Lack of focus

[bobinatcat]

Hi.

Just wondering how you guys go about making sure the subject you want is in focus, sounds easy yes; I tried to get the entire yellow flower in focus but as you can see it didn't work.

The book states I can use "multiple focus points" yet I have never managed to get this to work :confused:

Any suggestions?

Ta

http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/4/6/30/f_fuzzm_bf97531.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/6/30/f_fuzzm_bf97531.jpg&srv=img28)

[Naturalist]

Personally, I never use the multiple focus points. I just use the center focus point with the focus being the * button, then recompose and shoot.

[bobinatcat]

Personally, I never use the multiple focus points. I just use the center focus point with the focus being the * button, then recompose and shoot.

but say in the situation above?
or sometime where you want a fair amount of area in focus?

jut gave it a try where you press the star button...from memory though that "AE locks"

[DStanic]

Don't use multiple focus points- it will not put more of the picture in focus.

It looks like you got part of the yellow flower in focus, but probably your depth of field was to shallow and that's why the whole plant is not in focus. You will want to use a higher aperture (F8 for example, or maybe even higher) this will put more of the object in focus.

[bobinatcat]

Yeah I understand that. From memory it was taken at 2.8 or 3.2 but I was trying to get a Bokeh effect in the pic.

Speaking of multiple focus points how do you do that though?
I can read the book on it but obviously doing it wrong as it never works for me :(

[PhotosGuy]

Speaking of multiple focus points how do you do that though? I don't use them, either. I have never understood the point of multiple af points. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=967013)

You have a 30D though, so try this: I use C.Fn-13 (1) to put the focus points on my joystick (multi controller) which makes it easy to switch when things are moving fast or other situations where I need an off-center point.
Radio Controlled Boats (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=101101)

[yogestee]

I manual focus alot.. My only wish is to disengage all the focus points..

[bobinatcat]

^ Thankyou all.

[DStanic]

If you want to seperate the yellow flower from the background more than you can do with the camera itself, in photoshop you could make 2 layers. In one have the yellow flower in focus, the other have the background and add a blurred effect.

Also if you have a longer lens (70-200 for example) if you shoot from a farther distance and large aperture you can seperate it more than with a standard zoom. Check out my gallary (http://www.flickr.com/photos/38826131@N00/sets/72157605526349976/) some flower shots were taken with my 24-60 others with my 70-200.