sometimes I will shoot a scene that is at infinity at night, S.F. is an example. I use the available light of the city by picking out a highlight and focusing on that.
Short of focussing the image in my mind, I use a green laser pointer. I picked it up for pointing out constellations to kids that come up to a public astronomy telescope viewing session that we do monthly. The laser provides a nice point source to focus upon.
Thanks for tips. I appreciate it.
John
It depends on the subject distance, if it is somewhat close, get a flash light that you can remove the cover so that the bulb is bare, place the flash light with the bare bulb where you want to focus and focus on the bulb.
If you are focusing on a city scape or landscape you can usually focus on a street light one third of the way and close down. I did this to photograph fire works in Houston and from a bridge using an aperture of f/8 everything was in focus.
Or you can use a dslr lcd screen and pretend everything is in focus, don't you know that lcd screens are better than the VC ground glass anyway?...
I always use the viewfinder to focus a DSLR. I use the LCD to give me a histogram of the exposure and when correctly exposed the LCD image is typically washed out depending on the scene and SBR. By the way on a 5D you can zoom the LCD image right down to the pixel and can use that for determining your focus however the viewfinder is far more immediate.
Same here. You can of course, only focus with an LCD if you are using a digital back on the view camera. As most people use a 4x to 8x loupe.....and most LCDs provide magnifications up to 32x, focussing is more accurate. As well, this can be done in the dark, without extra light being applied.
But as it has nothing to do with focussing for film, I'm not sure why it was even brought up as you can't shoot with film and focus on the LCD.
I can't believe nobody suggested using night vision goggles to see the groundglass.
I use a small table showing distances on the rail between the standards for various focus distances. Having hyperfocal distances calculated for your normal working aperture is also very handy. It's only useful if you have the camera movements zeroed (and can rely on them being repeatable) but it can save a lot of mucking around at night.
The LED trick is great if you have to use swing or tilt, especially if you have more than one LED.
Ted Harris turned me on to those red laser pointers you would use if you were giving a powerpoint presentation. I carry 2 in my lens bag. They are great to focus in dark places. We used them at a Fine Focus Workshop on a very rainy day to focus on stuff in Bruce Barlow's garage when the electricity went out.
Ted was a wealth of knowledge on stuff like this....I miss him!
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