Tonight I tried my best to take some night landscapes in the darkest of dark conditions. Hoping for an epic composition of the Milky Way and a landmark.
Of course, none of my glass could auto focus with nothing more than dots in the sky to lock on. I seemed to have the most success by lining up the infinity focus mark on the focus window, however, the 50mm 1.8 has no focus window.
How can I set (guess) focus on a lens in relatively complete darkness?
Looking though the viewfinder I see nothing but black. I tried using Live View function to set focus, but that's not helpful either. I'm shooting wide open at f/2.8 or f/1.8 to gather the most amount of light in the shortest exposure, so the DoF is short, and the focus needs to be on.
Answer
In the daylight focus on a very, very far away object, like a radio tower. Mark your focusing ring with a bit of tape or something, and you have your infinity setting.
For closer focusing in the dark carry a laser pointer. Tape it to the camera or tripod so it points at your subject. The red dot should be easily seen through the viewfinder, and it will be easy to tell if you've got it in focus or not. You will probably have to use manual focus. Turn off the laser when taking the photo.
No comments:
Post a Comment