Watermelon!

[Alorien]

I am having major issues with my camera refusing to focus, (awful grinding noise, still saving up to either fix or replace) so they are a little soft, I may have over sharpened in PP... :oops:

Any CC is greatly appreciated

http://alorien.smugmug.com/photos/634853465_vfFLP-XL.jpg


http://alorien.smugmug.com/photos/634929729_o7dwe-XL.jpg

http://alorien.smugmug.com/photos/634933105_PzosW-XL.jpg

[joedlh]

Cute shots.

The noon sun is harsh. If you can't shoot earlier or later when the light is more favorable, put the kid in the shade. Make sure it's not dappled shade. The backlighting doesn't help in these shots. However, if you turned him (her?) into the sun, the effect would be more squinting.

Do you have another lens that you can try on the camera? The grinding is more likely a lens issue.

[Robert_Lay]

As Joe said, the noon sun is not a good time to shoot out-of-doors scenes.

Open shade is far better and is usually available on the north side of any structure.

You shouldn't be worried about focus - none of these shots show any significant problem in focus.

[dbrod1]

As far as subject goes, #3 is the winner.

[Alorien]

Thanks for the feedback :D

I agree, i think I thought it was still early (started getting ready at 8am LOL) and I didn't realize how bright the sun was, I definitely need to pay more attention to that, I think I mess up too many of my pictures with direct sunlight.


I've tried both the lenses that I own with my camera and it does the same thing for both of them, I know i scratched the sensor (can see it starting at f11) and it seems a little foggy almost so im not sure what it's trying to focus on... but if I point it at the pantry standing about 7 feet away it cannot focus on it for a good 5 minutes.. out of the 250 pics i took only about 20 were in focus enough to be used and neither the kid or I moved....

And I do love #3, he's a real character and kept trying to eat the green part

[bullsprig]

#3 is my favorite!!

that is exactly how a kid eats melon!!!!!

[Bill Boehme]

Well, I see the child mostly in reasonably sharp focus in the images although it is difficult to tell much from an image resized and compressed for the web. Also, showing an image that you sharpened in post processing is not helping in diagnosing the problem. A better solution would be to extract a small 100% crop from the unsharpened image, perhaps about 200 X 200 pixels. Since the image EXIF data was not preserved in the web image, could you provide information such as lens used, focal length, shutter speed, and aperture. If the shutter speed is slow, then it possible that the child moved during the exposure which would result in some motion blur. It is also possible that you might have caused some blur if the camera was moved during the exposure. Other than the background, which seems too cluttered looking, I like the images.

From your statement that you were not sure what the camera was focusing on, I assume that you have all focus points active. I normally have only the center focus point active so that I will be in control of what the lens focuses on. Otherwise, it is a crap shoot and the AF system normally looks for the highest contrast edge that is closest to the camera -- not necessarily what you want. If your lenses use the standard AF motors, you will hear them and it is not anything unusual. Since both of your lenses make the same sound, that is further indication that there is no lens problem.

When you try to focus on an interior cabinet door, there are two problems that may prevent the lens from focusing. The first is sufficient light. In bright sunlight the AF system works best, but as the light level decreases, the accuracy of the AF system decreases. The other more likely scenario is that you are trying to focus on something that does not have a sharp contrasting edge. If it is just a flat door panel, especially if it is painted a solid color, then the AF system simply will not work.

Whether you have a scratch or any other problem with the sensor has no bearing on AF even when using Live View. If you are not using Live View, the image sensor is not even involved in AF.