Don’t Lose Focus!

Sharpness is a critical aspect of macro photography. A slight movement and you could lose your focus. In such cases, use a tripod.” photography/Aji Jayachandran

Supriya Joshi presents simple points you should keep in mind to make sure your images are always in focus. Keep calm and shoot!

What is life without focus? Imagine going through life unfocused. Feels strange, doesn’t it? Similarly, think about the best photograph you have seen… the point of the image would have been lost if the camera’s focus was off even by a little bit.
So, how do you make sure your images are always in focus? Here are little things you can ask yourself before and while shooting, for perfectly sharp images.

Did You Click too Soon?
In a hurry to shoot, we sometimes click the shutter-release button a little too fast. For the camera to achieve focus, you must first half-press the shutter-release button. When the camera makes a beep sound, or when the AF point turns green, you know that camera has achieved focus.

Do You Know How AF Works?
The default focusing system of your camera tends to focus on the

Small, fast-moving birds are often difficult to capture. Zoom in and use Continuous AF to follow their quick movements.” Photography/Mukesh Srivastava

brightest and closest subject to the lens. This system is usually called Multipoint AF. If your main subject does not meet these criteria, switch to Single Point AF, where you can decide where you want the camera to focus.

Are You Shooting Through a Window?
Specs of dirt or moisture on a window can confuse your camera’s AF system. So instead of focusing on the subject beyond the window, it will focus on the dirt. To avoid this, you can get close to the window and then try focusing. Alternatively, switch to manual focus.

Is it too Dark?
Poor lighting conditions confuse the AF system of most cameras, so you may face difficulties while focusing. Make sure that the AF-assist lamp is switched on, as this will throw light on the subject and let you focus with relative ease.

Are You too Close?
The minimum focusing distance of every lens is different, and if you get too close to a subject, it becomes impossible to focus. However, most compact cameras have a Macro mode, which allow you to get as close as 1cm to the subject.

Is The Subject Moving too Fast?
If you want to shoot a fast-moving subject, switch to the Continuous Autofocus mode. In this mode, the camera will refocus if the subject has moved.
However, compact cameras and mirrorless cameras are not so good at doing this. So, keep these limitations in mind while you are shooting.

While photographing birds and animals, focusing on the eye is essential. If the subject is off center, first lock the focus, reframe and shoot.” Photography/Snehal Brahmbhatt

Here Are A Few Situations Where You Should Choose Manual Focus

In Low Light In very low light, your camera’s AF might not work well, which is when you should switch to manual focus. It comes in handy while shooting star trails.” Photography/Jesse Therrien

While Prefocusing for Action Manually prefocus at the point where you expect your subject to pass. Then, shoot when the subject enters the frame, capturing the moment! ” Photography/Deba Prasad Roy

To Experiment with Bokeh If there are a lot of light sources around you and you want to achieve beautiful out of focus blurry lights, switch to manual focus. ” Photography/Andrey Gorshkov

Are You Shooting a Group of People?
In such cases, switch on Face Detection. Like the name suggests, this feature will detect all the people present in the frame and focus on them.
The camera will also meter off the faces of the people in the group, thereby ensuring that the faces in the frame are well exposed.

How Critical do You Need to Be?
Wide apertures like f/2.8 make the depthof- field (DOF) really shallow. This means that only a small part of the overall scene is rendered sharp. Due to this, you need to be a lot more critical while focusing.

Are You Expecting Too Much?
Before you shoot, learn the various idiosyncrasies of your camera’s AF system. What are the things it is good at? What are some things it cannot achieve?
Of course, some subjects like street lights look great when they are out of focus! In fact, you can go completely creative and do whatever you want in order to make the most effective photograph