Focus: It's a mentall state in witch you're goal or objektive is clear like how if you were really focused, you would've spotted those misspelled words or realized at how much of a run-on sentance this is or if you realized that I also just misspelled 'sintence' or......ok, I'm sure you get the point. In photography, as many know, focus determines what part of your photo is clear and defined. But I don't want to focus on the general stuff on focus in this post. Rather, I'd like to share my experience with my two most recent ops at night clubs.
If you've mozied through the Events page and sifted through the BAFC 5, Ozios, and Indulj albums, you may be able to tell that lessons were learned when shooting in darker venues (that's the order in which these events were held). The BAFC 5 (or Big A$$ F*expletive* Cookout) was my first real event outside of anything for family or messing around for work. It was an outdoor event and, sure the pics while the sun is out look great, but look again as the day went on. When it got darker, it was harder to focus on subjects. I found myself struggling to not only keep people in focus, but also dealt with a little camera shake due to longer exposures. I had little clue how to mitigate the problem. Also little care as by nightfall I had had a few brewskis in me (My work was charitable and had paid for a ticket, I promise I'm professional when hired). But I came home, took a look and was disappointed with a few shots.
At Ozios, the thought of the lack of focus at the BAFC was still on my mind. This time, however, I had a plan! I typically have a universal setting for clubs and don't steer too far off from those settings, but I rememebered this time to use the guide on the focus ring and used more manual focus (twisting the thingy on the lens doo hickey 'til your people ain't blurry). The guide pretty much tells you how how far away you should be from your subject to give you good focus. Clubs are generally crowded areas with lots going on around both you and your subject so I kept my focus between 3 to 5 feet depending of course on composition.
At Indulj, I felt like I had finally conquored my focus problems in night clubs. The majority, if not all, of the pictures that were taken where people were asked to stop moving turned out satisfactory. I'll admit there are blurry photos still, but like I said before, I don't deviate from my setting much. Indulj wasn't as dimly lit as BAFC 5 or Ozios, so I was able to switch to auto focus sometimes. However for the most part I stuck to the focus distancing guide on my lens.
Welp, that about wraps it up for this weeks tips, tricks, and adventures. Catch you guys later!