Man Taking GOOD pic is hard.!!!

[nathank]

I posted a week or so ago about buying a used Nikon 3200 just to learn how to take pictures while hunting and other adventures. Over the weekend the Krav Maga gym I work out at had a level test and I took the opportunity to try and take some action shots during the test. FOCUS is a serious pain in the butt...!!! I will post some of the pictures I took a little later. I was asked by the owner of the gym not to post anything until I gave them to him. I feel that was fair since he let me be in the way a lot of the time to take them. Ok rant over I look forward to the feed back from yall on my ability or more importantly my lack of...

[Mike D]

There's a lot more to taking good indoor pics than focus. My camera actually does pretty good in the auto setting but the lens is typically the limiting factor.


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[swanjts]

Your D3200 has an auto focus feature and your lenses that came with it should have a switch on the side for Auto Focus or Manual Focus. Make sure that switch on the lenses is on Auto Focus. Also in your settings, you need to check which focus setting it is on. (Area, Single Point, etc.) If I remember correctly, you were the person that found this cheap at a pawn shop or something and asked if it was a good deal or not. One of the reply posts to you on that thread was a video on setting up your D3200. These topics are covered really well in that video. You might want to go watch it again and make sure your settings are correct.

Hope this helps.

[swanjts]

Here is the link to that video again.

https://youtu.be/fmWBW8aZSS0

[Shane]

Sports photography, especially inside a gym with poor lighting (it's not as bright as you think it is inside a gym), is tough. You need fast shutter speeds, so that means high ISO and low f/stop numbers (f/2.8 or smaller number). That translates into a narrow depth of field, which makes it that much harder to maintain focus on your intended subject that is moving around. Google "back button focus", as that technique helps a lot. Also learn how to adjust your camera's focus points. Trying to use just a single point is tough. Using all of them can be problematic as well. I use the center zone on mine for sports.

[Shane]

Once you get a nice camera and lens and start trying to get good photos, you quickly learn to stop saying this to another photographer who took great looking photos:

"Wow! Your camera takes great pictures! What kind is it?"

There's a little more to it than buying a nice camera, huh?

[nathank]

Your D3200 has an auto focus feature and your lenses that came with it should have a switch on the side for Auto Focus or Manual Focus. Make sure that switch on the lenses is on Auto Focus. Also in your settings, you need to check which focus setting it is on. (Area, Single Point, etc.) If I remember correctly, you were the person that found this cheap at a pawn shop or something and asked if it was a good deal or not. One of the reply posts to you on that thread was a video on setting up your D3200. These topics are covered really well in that video. You might want to go watch it again and make sure your settings are correct.

Hope this helps.

I thank you for posting it again and I will say that I did watch those videos and they did help me with a lot of info but, what I was referring to is my lack of experience in using the camera and having a complete understanding of what and how take pictures. Also yes I am the one who bought my camera at a pawn shop and like I previously said, in that post, I have absolutely NO idea what I am doing..!!! I am not one that can sit down and watch a video and then go out and perform everything that was said in that video without error. My first attempt at taking good photos was not a complete failure as I learned that what I tried to do did not render the pictures that I thought I was taking but, I did get some decent shots that I will say were probably the camera making up for my lack of ability!! LOL Also on the Auto Focus portion I did have it in Auto but, looking through the eye piece while in Auto it did seem to me that the pic was in focus so I just took it out of Auto and tried to do it in manual.. Maybe this was the mistake..