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Lawrence Keeney

Lawrence Keeney

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I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with young children as one of them is usually in a different room by the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear glasses.

--Lawrence Keeney
 
I have to say i have the same problem. I just bought my E20, i am still adjusting to it.

I find the auto-focus of the Olympus difficult. The correct procedure to do what you want is to focus on one child, half-press the shutter, than move the viewfinder in such a way that both children are in the viewfinder while_maintaining_the_shutter_half_pressed, then press it fully to take the picture.

I find that this still leads to about 1/2 of my pictures slightly out of focus particularly in low-light situations... Very frustrating.

Also be careful to check the autofocus symbol (must be steady) in the viewfinder and check for the autofocus audible signal.

Hope this helps,

Seb.
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for your tips.

I'm so happy to hear that someone else has the same problem. I really did not want to post such a lame problem, but I find this to be very frustrating.

I know this question is below the caliber of the majority of questions on this forum, but I was hoping someone has a simple solution; something I have overlooked.

Lawrence Keeney
sebMarc said:
I find the auto-focus of the Olympus difficult. The correct
procedure to do what you want is to focus on one child, half-press
the shutter, than move the viewfinder in such a way that both
children are in the viewfinder
while_maintaining_the_shutter_half_pressed, then press it fully to
take the picture.

I find that this still leads to about 1/2 of my pictures slightly
out of focus particularly in low-light situations... Very
frustrating.

Also be careful to check the autofocus symbol (must be steady) in
the viewfinder and check for the autofocus audible signal.

Hope this helps,

Seb.
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi Lawrence

I have been shooting my 9-month-old nephew, and I must say, kids can be challenging photographic subjects.

Firstly, I agree with what everyone else has posted as to the correct procecure to follow.

I'm sure it's obvious, but one addititional thing that might help is to increase the depth-of-field (DOF) of your image. There are various factors that affect DOF, but one of the easiest to alter is aperture. Stop your aperture down (increase the F-number) as far as the available light will permit. This will make more of your picture in focus, and hence minimise the effect of small focus mis-adjustments.

Good luck, and post some pics of the grandkiddies!

-SS
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.
Click to expand...
 
In addition to the suggestions above, try using a tripod. I find most of my OOF shots are due to camera shake. Unless you have a very fast shutter speed selected the action of pressing the shutter release button can cause camera shake.
ShootingStar said:
I have been shooting my 9-month-old nephew, and I must say, kids
can be challenging photographic subjects.

Firstly, I agree with what everyone else has posted as to the
correct procecure to follow.

I'm sure it's obvious, but one addititional thing that might help
is to increase the depth-of-field (DOF) of your image. There are
various factors that affect DOF, but one of the easiest to alter is
aperture. Stop your aperture down (increase the F-number) as far as
the available light will permit. This will make more of your
picture in focus, and hence minimise the effect of small focus
mis-adjustments.

Good luck, and post some pics of the grandkiddies!

-SS
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi Lawrence,

I feel your pain. It is embarrassing to take $3500 worth of camera equipment to your friend's house to take family photos and end up with half of the photos out of Focus. I've tried all the suggestions that's been posted. When you are 3 ft from a couple and shooting with the FL-40 and you can not get a focused shot then I believe Olympus has a problem which is now my problem. Outdoors the E-20 is Great! But you get in a low light situation and you can count on OUT OF FOCUS photos. I'm sending the E-20 to Olympus to see if there is anything they can do to help. There is a bright side to this situation! It is my understanding that the D30 has the same problem in low light situations. I'm glad I didn't invest that much money to get OUT OF FOCUS shots.

Has anyone sent their e-20 to Olympus for the OUT OF FOCUS problem?

Ron
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
 
This is exactly what I did. I went to a birthday party at my son's house. I was bragging about my new E-10 and how great a camera it is.

This was my first time taking pictures inside with the flash. Because of all the confusion with a bunch of children, I did not take the time to review the photos. When I got home, I found that I had only about 20% of the pictures that were in focus, and that the flash worked (this is another problem I have to look at).

I understand the procedure; I guess it is just a technique that I have to develop. The camera is great, it's just not idiot proof as I have proven.

I want to thank everyone for the feedback. Fortunately, it doesn't cost money to take a lot of pictures so even at 20%, I get some good ones.

Lawrence Keeney
Ron BinSC said:
I feel your pain. It is embarrassing to take $3500 worth of camera
equipment to your friend's house to take family photos and end up
with half of the photos out of Focus. I've tried all the
suggestions that's been posted. When you are 3 ft from a couple
and shooting with the FL-40 and you can not get a focused shot then
I believe Olympus has a problem which is now my problem. Outdoors
the E-20 is Great! But you get in a low light situation and you
can count on OUT OF FOCUS photos. I'm sending the E-20 to Olympus
to see if there is anything they can do to help. There is a bright
side to this situation! It is my understanding that the D30 has
the same problem in low light situations. I'm glad I didn't invest
that much money to get OUT OF FOCUS shots.

Has anyone sent their e-20 to Olympus for the OUT OF FOCUS problem?

Ron
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi Lawrence

You might try using the built-in flash (if no flashgun). Set the mode to shutter priority and then set that to say 1/125. Set flash to red eye. Focus on one of the two and see that it is in focus through the vf, half press the shutter and, holding it at halfway, recompose the shot to include the two people. Now, keepng absolutely still, gently ( gently* ) squeeeeeze the button all of the way down.

Double press on the monitor icon for a look-see of the shot.

Note: do not get too close with the flash - see manual first.

See page 65 of manual for AF

Page 87 for red-eye--BlokeyMerry Xmas and New Year http://www.pbase.com/blokey/galleries
 
One of my problems is "gently squeeeeezing" the button. With taking a picture of two kids, I only have a window of opportunity of about 3.4 microseconds before they are off playing somewhere else. In my haste, I'm afraid I "punch" rather than "squeeeeze" the shutter release.

I will try the suggestions you mentioned and try not to rush the pictures.

Lawrence
Blokey Bloggs said:
Hi Lawrence

You might try using the built-in flash (if no flashgun). Set the
mode to shutter priority and then set that to say 1/125. Set flash
to red eye. Focus on one of the two and see that it is in focus
through the vf, half press the shutter and, holding it at halfway,
recompose the shot to include the two people. Now, keepng
absolutely still, gently ( gently* ) squeeeeeze the button all of
the way down.

Double press on the monitor icon for a look-see of the shot.

Note: do not get too close with the flash - see manual first.

See page 65 of manual for AF
Page 87 for red-eye
--
Blokey
Merry Xmas and New Year
http://www.pbase.com/blokey/galleries
Click to expand...
 
In the beginning, i also had about 20% good shots inside in low-light, the rest where oof. But after playing a lot with the camera, and learning NOT to trust the focus ready signal, the oof shots are down to almost zero. I always try to find a reference point, with a little more light, and hold the focus like that(half-pressed). The frustration is gone now, i think you will have to learn more about the camera.

Another thing that you must be aware is the fact, that the e10/e20 in program mode, always try to open the lens fully, 2.0-2.4, which means you get a very narrow dept of field, a thing i like, but also something, that doesnt leave room for slightly wrong focus point. You can anticipate to this by seleting aperture mode, and use an aperture like 4 or even 5.6. Ofcourse this means indoor a short flash range, but with an extra flash, you can go a long way....
just my thoughts ofcourse.

I am glad, the other "pro" slr have same problems

Rudy

Belgium
 
HI Lawrence

you shouldn't be so timid!! Many Many of us have had these problems - I still do to some extent. Jaja's site gives lots of good hints, but in my experience they seem to just go away with practice.

A couple of obvious points:

use shutter priority or manual exposure - lots of oof's are due to the camera picking a very low shutter speed.

make sure that the aperture is reasonably small - i.e. number 5.6 or thereabouts, not f2 - as this produces such a small depth of field you are likely not to be focused where you want.

If you are reasonably close to your subject it's worth putting the camera on manual and use something like 100th second at f5.6 - then letting the flash get the exposure correct.

It will get better - really really - and we've all asked apparently simple questions when we first arrived.

Welcome - and kind regards
jono slack
http://www.slack.co.uk

hope you had a grand christmas
Lawrence Keeney said:
I'm so happy to hear that someone else has the same problem. I
really did not want to post such a lame problem, but I find this to
be very frustrating.

I know this question is below the caliber of the majority of
questions on this forum, but I was hoping someone has a simple
solution; something I have overlooked.

Lawrence Keeney
sebMarc said:
I find the auto-focus of the Olympus difficult. The correct
procedure to do what you want is to focus on one child, half-press
the shutter, than move the viewfinder in such a way that both
children are in the viewfinder
while_maintaining_the_shutter_half_pressed, then press it fully to
take the picture.

I find that this still leads to about 1/2 of my pictures slightly
out of focus particularly in low-light situations... Very
frustrating.

Also be careful to check the autofocus symbol (must be steady) in
the viewfinder and check for the autofocus audible signal.

Hope this helps,

Seb.
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--Jono Slack http://www.slack.co.uk
 
LarryD said:
LarryD wrote:
In addition to the suggestions above, try using a tripod. I find
most of my OOF shots are due to camera shake. Unless you have a
very fast shutter speed selected the action of pressing the shutter
release button can cause camera shake.
Click to expand...
I took some portraits a short while back, out of doors.

I decided I wanted to utilize my tri-pod more. I don't completely trust my eyesight on manual focus, so I used auto focus. Needless to say, when I took the two teenager's I had pin point clarity on the background. They, on the other hand, were not so sharp.

I didn't even show them the end product of that pose. I believe I told them that they had their eyes closed(on 4 shots!!). I was a little embarrassed. Fortunately, I had taken other poses.
I wanted limited DOF for those shots.
I am going to practice more with manual focus and try to get that down.
Don
 
Rudy,

Thanks for sharing your experiences too. I was afraid that I may be the only one with this problem, and I even hesitated to post it.

I know all these suggestions will help me, and hopefully it will help other new E-10 users.

Lawrence
Rudy de Geus said:
In the beginning, i also had about 20% good shots inside in
low-light, the rest where oof. But after playing a lot with the
camera, and learning NOT to trust the focus ready signal, the oof
shots are down to almost zero. I always try to find a reference
point, with a little more light, and hold the focus like
that(half-pressed). The frustration is gone now, i think you will
have to learn more about the camera.
Another thing that you must be aware is the fact, that the e10/e20
in program mode, always try to open the lens fully, 2.0-2.4, which
means you get a very narrow dept of field, a thing i like, but also
something, that doesnt leave room for slightly wrong focus point.
You can anticipate to this by seleting aperture mode, and use an
aperture like 4 or even 5.6. Ofcourse this means indoor a short
flash range, but with an extra flash, you can go a long way....
just my thoughts ofcourse.

I am glad, the other "pro" slr have same problems

Rudy

Belgium
Click to expand...
 
My theory is this:

You and I have too many OOF shots. We go to take a shot... we only have a moment before the shot is gone. We half press, the AF locks and we fire. The shot ends up OOF 40-70% of the time.

Now, there are many others who say there is no AF problem. There is a respected member here (by myself and most others) who states he has taken 35,000 shots (or something like that) and that only 1% (or so) of them are OOF. I DO NOT DOUBT THIS. I completely (almost) believe it. But what I think is happening is that he just doesnt fire the shot until the Oly actually achieves focus. I believe the users with low OOF shots are sitting there for 5 minutes continually re-AFing until it is ACTUALLY in focus, not when the AF locks and THEN they take the shot.

If the picture is right there and it will be gone in a second, I'll fire as soon as the AF locks. Christmas morning, moderate light, certainly not LOW light and I had to half press 5-6 times before it would lock. I had zoomed in. I had found all the contrast I could on the subject I was shooting. It just wouldn't lock IN FOCUS.

?

Beats the hell outta me.

GageFX
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
 
Me too! Used my C2020 on Christmas so I would have some good shots in focus. None of the C2020 shots were out of focus. 50% of the E-20 shots were out of focus. Beats me? Will send my camera back to Oly for evaluation.
Mike
GageFX said:
You and I have too many OOF shots. We go to take a shot... we only
have a moment before the shot is gone. We half press, the AF locks
and we fire. The shot ends up OOF 40-70% of the time.

Now, there are many others who say there is no AF problem. There is
a respected member here (by myself and most others) who states he
has taken 35,000 shots (or something like that) and that only 1%
(or so) of them are OOF. I DO NOT DOUBT THIS. I completely (almost)
believe it. But what I think is happening is that he just doesnt
fire the shot until the Oly actually achieves focus. I believe the
users with low OOF shots are sitting there for 5 minutes
continually re-AFing until it is ACTUALLY in focus, not when the AF
locks and THEN they take the shot.

If the picture is right there and it will be gone in a second, I'll
fire as soon as the AF locks. Christmas morning, moderate light,
certainly not LOW light and I had to half press 5-6 times before it
would lock. I had zoomed in. I had found all the contrast I could
on the subject I was shooting. It just wouldn't lock IN FOCUS.

?

Beats the hell outta me.

GageFX
Lawrence Keeney said:
I have been taking photos of my two grandchildres together, but I'm
having trouble with the auto focus.

What is the correct procedure to focus on two people? If I just
point and shoot, the focus will be at the background between the
two children. I have tried to do an auto focus on one face then
take the photo by pressing the shutter button quickly, but in this
split second, the photo goes out of focus.

I have also tried to do an auto focus on one face then switch to
manual foocus and then take the picture. This does not work with
young children as one of them is usually in a different room by
the time I am ready to take the picture.

I find it very difficult to manually focus the camera as I wear
glasses.

--
Lawrence Keeney
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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