TIPS TO MAKE SHARPER PHOTOS
Who never had a problem with focus? Many times I shot, shot, shot, looked at the viewfinder, everything looked beautiful! When I got back home and transferred the images to my computer: SURPRISE! Blurry photos!
I studied, practiced and now I have a few tips that helped me get the focus right.
TIP NUMBER 1 — Watch your focus point! Since I usually do not shoot sports, 95% of the time my camera is in Single Focus Point.
The Single Focus Point is perfect for non-moving objects and what it does is, when you half press the shutter button, you lock the focus on the single point you see on the viewfinder. You can move that single point to wherever you want in the viewfinder when adjusting your settings, but since I like to be flexible and fast for my shots, specially when I shoot portraits and events, I just lock it to the middle of my viewfinder and then recompose the image (see video for example).
How do I do that? How do I recompose an image? What is that? What recomposing means is you carefully frame your shot and place your subject somewhere in the frame before you take a picture. In other words, you compose the shot. To do that, I center whatever I want to be in focus, half press the shutter button, move the camera in a way I’m happy with the composition of the photo and then I finish pressing the shutter button. Since I lock my focus when I half press the button, I am able to change my camera direction and still maintain my inicial focus (see video for example).
It is important to say this will not work if you step back and forth. You have to be on the same spot from the moment you half press the button to the moment you press it entirely in order for this to work well.
If you shoot sports or if you want to shoot a walk down the isle, a moving car, someone playing sports, you might prefer the Zone or Multi-Focus Point along with the Continuous Focus Mode, also called of AF-C on Nikon or Al Servo on Canon. But that can be the topic for a next video.
"Ok, Pris, I do not shoot sports, but I shoot events! People move! Will these tips work?" Yes, in fact, I shoot a lot of weddings and all sorts of events myself and I only use my camera on Single Point and Single Focus Mode. Would it be better to have different settings when I shoot a bride coming down the isle, for example?
To be honest, I’ve tried that and I still prefer the single point and single focus. Unless the subject is running or moving really fast, these are the settings I found to be more accurate once I nailed the act of recomposing the photos. Being able to recompose fast is VERY important in order for this to work when people are walking, though.
If I take 3 seconds to recompose a shot, then of course when I finally hit the end of the shutter button to take the photo, the subject will have moved so much it will be out of focus already… so if you’re not fast enough and you want to capture movement, just shoot Multi-focus point with Continuous Focus Mode.
TIP NUMBER 2 — Always go for the eye!
That’s it! As simple as that. Point your single focus point to one of the eyes of the person, lock the focus, recompose and shoot. This tip works better if you are also careful with the next tip.
TIP NUMBER 3 — Watch your distance from the subject (APERTURE)
If you focus for the eye, using a very shallow depth of field when you’re very close to a subject, for example, if you’re shooting f/1.4 at a profile close up, you might only get part of the face in focus. So if you focused for the eye and you’re too close to the subject with a very wide open aperture, you might not get the whole face on focus. You might really only get the eye, or maybe the eye and part of the nose (see examples on video).
So if your focus is only in one part of the subject and you want it to be entirely in focus, try either going further from it or decreasing your aperture until you get all you need in focus.
When you shoot one person, you usually can go with a f/1.8, even f/1.4… now, when shooting 2 people, if you want the focus in both of them, specially if you’re starting out, it is safer to go with a f/2.8 +. If you’re shooting a group photo, maybe just start from f/3.5 + and again, of course this will depend on your distance from the subject and if you either want the focus on them entirely or not, but maybe these values can help you to at least start from somewhere, as they helped me.
