Landscape Focusing

[msafiedin]

I need a big tip from you guys
Just say that i am taking a picture
30%from down is the land
40-45% is the mountain
50% and above is the sky
the thing is when i use the "golden hour" to take picture
my 1 week dslr (nikon d40) cant figure out the auto focussing
maybe because the center box is on the sky (not enuf lighting)
ending me up going to manual
and try to focus myself

and this cause the blurring effect on some lights surround the land
how do u set the manual focus to infinity so that everything is in focus
the sad thing is i went to a nice place this evening
ending up on nice color but a little blur here and there
upload the pic as an example
but i was taking the picture using an "aperture priority" tho - maybe my mistake is here

anyway again i ask- is there a way to manual focus set at infinity(everything will be in focus?)

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ampin/346870164/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/346870164_c6244127bf.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Sunset Oman" /></a>

If you try to view in bigger size such as 1024x681 which u can see when u click at the link
the blurry start to appear ..

[dt_matthews]

excuse if these points are obvious but have you;

# used a tripod
# see to smallest aperture (e.g. f22)


regards focussing control, you should be able to set a non-centred zone as the focal spot - check your manual...

and yes, it does look a pity as that's a lovely sky-line! ;-)

[loosestring]

I think it's a beautiful photo even with the blurry lights, however it appears that there is a ufo flying in the distant sky.

[msafiedin]

yeah i saw that too when i was taking the picture this evening
is it a star? is it a plan? i dun know

my bad +not using tripod
maybe its just the hand shaking

but do we have to put f22 for taking landscape picture?
why?i think i set it to 5.6 - omg

[msafiedin]

oh and usually is there a problem if i put it in manual focus? i mean to take landscape picture. is it better to use the auto focus

but at that time when i see taking the photo
the auto focus was not working

[Nicole]

usually is there a problem if i put it in manual focus? i mean to take landscape picture. is it better to use the auto focus

There should be no reason with that sort of shot why you couldn't use manual focus. In fact, when I'm taking night shots I tend to use manual focus on a tripod so that I can judge what is clear since the camera tends to have problems locking onto something to focus on. Not sure that really answers your question though :p

[Saralonde]

Smaller aperture will give you a greater DOF resulting in more of your scene being in focus. Some blurring might be due to lack of a tripod. I know I have an unsteady hand when I don't use one.
Beautiful sky, by the way.

[smc1377]

If you wanted to keep the camera in autofocus, you can force the camera to focus on what is essentially infinity.

Being that the D40 only has 3 focus areas that line up straight across your viewfinder, you'll have to aim the selected focus point at something like the far mountains and then depress your shutterbutton halfway. This will at least lock the focus, then compose your shot again while keeping the shutterbutton halfway down. Then once you have your shot, fully depress the shutterbutton to take the picture.

[msafiedin]

thanks for the nice trick

[msafiedin]

Smaller aperture will give you a greater DOF resulting in more of your scene being in focus. Some blurring might be due to lack of a tripod. I know I have an unsteady hand when I don't use one.
Beautiful sky, by the way.
maybe the tripod was one of the biggest factor
coz i think i did use the manual focus to adjust the sharpness of the street light

[henryscat]

maybe the tripod was one of the biggest factor
coz i think i did use the manual focus to adjust the sharpness of the street light

The tripod was needed so that you could set the aperture higher - F22 is a great suggestion.
The focus on your camera cannot focus on everything. You must focus on your main subject, then using a high F-stop, you are using a higher depth of field and therefore more distance is in focus.
In your case you wanted to focus on an object in the middle of your focus range and let the depth of field take care of the rest.

This link explains depth of field better than I ever could - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

[msafiedin]

thanks for the explaination
next time i will bring a tripod
and use the biggest f number to take landscape