It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn from reading blogs. Just recently, this Thistlewood Farms' post made my day.
I have been trying to play around with Aperture priority on my DSLR, having some success and some failure. I want to try to master the ability to blur the background or foreground of a photo. KariAnne, of Thistlewood Farms, suggested taking the camera off auto focus.
S.C.A.R.Y!!!
But, I did.
Right there and then, I grabbed my camera and took these shots of my desk and notice board. The sort of shots I want to keep and frame ... maybe not.
Focus at the front.
Everyone has a glass of red on their desk when reading blogs, don't they??? Well, what's left of a glass of red.
Focus at the back.
I was ecstatic! It was so easy.
So, just to be sure I hadn't fluked it, I took two more.
As a newbie at non-auto-everything DSLRing, I was in heaven.
So, I played with manual focus for a few days and had some successes.
I took this one while out driving in the countryside.
I loved a bit of rusted barbed wire. Don't you?
And these at the Rose Garden in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Hyde Park, Sydney.
It's a shame I couldn't capture the perfume of these roses as well. So lovely.
What surprises me most is that manual focus works for me … most of the time.
I need a lot more practice, but I love the way it allows me greater control over the focus point of my shot.
My biggest problem is remembering to turn auto focus BACK ON.
I find myself clicking away happily producing totally useless photos because I thought I was in auto focus mode.
I have A LOT to learn.
Little steps.
Little steps.
So, what do you think?
Manual focus or auto focus?
Any simple tips you can give me?
I need all the help I can get.
I still need to learn how to control Aperture to do this too.
It's a slow process.
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