Light Painting

[Graemey]

Hello All,

I was trying to do some light painting tonight with my son and when we set the camera up and set the shutter to say 10s, while in autofocus and the room in darkness the shutter wouldn't go, after playing around a little I set to manual focus and everything was OK. Just wondered why this happened.

Also, one more please, I can't seem to use manual focus on my Sony A200, when in mf mode I zoom ect but things are not in focus. I'm guessing I need to hold something else to get the focus.

Thank you as always,

Best wishes
Graeme

[bhursey]

You do not want to be using auto focus for light painting. Focus on what you want to then flip to manual focus so the focus does not change. Turn off the lights then paint..

[klr]

I'm not sure how new you are but with lenses there are usually two points of focus on them.

First you zoom in and out and then there's usually one more ring closer to the very end of the lens where you fine focus.

So you zoom to where you want it, then you fine focus it with the second ring.

Hope that might help!

[Graemey]

Hello,

I'm pretty new, I was using my kit lens and I know that my zoom lens lets me zoom in then focus when in mf but I'm not too sure about my other lens, it seems to just let me turn the barrel so I guess I'm missing something!

Is here any reason why my camera would not fire unless I was in mf originally?

Thank you,
Graeme

[klr]

Originally Posted by Graemey

Hello,

I'm pretty new, I was using my kit lens and I know that my zoom lens lets me zoom in then focus when in mf but I'm not too sure about my other lens, it seems to just let me turn the barrel so I guess I'm missing something!

Is here any reason why my camera would not fire unless I was in mf originally?

Thank you,
Graeme

The only things I can think of are :

- Sometimes I have to take my lens off and blow on it a little and make sure there's no dust on the sensor then put it back on.

- Maybe you really weren't in MF mode? I'm not trying to call you stupid or anything but I know sometimes I think I put my camera on some setting when I really don't. My camera won't fire on AF unless it's completely focussed on something.

- It's broken? Haha.

[Doug Sundseth]

Some cameras can be set to not trip the shutter unless the camera thinks it's in focus when autofocus is turned on. With those cameras, you can usually also set them to trip the shutter regardless. (For Nikon, the terminology is "focus priority" and "release priority".)

Since focus can be very difficult in the dark, I suspect this is what is going on. As noted, going to manual focus obviates this issue.

[Biomech]

You're camera probably lost focus. When autofocus is enabled, if you camera hasn't locked focus it won't fire the shutter.

(whether the focus is correct is another issue)

[CheaperKings]

Originally Posted by klr

The only things I can think of are :

- Sometimes I have to take my lens off and blow on it a little and make sure there's no dust on the sensor then put it back on.

- Maybe you really weren't in MF mode? I'm not trying to call you stupid or anything but I know sometimes I think I put my camera on some setting when I really don't. My camera won't fire on AF unless it's completely focussed on something.

- It's broken? Haha.

:/

You're camera will not fire until it's found a focus point (AF).

However, when it's on MF, it'll fire anytime you want it to because it's not waiting to focus on something...

[klr]

Originally Posted by CheaperKings

:/

You're camera will not fire until it's found a focus point (AF).

However, when it's on MF, it'll fire anytime you want it to because it's not waiting to focus on something...

What's the face for...

[Graemey]

Hello All,

I think I get it now! If I'm light painting then in the dark there is nothing for the lens to focus on? In the normal light how do I focus manually though? It seems there is only one focus point.

Thank you,

Best wishes
Graeme