- Post score: 18
- #1
Sometimes when making pictures something suddenly works that did not work before. My problem is that I'm not always adventurous enough to try something new.
I used single point AF-S and AF-C on my Nikon DSLR cameras for the longest time for wildlife and landscapes. One kind of photo I could never get right was shots of the moon. I could get pin-sharp images from my Nikkor 200-500mm lens of any kind of animal, but never of the moon.
Camera on a tripod? Check.
Mirror up? Check.
Negative exposure compensation? Check.
Sharply focused image? Nope.
One day I started playing around with Dynamic 9 AF for birds in the backyard - a focus mode I'd never paid much attention to. Then with that focus mode set on the camera one night I set up the tripod and started shooting the moon again. Big surprise - focus was perfect. I realized that single point AF never worked well for my moon shots, simply because there was not enough contrast in the face of the full moon that I always tried to capture. I believe some of the extra focus points in Dynamic 9 mode caught the black sky or black part of the moon, and that provided the necessary contrast to enable sharp focus. This was one of those slap-me-against-the-side-of-the-head moments.
Nikon D7500 with Nikkor 200-500mm.
I used single point AF-S and AF-C on my Nikon DSLR cameras for the longest time for wildlife and landscapes. One kind of photo I could never get right was shots of the moon. I could get pin-sharp images from my Nikkor 200-500mm lens of any kind of animal, but never of the moon.
Camera on a tripod? Check.
Mirror up? Check.
Negative exposure compensation? Check.
Sharply focused image? Nope.
One day I started playing around with Dynamic 9 AF for birds in the backyard - a focus mode I'd never paid much attention to. Then with that focus mode set on the camera one night I set up the tripod and started shooting the moon again. Big surprise - focus was perfect. I realized that single point AF never worked well for my moon shots, simply because there was not enough contrast in the face of the full moon that I always tried to capture. I believe some of the extra focus points in Dynamic 9 mode caught the black sky or black part of the moon, and that provided the necessary contrast to enable sharp focus. This was one of those slap-me-against-the-side-of-the-head moments.
Nikon D7500 with Nikkor 200-500mm.
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