A few black and whites from a visit to a big cat preserve near where I live. Big Cat Preserve - a set on Flickr By the end of the day I felt like I was getting a handle on manual focusing, focus peaking etc. Still far from mastering it, but I'm getting the hang of it I think.
Tricky spaces like that will just drive AF lenses crazy - a wire mesh at the front and also at the rear of the subject. So manual focus is very helpful in those situations, and you're off to a great start. Thanks for sharing. Manual focus will naturally become instinct with time and practice. I was taught to - first compose, then look at the subject, then focus, then shoot. When the subject is focus-peaked, rotate the lens barrel a little bit further until it loses peaking... then go back the opposite direction to peak but keep going until it loses peaking again. By feel and without taking your eye off the subject, take a mental note of how much you rotated the lens barrel between extremes. Then rotate back half-way... and take the shot. Discipline yourself to do this only once, and trust your first instinct. Resist the temptation to repeat going back to those extremes to double-check. Generally, if your subject is a 3 dimensional object (like a sphere or a cube) focus on the surface or corner or edge nearest you. When you're taking a 'heads and shoulders' close-up of a person (or an animal), always focus on the catch-light of the eye closest to you. A catch-light is the tiny dot of light reflecting off the eyeball. Have fun! .
If you can get close enough to fencing you can shoot right through it without it showing much......... shoot with open aperture and manual focus. {} Shot through a chain link fence at the Melbourne, Florida Zoo (not a NEX)
Thanks for the tips guys! I'll definitely try to practice your focusing advice. There has been quite a few shots I have missed because I was busy fiddling with the focus, going back and forth. Can you focus through a fence with a prime lens? I can remember doing it with my D90 and a zoom lens, but I definitely couldn't achieve it at the preserve with the 35mm (as you can see).
I feel the same way. One good thing about this place is they've all been born into captivity and rescued from circuses etc. Though it's a sad thought, they've never known freedom and couldn't be released into the wild. Whether this life or being euthanized is the better option is something to ponder....
I was . lol I was using the the Voigtlander 35mm 1.2. The result was definitely just a case of my inexperience, but I feel like I'm getting better with it every time I take it out. That's what I love about the Nex-7. It's just so intuitive and fun to use.
