Jackson frontier photos wrote:
You can change whether it spot or multi point focuses.  I keep mine on spot, focus on the model's eye, hold the shutter half way, and move the frame where ever I want.

Exactly. I should have mentioned that. I use single spot focus. That's exactly how I shoot. Focus on the eyes, recompose and shoot.

I was pretty cold out I wonder if that had an effect?

Aaron Lewis Photography wrote:
I was pretty cold out I wonder if that had an effect?

Well, it happened to me a few times to see my lens cover with moist because of temperature differences, but usually it was VERY noticeable. However I believe that it could sometimes not be easily noticeable, maybe if the air is not too humid. IDK, that's just a random though

ELiffmann wrote:
some of the d7000s have focus issues.  Mine is set to -18 on the AF fine tune as default for all lenses.  Nikon will repair but since the AF fine tune took care of it I didn't bother.  Sorry.

I realized that early on. I have one of the first bodies rolled out to the public. What I dind't realize is that they aknolwledged it and will repair it.

When I discovered the issue I did set up AF Fine Tune for all my lenses. Another thing I just realized is all the values were reset to 0.

Focus vs Softness. Maybe it is softness. I can't seem to find anything in the frame that actually in focus so maybe that's it. BUt I still ask why View NX is confused?

Jackson frontier photos wrote:
I don't see anything wrong with some of those shots.  Thought they were pretty good.

Thanks, I think they're pretty decent over all but the llamas face isn't crisp. Having said that we were actually going for a nice soft look but I intended on doing that in post LOL

I'll probably ask in the critique forum which one to add to my port. There are others form the shoot too.

Aaron Lewis Photography wrote:
I just did a quick last minute outdoor shoot with a friend of mine. I shot with the D7000, 50mm 1.8D and a SB600 on board for fill. I shot at ISO 250 - 320 most of the time, 1/250th and f1.8 - 2.0

The model was generally at least 15 away from me.

I know when I shoot I focus on the models eye each and every time. Sometimes I miss when there motion but that doesn't apply here.

I got home and every friggin image is out of focus. So I opened up View NX2 so see what it said about my focus point. The confusing thing is it shows the focus point as being the center of the image on every single image I have. Including things from previous shoots that are fine and focused correctly.

What went wrong here?
Examples can be found here. These are cropped and slightly retouched only for exposure items
http://adldatacomm.net/clients/mm/examples/

I have never had issue with NX view showing the wrong focusing point.  If you are focusing at the model's eyes, what I saw from the images you shown, they aren't consistent.  Meaning that some of the images were back focused  and two or three were in focused (but the ones in focus also is more focus in the center). 


  Try to put your camera on a tripod and shoot at flat static items and then select left most outer point, then center and then right most outer point and see if those three images differs.

  By the way, the images do seem noisy and soft (even for the one in focus).  Or maybe it is just me that I am too picky..

ChanStudio - OtherSide wrote:
By the way, the images do seem noisy and soft (even for the one in focus).  Or maybe it is just me that I am too picky..

Yeah odd. This lens is usually spot on. I'm really disappointed. There's no reason for the noise or that much softness.

Aaron Lewis Photography wrote:
Yeah, I'm a little pissed. I had this opportunity to shoot with a professional model. My friend called me up wanting to take advantage of a foggy rainy day for the look.

Only to have it all fall apart. I guess I'll use what I can and write it off to experience.

I also submitted a repair request to Nikon just to make sure everything is in order.


Yeah odd. This lens is usually spot on. I'm really disappointed. There's no reason for the noise or that much softness.

I would recommend try to ping point exact what the issue is before you send it to Nikon for repair.  Otherwise the issue won't be fixed correctly. 

  Also try to see if your camera's Noise Reduction is on or off.  Try to test with several focusing points with static object with different ISO and different aperture.

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
Image 3991 has camera shake. The light reflection from the eyes shows it.

The rest are out of focus. The camera/lens combnination could be struggling with limited light.

.

Camera shake at 1/250th shutter? That would be pretty severe shake, no? There was a Gary Fong light dome on the camera mounted SB600

Since my last post I did conclude that the noise was generated by my desire to over sharpen. I've since retouched without sharpening.

Aaron Lewis Photography wrote:
There was a Gary Fong light dome on the camera mounted SB600

That's not going to do much outdoors with nothing to bounce off.  You'd have been better just pointing the bare flash right at her for fill and not lost all that light going off in directions where it was doing nothing useful.

Kaouthia wrote:

That's not going to do much outdoors with nothing to bounce off.  You'd have been better just pointing the bare flash right at her for fill and not lost all that light going off in directions where it was doing nothing useful.

Understood, just didn't want it to hash. The flash was pointed at her. Top of the light sphere facing the model. Just trying to soften it up

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
Image 3991 has camera shake. The light reflection from the eyes shows it.

I saw that as well...if that was the first photo.

PhotographybyT wrote:

I saw that as well...if that was the first photo.

Yes, that was the first photo.

.

Jesse Mullins wrote:
Plus 3991 is focused on the log at the bottom. Maybe when you recomposed or the focus needs some fine attunement.
Also if they are saying motion blur, which I'm not 100% it is, but it could be as the neck has some light from the neck on the other side, then are you sure your shutter is firing at 1/250th of a second?

Well, That's a) what it's set to and b) it syncs with the strobes fine in the studio at 1/250 so I would guess that if it were off, I have a curtain in the images.

I guess I'm saying that focusing on eye is second nature so if there's an issue, it's with the gear for whatever reason. I'm not saying I know everything and I'm not saying I never make mistakes but I shot 125 images today and they all have the same issue.

Aaron Lewis Photography wrote:
Well, That's a) what it's set to and b) it syncs with the strobes fine in the studio at 1/250 so I would guess that if it were off, I have a curtain in the images.

Even if it was set to that and syncs with strobes fine that doesn't mean it's not shooting slower and dragging the shutter open longer then the 1/250 but then your meter would be pretty far off from the shots you were getting.

Kaouthia wrote:
I didn't actually notice the link to the example images before.

Some of them definitely look like either it's focused on something else or it's backfocused, but others do just look like softness inherent with shooting a 50mm f/1.8D wide open.

With the lens wide open, focusing on the eye with the lens tilted up and then returning it to level to make the exposure can alter the depth of field.

Jouissance Images wrote:
With the lens wide open, focusing on the eye with the lens tilted up and then returning it to level to make the exposure can alter the depth of field.

True but at the range which I was shooting I should have more DOF than a few inches. I think it should be about 2ft. Even If I were closer than I think and I was shooting at 10 ft I still have almost a foot of focus area.

I mean I guess something like this is possible but I knew I was shooting wide open so I was trying to be careful of that.

Gavin Poh wrote:
Not sure about nikons but canon has one shot and AI Servo for AF systems.
Could it be that you are on the Servo equivalent? There fore half pressing the shutter wouldn't actually focus lock and it could refocus when you recomposed?

Only other thing i could think of is perhaps you focus locked, then took a step closer or further whilst holding the shutter button half way down?

The continuous server is pretty obvious. It's actually quite annoying to use in most cases so that's not it But,as mentioned above, maybe I was just inaccurate with the judgment. I moved  like you said and didn't realize what I was doing.

Very frustrating. I'm going back to the site today to shoot under the same conditions with multiple lenses just to see what happens.

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
Image 3991 has camera shake. The light reflection from the eyes shows it.

The rest are mostly out of focus. The camera/lens combnination could be struggling with limited light.

Did you check if the AF switch is on normal or "C"? The D7000 has only AF and M whereas the high end DSLRs have the AFC option. Check by pressing the center button of the AF-M switch and rotating the rear control dial.

.

Most of the newer bodies like the D4 and D800 have this same switch, which i personally hate