D300 Wedding Focus

[Anthony_Kearney]

Hi,

What focus settings would you recommend for shooting weddings?

Thanks

Anthony,

[captionsoflife]

I use the 51 point auto focus system when I shoot weddings. Works really well for me.

[DougAxford]

there were 3 posts on another wedding forum about the D300 going off focus and way overexposed on wedding shots. One experienced pro was in the middle of formal group shots on a tripod and saw the problem after a dozen shots on the LCD and switched to a b/u camera. No one has posted answers to this so be careful. Sounds like a MK3 problem to me, but I own neither. Extremely weird that it would change mid sequence in shots when nothing had been adjusted on the camera.

Doug

[Richard_Coyle]

I've yet to find a reason to use the auto area AF mode, whether in sports, portrait, weddings, etc. I want to be able to control the focus point in all situations, and that's why I use the 21 point or 9 point option for almost all my shooting, with single point selection most of the time. Occasionally I'll use dynamic mode, but only with erratic subject movement, and never with weddings, unless the groom has second thoughts and decides to ditch the event and I catch him as he runs away!

As for Doug's comments above, I follow a number of Nikon forums, and specifically the D3/D300 threads on them and have never heard of this problem. To compare these bodies to the Canon 1DMKIII focus problems is totally inaccurate, since the Canon problem is with focus tracking of a rapidly moving subject, as described in detail on Rob Galbraith's site. This is hardly the situation with weddings, at least the vast majority of them! If it did occur as these posts suggest, it's probably due to improper settings. If the focus mode lever is set to AF-C, instead of AF-S, there's a much greater chance of a change in focus point with any subject movement. And with auto area AF, it doesn't take much subject movement for the focus to shift to the background if you're in AF-C mode. Read the D300 manual pages 61-72 again for a better understanding, and pay particular attention to page 70, which lists the situations where auto area AF has problems. Note the fourth one down, "sharply contrasting brightness"! How about a white bridal gown next to a black tux? Sounds like a recipe for disaster there with auto area AF.

Also, it's possible the problem has to do with the need for AF Assist Illumination for low light situations. This feature will only work if 1) "the AF-S mode is selected", and 2) "either auto area focus, or single point or dynamic area with center focus point selected" are chosen. See page 273 in the D300 manual.

Finally, to trust auto area AF for stationary subjects doesn't make sense to me as well. If the bride is with a group of brides-maids and is off center, with the group angled toward either side of the photographer, do you want to take a chance the camera will focus on some other subject? I want to nail the desired subject at all times, and if I want the entire scene to be in focus, I'll adjust DOF to obtain it. Other times I may only want a particular part of the image to be in focus, such as a garter or shoe shot, or the ring held by the ring-bearer. Can't do that if the camera is determining the focus! There still has to be user control to obtain the desired results, and the best image that portrays the intent of the photographer.

[DougAxford]

Richard, the thread that I refer to is on DWF. One small excerpt: "my wife uses a similar set up as you D300 w/ 18-200VR. We have noticed each week there are several shots that the camera/ or lens focused on nothing. She has to double check when shooting formals." What makes this so strange is that in most cases, the shots are taken on a tripod, one is perfect, the next is way off in focus and/or exposure, nothing changed in settings or scene. Exposure is much farther off than simply focus telling the flash the wrong info.

Many pros are hesitant to knock a new camera for fear of getting knocked-back by others. Rob and Drew certainly found many new enemies and friends by their testing.

I am not trying to knock Nikon since it seems every DSLR these days has issues, just making people aware that they need to be careful. The MK3 was more tongue in cheek. Yes, I know it's entirely different. What is common is that there are more problems with cameras than many of us are aware of that aren't being properly tested prior to release.

Speaking of which, forums are full of news of new Nikon pro releases in June.
Here we go again.

[Richard_Coyle]

Doug

I'm in complete agreement with your following statement:

"What is common is that there are more problems with cameras than many of us are aware of that aren't being properly tested prior to release."

But from my experience answering questions on a variety of forums from users of the new Nikon DSLRs, the vast majority of the time it's a simple issue of user error. This is due to the greatly increased complexity of these two camera systems, with the ability to do so much more, but with the necessity to learn and understand the system completely, which is much more difficult for most users. As I mentioned above, there are several situations where the use of Auto Area AF will cause focus problems, as listed in the manual. Unless we know the exact shooting situation and camera settings used by the photographer having problems, we can't begin to evaluate the real cause of the problem, let alone blame the hardware.

With reference to your example above, even though a tripod was used, there are too many unknown variables to begin to make any kind of judgement. What AF mode was used? Was the tripod inadvertently moved slightly? Was the initial AF on the cusp of a critical focal point that could make it shift in or out quickly? Was there a sudden shift in lighting from some unknown source? Etc., etc.

From my personal use of the new Nikon DSLRs, except for an initial D300 body with a defective matrix metering system, which was replaced, I've not encountered any problems that weren't corrected by learning the system properly. And specifically to shooting weddings, although I don't use Auto Area AF and can't speak specifically to this function, I've not had ANY problems with AF, except where the AF Illumination is insufficient to provide an accurate AF in a very low light situation with the D300.

Again, with the very large number of potential users being able to post problems like this to the web, particularly with a new complex system like this, the likelihood that it's a user error is probably 99+%. Before a problem can be accurately attributed to the hardware, it has to be carefully documented as repeatable under controlled conditions, as is done by Rob Galbraith in his testing regimens.

PS: See my post to your thread regarding the D3 firmware update, and Nikon's unusually prompt response to it! A new era of customer friendliness has arrived at Nikon? Hope so!!!

[DougAxford]

Here's another post from a very long-time DSLR pro. "I'm very impressed with the image quality coming out of the D300, but I'm very disappiointed in the D300's low light AF. There were several times where I missed a shot because the D300 wouldn't lock AF. The reception was no darker than average and furthermore I felt that my D200 never missed shots like that.
FYI, I was shooting in 51pt dynamic, then I changed it to 51pt non dynamic, then down to 9pt and there was no difference.
I have determined that it's not my single camera because both my D300's behaved the same way and they were bought about 4 months apart. With my D200, I could plan on missing less than 5% of the shots. With my D300 I was missing probably about 15%-20% of the shots."

That was followed with a number of posts in agreement and a few disagreeing.

The truth IMHO is that until it happens to you (that means a generic 'you') most of us sluff it off as a stupid or inexperienced photographer. Yes, it happens, but these posts are not. It's not until a very experienced and well regarded photographer has it happen that people seem to notice.

I'm not knocking Nikon, certainly Canon is no better and I'm wrestling between buying another 40D or D3 in the next few weeks.

It's a tough line between releasing cameras with all of us yanking their chains to get them faster and making sure the product is more fully tested prior to release. as a working pro, I cannot afford mistakes.

It still makes me shake my head that none of the DSLRs today can focus as well as top film cameras costing much less 10 years ago. And yes, I understand the reasons why that is ... just FIX IT for crying out loud!!!

[Pro Photo Store]

Visit the B&H Pro Photo Store for the best Gear Prices and regular specials!

Brilliant Color for any Digital SLR
White Balance Cap
The Pros Agree on ColorRight
What People Are Saying