Auto Focus Settings

[whitezombie]

Advise needed...

i took this picture of a couple of Roe deer last night. can someone tell me how to take pictures through fences/braches with out the auto focus picking up the fence. i have an Olympus SP-500UZ and rely on the Auto focus....




Thanks, Kev

[zan]

There are 2 things you can try...

First, get close to the fence and make sure the lens is poking through a gap.

If you can't do that, get as close as possible and use the widest aperture you can (e.g. F2.8 or F4). This gives you a very shallow depth of field, and will throw the fence out of focus enough that it disappears. This works best if the animal is far away from the fencing.

I'm not familiar with your camera, but compacts tend to have a larger depth of field than SLRS at any given aperture because of the sensor size, so you may need to experiment to get the best settings you can with it. Autofocus should have no effect on the result.

Zan

[whitezombie]

Thanks Zan.

I knew there was a way around this... all i have to do now is find how to change these settings on my camera.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by whitezombie

Advise needed...

i took this picture of a couple of Roe deer last night. can someone tell me how to take pictures through fences/braches with out the auto focus picking up the fence. i have an Olympus SP-500UZ and rely on the Auto focus....

Thanks, Kev

Manual focus (if your camera can) will also stop the
fence being used for focus by the camera.

[GerryNick2]

As has been already said you need to have the lense virtually touching the fence mesh and the narrow angle of view of a telephoto lens will focus on the subject and not the fence.

Fencing can be a bit frustrating especially at Wildlife Parks, Zoo's and Bird Sanctuary's etc. Sometimes the mesh is large enough to get some nice shots on other occasions the mesh is so small that it is impossible to get a shot at all. Whats worse is when they put a barrier in front of the fence so you can't even get near it. I am convinced they do it deliberately to thwart the attempts of photographers. I know they have to be conscious of health and safety but sometimes this seems to be taken to extremes.

Well I have had my little moan, good luck with the deer.

Gerry

[whitezombie]

Thanks all,

i will have another attempt at the weekend just for practise.

Kev