By the Pond

[Carolyn Lee]

Hi

I got these on the way home the other day. Looking for feedback on what I am doing wrong with my auto focus. I am using my kit lens - Nikon d3000. Adjusting the lens to 55mm, focus on one point and taking the shot. Why are other parts coming out fuzzy?
Landscape setting, 1/250 F10, iso 220. Any thoughts? I am blowing some really good pictures not knowing. Thanks

[Drkranger]

What you're dealing with is Depth of Field, that is the amount of the scene in focus. The aperture, f-stop, is what controls that. F10 is pretty good, deep, but it won't make everything in focus. Smaller apertures, f22+, create a much deeper depth of field and thus more of the scene in focus. Read up on depth of field for more information:

Photography is EASI: Tip #2 - Aperture
Depth of field - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You may also be dealing with motion blur, that is the flowers in the foreground are being blown around by the wind and thus moving faster than your shutter speed can stop them. I'd imagine it's the former, however.

[Carolyn Lee]

Thank you so much!!!!!! Its always windy here - but your advise on depth of field I suspect is bang on. I assumed automatic focus was automatic focus. Boy I have a lot to learn

[Krusty79]

Unfortunately, there is more to it than just using a smaller f stop to maximize your depth of field. If you start going smaller than about f/11, you start getting diffraction, which degrades sharpness. I've been too lazy to commit to learning these hyperfocal distance tables, but is is important when you are trying for a specific depth of field effect. Here is a very informative thread about your issue:

Focus Method, expalantion needed please

There may be more information in the post than you wanted to know Too bad it's not as easy as using f/22 and firing away.

[Carolyn Lee]

Thank you for the link. Great information there. I see a lot of experimenting with DOF and settings this weekend. Not to mention more reading LOL