didn`t work really good with me , i was shooting someone infront of me and wanted to show the background and used f/15 and couldn`t go higher because if i did so i`d have to make the iso higher than what it was (2500) and the shutter speed slower (1/45) .

the equipments i`m taking are
nikon d90 , 18-105mm , 50mm f/1.8 , sb-600 , tripod
should i get a polorizer filter ?
and i`m thinking of using the 50mm lens only at night

hope you share your knowledge
thnx

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nikon D7000
nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

www.flickr.com/maleksamman

Could you post an example of one of your pictures?

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Nikon D5000 and D300 with 12-24mm, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, 60mm f2.8 Macro, 18-200mm, 17-55mm f2.8 (all Nikon)

the one i talked about ?
or my pictures in general ?
well the one i talked about i deleted beacuse the result wasn`t like what i wanted it to be.
and you can check my flickr (i`m new 2 flickr) and check my pictures out and add me if you wanted

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nikon D7000
nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

www.flickr.com/maleksamman

I see what you mean. I'd hate to admit it, but probably the easiest and best way to get lots in focus is use a P&S camera. With the little lens and it's tiny sensor, it's super simple to get lots in focus.

Have you ever been to the Cameralabs sister site, DSLR Tips? You can access it here, or you can access the "How to get lots in focus" tutorial here.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

yea i checked the tutorial of how to get lots in focus last year and i`m doing the same thing ...but the thing that i`m shooting someone close to me and the background is far so it`s not bringing everything in focus
and yea i tried my frnd`s song cam "small digital one" and it`s doing better :S

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nikon D7000
nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

www.flickr.com/maleksamman

That's good. Compacts are better at getting a "Thicker" DoF because of their small lens. I'm not sure if you've read Gordon's post here, but he talks about how using compacts are better for child photography. Considering that youngsters move so quickly, a DSLR would quickly blur them out. Although with a compact, since they give you such the thick DoF, you can keep them in focus. Same goes for your shots, that larger DOF really comes in handy. Another advantage of doing this with a compact is that even when things are out of focus, it's not nearly as out of focus as it would be on a DSLR. Sure, it gets a bit blurrier and loses some sharpness, but it doesn't get as thrown out as it would with a DSLR.

Interesting that you used F15. Does the lens go any smaller, or would that just make you boost your ISO, lower your shutter speed, etc etc, which you couldn't do hand held. My lenses usually go up to F22, which is hard to use hand held. With your 50mm, I'd say go no slower that 1/15 of a second, although if it's VR, you could probably get it a bit slower. Try using a tri-pod to steady the shots, it's very convenient.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

There is one way to do it

http://videos.ppsop.com/storytelling.html

this way it really depends on available light if you want to handhold your camera, so for slower shutter speeds tripod is a must.

The other way is yo find a hyper focal distance calculator which would tell you where to focus for any given aperture, although you can't get everything in focus while shooting wide open no matter what you do, but it would give you some faster shutter speed because you can step down, to f16, f11, even f8

http://www.dofmaster.com/

Third method would be if you get very slow shutter speeds that are slower than half a second because of available light, is to set up your camera on tripod and make an exposure for the background scene so that is perfectly exposed and to use one of the methods above, then put your subject in the foreground at the same distance where your camera is focused to and by using rear curtain flash you can properly expose the subject and the foreground as well as background. By doing this your subject will not have ghosting because flash exposure is very fast. Make sure your subject stands very still by doing this.

For this to work flash must fire just before shutter closes, so rear curtain flash does that.

Hi cursed,

sounds like a lovely trip you have planned - hope you get to spend time in Istanbul, which is rich with photo-ops!!!

To absolutely maximize your DOF, please go here: http://dofmaster.com/doftable.html

Change to manual focus and use the guidelines. If it isn't enough, at least you will know the absolute maximum DOF you can get out of your equipment!

Hope to see some shots from your trip. I've only bee there once, many moons ago, but I'd like to go back sometime, just for the photos I never took when I was there..lol. The bazaar, the blue mosque, the dolmabache palace (phonetically spelled here..lol) and the narrow streets with vendors and carriers...

Cheers

PS: the 50mm is very sharp - sharper than your zoom. Don't think that it's only useful for night-time shots...it's a fantastic walk-around lens too!

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Nikon stuff and other stuff, but not nearly as much stuff as I really want!

thnx alot guys !!

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nikon D7000
nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

www.flickr.com/maleksamman

Nelepl i just watched mr.brian peter video and he said "set your focus to 7feet and f22 while using a crop frame and 18mm lens"
so does that mean i should focus on the thing that it`s 7 feets in front of me ? ( my 18-105 doesn`t have that glass to show the focus distance)
so it`s almost like focusing on the closest thing i have
i thought i should set the focus to infinity i`m confused

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nikon D7000
nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

www.flickr.com/maleksamman

Hi cursed,

think of DOF this way:

You......................(..................X...........................................)

The first (is where the nearest things are in focus.
The X is where the lens is (manually) set to focus.
The ) is the point farthest away something is in focus. Can be "infinity".

So, if you use the DOF table I linked to, you can optimize the DOF to be as wide as possible, given different settings, lens, camera.

As long as your primary point of interest is in between ( and ) it should be in focus.

Cheers

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Nikon stuff and other stuff, but not nearly as much stuff as I really want!

ah okay !!
well thnx !!

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nikon D7000
nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

www.flickr.com/maleksamman