Part 1

Have you ever been frustrated because your photos always seem to turn out blurry?  I mean, you probably get some in focus, but it’s those shots that would have been perfect…except they were blurry.

Or, you’ve been a photographer at an inside party and didn’t like the flat look characteristic of flash photos; besides, you didn’t want to annoy people with blinding bursts.  But in some of your pictures, your subject has become subjected to the ghosting syndrome. Part 2

Or perhaps you’re not a newbie photographer.  In fact, your pictures always turn out sharp . . . except for the few that frustrate you because no matter what you try, your camera seems to enjoy laughing at the foundations of your proven experience. Part 3

Good news!  You’ve come to the right place. In this three-part series, we are going to explore the individual settings that should have controlled focus in each of the previous scenarios.  My hope then, is that at the end of this series you will be a more confident photographer, equipped with the knowledge of which settings control focus in each unique scene you encounter.  By unblurring the specifics on the subject of focus, your photos will no longer suffer from a lack of focus.

Introduction

One of the first and most obvious variables that can cause your photos to turn out blurry is focus.  Since your camera relies on its (AF) focus points to accurately zero in on your subject, we’ll first explore the ways you can control them.

Focus Area

Every DSLR has an array of AF points.  Working together, they tell your camera which way it needs to move the focusing element in the lens to focus.

You don’t, however, have to use them all at once.  In fact, you may actually want to only use a single AF point when there are other objects within your frame that are closer than your subject.  This is because your camera is programmed to look for and focus on the closest object.  It’s also a good option if you are consistently framing your subject to one side.  The downside is, taking the time to be more accurate is just that—it takes a little more time—and may contribute to lost moments.

Focus Mode

There are 2 ways your camera auto focuses: Continuous and Single.

Single Focus

One Shot (Canon); AF-S (Nikon).  When you half-press the shutter button, there is a brief pause, after which you hear a quiet, but distinct beep.  This tells you that focus has been achieved and to fire at leisure.  What this also means is that if your camera focused incorrectly or your subject has since moved, you will have to release and try again.  This is because you are using Single Focus mode.  Once achieving focus, it will lock the focus.  For this reason, it is an excellent choice for stationary subjects—but not so much for moving ones.

Continuous Focus

AI Servo (Canon); AF-C (Nikon).  What if your subject is moving—your pet, for example?  How do you achieve focus, let alone maintain it?  That kind of job is for Continuous AF.  This mode sets focus on your subject, but it doesn’t stop there.  By continually checking, and correcting, focus, it is able to track moving subjects.

Auto AF

AI Focus AF (Canon); AF-A (Nikon).  Your subject is stationary, but you want to be prepared just in case they move out of the focal plane.  However, you don’t want to simply select continuous tracking, because of your camera’s tendency to expectantly twitch the lens in anticipation of movement (as in continuous mode).

The solution: use Auto AF mode that lets your camera auto-decide which setting to start with, then, when the dynamics suddenly change, to adapt accordingly.  “But wait,” you say. “I thought you said there were only 2 focus modes?”  Not quite, I said there were two WAYS that your camera focuses.  This is only a mode, that combines those two ways using artificial intelligence, to decide when to toggle between them, giving you the best of both worlds—supposedly.

Focus Control (Focus Buttons)

If you’ve had some experience in photography you’ve heard the term Back Button Focus.  In fact, many people who try it never regress.  What makes it so wonderful?

Well, let’s start with a scenario that may have happened to you.  Have you ever seen the perfect shot (and your camera was actually on hand)?  Let’s say you were invited to a social event. The host of this event presented the honor of taking a few memory photos with your new, good-looking DSLR.

While talking to your friends and enjoying your time you keep an eye peeled for noteworthy highlights.  There it is!  At the next table, the Stalin girls have persuaded their cousin to try a really spicy hot sauce on his pancakes…he’s making the strangest expressions.  Instantly, you raise your camera to your eye.  Feeling the rush of excitement at this rare instance of flawless perfection, you raise your camera to your eye and half-press the shutter button . . . but it’s not focusing fast enough.   Impatiently you jab it down all the way hoping to grab a shot before the moment slips away for good.  But nope, that doesn’t help. “Ugh,” you grind your teeth feeling like your camera is an expensive brick.  Then, glancing up, you watch in dismay as his expression fades and your window of opportunity slams shut.  Only then do you hear it…beep, click; as the shutter finally closes—too late.

The total time it took to focus was only two-and-a-half extra seconds, but in this kind of fleeting moment, every delay is measured in minutes.

But that, my friends, is not the end.  Back Button focus to the rescue!

Creative Freedom

Back button focus relocates focus control to a separate button on the back of your camera.

Normally, pressing the shutter button down halfway does two things.  Not only does it set and lock focus, but something else you may not have realized—it sets and locks the exposure. Relocating focus control to the back removes it from the tangle of the already-crowded shutter button, giving you, the real genius: independent control over the shutter, exposure, and focus settings.  Think:  lock focus on subject, then re-frame.

Unwanted Obstructions

When using Continuous Drive to track a football player and someone momentarily passes between you and the player, you might as well forget about good shots, with your lens endlessly rolling back and forth in a useless pursuit for focus.  On the other hand, if you were using back button focus, you’d easily maintain focus by temporarily lifting up on focus.  Meanwhile, with your shutter still held down, you’d continue tracking as normal.  Then, with the obstruction gone, resume focus with no disruptions.  Now, instead of trashing everything from that point on, you only need to delete a few “unfortunate” photos.

Forget about Manual Focus?!

I love being able to have focus control completely within my grip.  Instead of being subjected to my camera’s execution time.  Now, I rarely feel the need to agitate the manual focus toggle switch.

So what is the procedure for relocating focus to its logical replacement?  Well, for mine, I had to drill deep into the confines of my camera’s Custom Functions.

Now for your camera—well, it depends—time to dust off those forgotten manuals.

Real world example:

Given a scenario, let’s walk through the process of selecting the best settings; giving you an idea of how they actually work in real life.

You are in the front row of an old-fashioned car race.  The convoy of racers have already passed by on their first lap.  You decide that, before the race is over you’d like a good shot of the convoy—and not just any shot, but one that you can unashamedly say, “Yes, I’m the one that took that photo.”  Pulling out your camera, you envision exactly what you’d like to capture.  Taking the time beforehand to imagine exactly what it is you want to capture—and consequently determining the optimum settings—you’ll be well equipped to achieve a successful shot on your first try.

You’d like to frame a speeding car on the right-hand side with the rest of the convoy framed to the left and behind.  You’re going to use some kind of auto focusing (no way you could manually wing it).  And, since lost split-seconds are consequential when focusing, you need your camera to fire exactly on time—no delays.

The solution?

To guarantee your camera focuses where you want it to is to change the AF focus area to the right region.  If however, you don’t have AF regions on your camera, select the AF point closest to your projected focus area.

Next, since you definitely have a moving subject, you’ll want to set the focus mode to continuous.

Finally, to ensure your shutter fires on time, move the focus control from the shutter button, to the dedicated back button.

Now, with your camera poised and ready, you are set up for success.

Troubleshooting:

As always, there will be situations that seem to defy our best efforts, requiring closer inspection.

Focus Hunting

What about when your lens seems to endlessly roll back and forth in search of the correct focus…stopping only after incorrectly achieving focus?!

This can happen because of low light.  You see, each camera’s autofocus system is rated to work within a specific range of light.  Which is stated in Exposure Values (EV): 0EV – 16EV for example. One way to let in more light is to use a lens with a larger aperture.

If, however, you don’t have a better lens, you can always use manual focus.  Which isn’t too bad if you use digital zoom to precisely zero in on your subject.  This can be found within live view.

Everything is Not in Focus

Are you are having trouble getting everything you want in focus?  This problem is usually a result of the depth of field being too shallow to include everything within the focal plane.  You can increase the focal plane by changing your aperture to a higher F-stop number: from F/3.5 to F/11, for example.  This increases the area (also called DOF) that is in focus.  Keep in mind that increasing your aperture also has the side effect of decreasing the total amount of light available to your camera, making it more likely that your photos will be out of focus from motion blur.  However, this defeats your original intent for wanting to change the aperture!  You should also be aware that there are other factors influencing DOF, that I will detail in a future article.  So stay tuned if you are interested.