ericseyes

Thanks for this lesson Eric – I was only playing around with this setting recently and I came up with a similar assumption to what you have stated. To me sharpness is the key to the best images and its important to learn and experiment – thank you for sharing!♥

Thanks Eric. Appreciate your willingness to share info and thoughts.

Hi Eric … you may remember my problems with the D300 and my 70-300 lens. Where it had worked like a charm at any aperture on the D40x, it was being quite pig-headed on the D300. I now keep it between f/9.0 and f/12 or 13 and have had excellent results. But somewhere in my research travels, I swear I found a chart that indicated best sweet spot for each lens. Dang if I can find it tonight, tho!! Oh, also on that thread, our dear Rod gave some wonderful advice toward the end which I don’t think many people saw, so I’ll post it here: ~Just been reading through the thread Lois, quite a few issues all in this one, you know I’m going to tell you to use the tripod more so I won’t, OOPS I just did in a way, LOL.
There is an old photographic formula that few people seem to take any notice of these days, even in general or good light, if you use a focal length of 60mm your shutter speed should be faster than 1/60sec and the same applies at all focal lengths, your 300mm should be faster than 1/300sec, otherwise shake will ruin the quality hand held.
I don’t have the input on the VR lenses as mine are all conventional with no vibration reduction facility on them but they will out perform a hand held shot with a VR lens hand held every time when used on a tripod.
As for the metering issue, spot metering is used mainly when you wish to expose on the spot that it is focused on, IE. a white or bright coloured colour with a darker background will expose better on the subject it is aimed at without being affected by the dark background which will often then appear darker on the image as a consequence of metering on the light coloured subject.
Centre weighted metering was more popular a few years ago and is basically a halfway compromise between spot metering and the now more reliable multi-segment metering which on your camera can be set up to 51 different points, my belief is to leave it on this 51 point metering (Matrix) till you feel you want to get that bit more creative than the camera, after over 40 years of photography, I haven’t reached that point yet so for me it’s Spot metering if I am using a macro with a subject that contrasts the background or just leave it in 51 point matrix for all landscape work.
Just my twopence worth or as you might say two cents worth,
Regards, “Rod”Just been reading through the thread Lois, quite a few issues all in this one, you know I’m going to tell you to use the tripod more so I won’t, OOPS I just did in a way, LOL.
There is an old photographic formula that few people seem to take any notice of these days, even in general or good light, if you use a focal length of 60mm your shutter speed should be faster than 1/60sec and the same applies at all focal lengths, your 300mm should be faster than 1/300sec, otherwise shake will ruin the quality hand held.
I don’t have the input on the VR lenses as mine are all conventional with no vibration reduction facility on them but they will out perform a hand held shot with a VR lens hand held every time when used on a tripod.
As for the metering issue, spot metering is used mainly when you wish to expose on the spot that it is focused on, IE. a white or bright coloured colour with a darker background will expose better on the subject it is aimed at without being affected by the dark background which will often then appear darker on the image as a consequence of metering on the light coloured subject.
Centre weighted metering was more popular a few years ago and is basically a halfway compromise between spot metering and the now more reliable multi-segment metering which on your camera can be set up to 51 different points, my belief is to leave it on this 51 point metering (Matrix) till you feel you want to get that bit more creative than the camera, after over 40 years of photography, I haven’t reached that point yet so for me it’s Spot metering if I am using a macro with a subject that contrasts the background or just leave it in 51 point matrix for all landscape work.
Just my twopence worth or as you might say two cents worth,
Regards, RodJust been reading through the thread Lois, quite a few issues all in this one, you know I’m going to tell you to use the tripod more so I won’t, OOPS I just did in a way, LOL.
There is an old photographic formula that few people seem to take any notice of these days, even in general or good light, if you use a focal length of 60mm your shutter speed should be faster than 1/60sec and the same applies at all focal lengths, your 300mm should be faster than 1/300sec, otherwise shake will ruin the quality hand held.
I don’t have the input on the VR lenses as mine are all conventional with no vibration reduction facility on them but they will out perform a hand held shot with a VR lens hand held every time when used on a tripod.
As for the metering issue, spot metering is used mainly when you wish to expose on the spot that it is focused on, IE. a white or bright coloured colour with a darker background will expose better on the subject it is aimed at without being affected by the dark background which will often then appear darker on the image as a consequence of metering on the light coloured subject.
Centre weighted metering was more popular a few years ago and is basically a halfway compromise between spot metering and the now more reliable multi-segment metering which on your camera can be set up to 51 different points, my belief is to leave it on this 51 point metering (Matrix) till you feel you want to get that bit more creative than the camera, after over 40 years of photography, I haven’t reached that point yet so for me it’s Spot metering if I am using a macro with a subject that contrasts the background or just leave it in 51 point matrix for all landscape work.
Just my twopence worth or as you might say two cents worth, Regards, Rod”Just been reading through the thread Lois, quite a few issues all in this one, you know I’m going to tell you to use the tripod more so I won’t, OOPS I just did in a way, LOL.
There is an old photographic formula that few people seem to take any notice of these days, even in general or good light, if you use a focal length of 60mm your shutter speed should be faster than 1/60sec and the same applies at all focal lengths, your 300mm should be faster than 1/300sec, otherwise shake will ruin the quality hand held.
I don’t have the input on the VR lenses as mine are all conventional with no vibration reduction facility on them but they will out perform a hand held shot with a VR lens hand held every time when used on a tripod.
As for the metering issue, spot metering is used mainly when you wish to expose on the spot that it is focused on, IE. a white or bright coloured colour with a darker background will expose better on the subject it is aimed at without being affected by the dark background which will often then appear darker on the image as a consequence of metering on the light coloured subject.
Centre weighted metering was more popular a few years ago and is basically a halfway compromise between spot metering and the now more reliable multi-segment metering which on your camera can be set up to 51 different points, my belief is to leave it on this 51 point metering (Matrix) till you feel you want to get that bit more creative than the camera, after over 40 years of photography, I haven’t reached that point yet so for me it’s Spot metering if I am using a macro with a subject that contrasts the background or just leave it in 51 point matrix for all landscape work.
Just my twopence worth or as you might say two cents worth,
Regards, Rod

ok … I have no idea how that happened … oooooooooop!!!!!!!!!

_{slinking away, laughing}

Any information is great information Eric. I’ll take it.

Cheers Eric, I usually try and keep in the middle range if I can. A timely reminder.

Thank you, all help is needed and appreciated ;))

Good information for me Eric. I just favorited this so I could come back to it. Thanks.

Great information, Eric. I’ve been noticing some of my shots were not as sharply focused as I’d like them to be. Now I know why! Thanks very much.

Great information. I like to shoot between f/2.8 (I think that’s my highest setting) and f/14

I have just recently been really experimenting with my Sony CyberShot and have been discovering how to get real depth and clarity in photography. So I completely understand what you are speaking of with the sharpness and depth of a photo. I appreciate this information you have given here, Eric, and will most definately keep this post to lean on. Thank you for sharing this with all of us on RB. ~:)

Hiya Eric, you are correct, most lenses achieve their best sharpness/focus at approx 2-3 stops down from their minimum aperture.

So if your lens has a smallest aperture of f19, then best focus will be achieved around f11.

This is completely normal and nothing to be embarrassed about!

It is pretty accurate info