Working with a tripod

[boku]

Pierre - you have a deductive mind that will serve you well! Under the situation you describe (auto-focus then recompose) you would much better off manually focusing. If you have the time and the eyes for it (landscapes mean you have the time), manual focusing delivers the goods every time. There are many here that would disagree, but I think they are inclined to be in hard-to-focus situations (dim lighting, subject motion). I would have to agree that autofocus has its place for those conditions.

The 20D deserves a rightous tripod. With a good pod the results are very fine indeed. Here's hoping you move in that direction.

[pvonk]

I'm new to photography and have been reading a lot of books about landscape photography and using a digital camera (I have a Canon 20D).  In reading John Shaw's book on Nature Photography, I am dealing with using different modes such as aperture priority.  

Using his suggestions, I've been trying AP and AF as follows:  first set the focus (using only the center point as suggested in a number of articles), pressing shutter half way down.  Then, aim at a midtone (possibly adding compensation) and lock AE, and finally recompose.  I've experimented with the process hand-holding the camera and am getting the hang of it.

The problem is when I began using my wife's tripod, an inexpensive pan/tilt head type (I know, I'll need to save up for a good one).  Focusing, AE, recompose - how do you do this while maneuvering the camera on the tripod?  It's easy to do hand-holding it, but on a tripod, it seems nearly impossible (the main problem is aiming the camera at focus point then midtone or whatever I want to meter on, then recomposing using pan and/or tilt).

Should I instead be using manual mode after metering so I don't have to keep one or two buttons depressed to lock focus/exposure while reaiming the camera?  Any suggestions?  Thanks.

- Pierre

[Sheldon N]

Two things that will help you out immensely when shooting with your 20D on a tripod...

1) Either do as Bob suggests and use manual focus, or set Custum Function 4 to allow you to use the rear * button to set focus. Then the camera won't refocus on the wrong thing when you press the shutter button/start the self timer.

2) Don't worry about setting AE on a mid tone. With digital the exposure is much more about the histogram and not blowing out the highlights. Read this article for more info:

Expose to the Right

Hope this helps!

Sheldon