Nikon D3000 Focusing settings

[Suziellen]

I am running into an issue with focusing and I think it's my settings. When I do family shoots I usually get a few people sharp and someone whose standing right next to them come out blurry. I've done reading and thought I figured it out but I didn't. I shoot in apature priority mode. Under AF-area mode what is the best one to have it on to capture EVERYONE in focus?

I also wanted to touch on noise. My photos all the sudden are becoming very noisy. I assume it maybe has to do with low lighting and a higher iso? The lighting outside with the change in weather has been low. Should I invest in an external flash for outside photo shoots?

Any thoughts are appriciated. I just did a shoot with my new 50 mm and the noise was terrible!
Thanks!

 

[MTVision]

Are you setting your ISO or is it on auto?

Try AF-S for focusing. Can you post an example? I'm thinking it might be your depth of field. What do you set your aperture to? It should be equal to or greater than the number of people in the group.

 

[Suziellen]

Okay I changed it. I had it on AF-C. I was also wondering about my depth of field maybe causing it. There wasn't a lot of lighting when I did this shoot yesterday.
DSC_6109 by suellencarter, on Flickr

I feel like the boy on the left is blurry and the amount of noise just about ruined all my photos. the data from Lightroom for almost the same photo was 1/125 sec at f/2.2 50 mm and iso at 640. I thought I had it so my camera wouldn't shoot below 1/200 sec too. I thought I had this all down but I feel like I am confusing myself lol.

 

[MTVision]

Okay I changed it. I had it on AF-C. I was also wondering about my depth of field maybe causing it. There wasn't a lot of lighting when I did this shoot yesterday.http://www.flickr.com/photos/68611244@N04/6341611671/
DSC_6109 by suellencarter, on Flickr

I feel like the boy on the left is blurry and the amount of noise just about ruined all my photos. the data from Lightroom for almost the same photo was 1/125 sec at f/2.2 50 mm and iso at 640. I thought I had it so my camera wouldn't shoot below 1/200 sec too. I thought I had this all down but I feel like I am confusing myself lol.

2.2 is too big of an aperture for this shot. You should have had it around 4. Noise is usually caused from high ISO's and under exposure. Did you set your ISO to 640? 1/125 should be fine for a shot like this - unless the dog was going crazy. Just keep an eye on your shutter speed when in aperture mode.

 

[Suziellen]

Okay I changed it. I had it on AF-C. I was also wondering about my depth of field maybe causing it. There wasn't a lot of lighting when I did this shoot yesterday.
DSC_6109 by suellencarter, on Flickr

I feel like the boy on the left is blurry and the amount of noise just about ruined all my photos. the data from Lightroom for almost the same photo was 1/125 sec at f/2.2 50 mm and iso at 640. I thought I had it so my camera wouldn't shoot below 1/200 sec too. I thought I had this all down but I feel like I am confusing myself lol.

2.2 is too big of an aperture for this shot. You should have had it around 4. Noise is usually caused from high ISO's and under exposure. Did you set your ISO to 640? 1/125 should be fine for a shot like this - unless the dog was going crazy. Just keep an eye on your shutter speed when in aperture mode.

So for close ups and say one person in the picture a bigger aperture would be appropriate? When doing group pictures I need to have my apeture around 4. That makes sense because it will change my depth of field and bring more of it into focus.
As for my ISO setting I had it set for 200 but under my ISO sensitivity setting the max is set for 1600. I also have my Auto ISO sensitivty on. Should it be on? I appriciate your patience. I am going to get this right someday.

I guess my way of thinking was the lighting was really low and I didn't purchase an external flash like I had planned this weekend and I didn't want to use the flash on my camera so I thought having a bigger aperture would let in more light. I think I went way wrong on this shoot.

Would it be beneficial to get an external flash for when nature light just isn't enough?

 

[MTVision]

So for close ups and say one person in the picture a bigger aperture would be appropriate? When doing group pictures I need to have my apeture around 4. That makes sense because it will change my depth of field and bring more of it into focus.
As for my ISO setting I had it set for 200 but under my ISO sensitivity setting the max is set for 1600. I also have my Auto ISO sensitivty on. Should it be on? I appriciate your patience. I am going to get this right someday.

I guess my way of thinking was the lighting was really low and I didn't purchase an external flash like I had planned this weekend and I didn't want to use the flash on my camera so I thought having a bigger aperture would let in more light. I think I went way wrong on this shoot.

Would it be beneficial to get an external flash for when nature light just isn't enough?

A bigger aperture would work for one person/close ups. Shooting a your max aperture can cause a soft OOF picture though. If your ISO was on auto then it is going to change a lot. Take it off auto that way when you set it to 200 it will stay there. Then if you want to raise your ISO you can but don't let your camera control it. Just remember that your aperture should be equal to or greater (larger #) than the number of people in the photo.

I would get an external flash. They are nice to have for inside, outside, in the sun - pretty much any situation.

 

[Suziellen]

So for close ups and say one person in the picture a bigger aperture would be appropriate? When doing group pictures I need to have my apeture around 4. That makes sense because it will change my depth of field and bring more of it into focus.
As for my ISO setting I had it set for 200 but under my ISO sensitivity setting the max is set for 1600. I also have my Auto ISO sensitivty on. Should it be on? I appriciate your patience. I am going to get this right someday.

I guess my way of thinking was the lighting was really low and I didn't purchase an external flash like I had planned this weekend and I didn't want to use the flash on my camera so I thought having a bigger aperture would let in more light. I think I went way wrong on this shoot.

Would it be beneficial to get an external flash for when nature light just isn't enough?

A bigger aperture would work for one person/close ups. Shooting a your max aperture can cause a soft OOF picture though. If your ISO was on auto then it is going to change a lot. Take it off auto that way when you set it to 200 it will stay there. Then if you want to raise your ISO you can but don't let your camera control it. Just remember that your aperture should be equal to or greater (larger #) than the number of people in the photo.

I would get an external flash. They are nice to have for inside, outside, in the sun - pretty much any situation.

Oh what a good rule for the aperture! I will take it off auto ISO so I can control it. You have been very helpful once again! I took your advice and ordered a 50 mm and love it! Now I guess I will be buying an external flash this next week. I truly love photography and I won't stop working at it until I get where I want to be. Once last question. Do you have a recomendation for a semi inexpensive external flash?

 

[MTVision]

Oh what a good rule for the aperture! I will take it off auto ISO so I can control it. You have been very helpful once again! I took your advice and ordered a 50 mm and love it! Now I guess I will be buying an external flash this next week. I truly love photography and I won't stop working at it until I get where I want to be. Once last question. Do you have a recomendation for a semi inexpensive external flash?

What would be inexpensive for you? I bought a sb700 and I love it. It's really easy to use and it's the only one I've ever used! We have similar cameras so they would work the same. It's around 350.00+ but you could probably find a used one. It's nice to have one dedicated Nikon flash then if you want more flashes for off camera flash setups you wont necessarily have to buy expensive name brand ones.

The 50 is a nice lens huh? There aren't really any rules that I know of. When you get a chance, inside your house play around with it. Do you have a doll you can use to take pictures of. You can use your flash if you want but go through all the apertures and see how they affect the image. I shoot wide open a lot (1.4) to practice my focusing skills because it can be hard to nail focus at that aperture. With af-s you can use the directional pad to choose your focal point. If you are taking photos for practice it's OK to shoot wide open but just be prepared that most will end up in the trash.

If you ever need any help you can always send me a private message too!

 

[z1rick]

I have a 3000 also, from reviews I have read and from a few thousand pics, the highest ISO you should use (before getting a lot of noise) is 400. On more expensive crop bodies, you can go as high as 1600 with very little noise.

 

[MTVision]

I have a 3000 also, from reviews I have read and from a few thousand pics, the highest ISO you should use (before getting a lot of noise) is 400. On more expensive crop bodies, you can go as high as 1600 with very little noise.

As long as the photo isn't underexposed you can go up higher than 400. Plus you can get rid of most of the noise in post. Don't limit yourself to ISO 400. Some photos look good with grain.

 

[KmH]

Unfortunately, doing de-noise in post also costs you image detail. If you are shooting JPEG instad of Raw capture you have even less latitude for doing de-noise work.

When using what is a high ISO for your camera you have to be sure an ETTR (Expose To The Right) and nail the exposure to have as much editing headroom as possible.

De-noise is just one side of a coin, with sharpening being the other side of the coin. If you do one you pretty much have to do the other also. I have 4 de-noise applications that I use depending on what I need to done.

The subject is actually so involved entire books have been written about it - Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

 

[Suziellen]

Thank you all for the input. It has helped greatly. I have been trying to set my camera up so that in most cases I will be getting clear pictures with little noise but it seems like the more I mess with it the worse I am getting or I am my own worst critic people are telling me. lol
I shoot in RAW and I use Lightroom 3 for photo editing. It seems like I have gotten more noise in my last two sessions than before and de-noising them makes me lose a lot of detail and makes me want to trash them all. Hopefully with the information I gained from this I will have a successful next photo shoot. I am doing a "Best Beanie Contest" for children under the age of 10 and I need it to be perfect since people will be voting. Megan thanks again. I will definitely be keeping you as a resource if you don't mind.
haha-5957 by suellencarter, on Flickr

 

[Suziellen]

Oh what a good rule for the aperture! I will take it off auto ISO so I can control it. You have been very helpful once again! I took your advice and ordered a 50 mm and love it! Now I guess I will be buying an external flash this next week. I truly love photography and I won't stop working at it until I get where I want to be. Once last question. Do you have a recomendation for a semi inexpensive external flash?

What would be inexpensive for you? I bought a sb700 and I love it. It's really easy to use and it's the only one I've ever used! We have similar cameras so they would work the same. It's around 350.00+ but you could probably find a used one. It's nice to have one dedicated Nikon flash then if you want more flashes for off camera flash setups you wont necessarily have to buy expensive name brand ones.

The 50 is a nice lens huh? There aren't really any rules that I know of. When you get a chance, inside your house play around with it. Do you have a doll you can use to take pictures of. You can use your flash if you want but go through all the apertures and see how they affect the image. I shoot wide open a lot (1.4) to practice my focusing skills because it can be hard to nail focus at that aperture. With af-s you can use the directional pad to choose your focal point. If you are taking photos for practice it's OK to shoot wide open but just be prepared that most will end up in the trash.

If you ever need any help you can always send me a private message too!

If I could find one used I may just go that route. I won't shoot inside due to not having a decent flash. I will be checking ebay and other places for this. I will be saving up in the mean time. My main focus in my pictures is capturing families, children and animals with clarity and correct exposure. I hope to get there someday soon! I am sick of trashing good photos because of blur, noise, or bad exposer.