There is one thing that demanded a lot of practice in the analogue days of photography: FOCUS.

Since its advent, photography has seen many focusing methods:

There were fixed lenses with fixed focus, then the rangefinder-type of focusing, then the split screen focusing and finally came the “loved by all” Auto Focus.

While most of the times the Auto Focus function will work just right to get your image sharp, that is not always the case.

So here is a complete guide about FOCUS for you.:

UNDERSTANDING FOCUS

Focusing is moving the focus ring of your lens left and right in order to get your main subject sharp and it is, essentially, telling your camera at what distance this subject is.

On Manual Focus mode, you do it with your hands, like in the image below. On Auto Focus Mode, when you press the shutter release button half-way, the camera does this movement (left and right) for you, either visibly on a ring at the lens, either internally, and invisibly, but most time you can “hear” it happening, the little motors moving inside your camera.

On Auto Focus Mode, when you press the shutter release button half-way, the camera does this movement (left and right) for you, either visibly on a ring at the lens, either internally, and invisibly, but most time you can “hear” it happening, the little motors moving inside your camera.

When you focus on one subject, everything that is at the same distance will also be sharp, no matter what depth of field you are working with.

You can only blur subjects that are in the front and/or behind your main subject distance. You can also choose to have everything (or every plane) in focus using a small aperture (high aperture value ex f/22) but even then you will need to choose at what subject (or distance) you will be focusing.

FOCUS AREA MODES

Focus Area modes are options to select which part of the viewfinder is used to search focus.

On an SLR camera, when you look through your viewfinder, you can see several points or little squares. They light

1- Single Point: 

2- Dynamic Area:

3- Auto Area:

FOCUS MODES

There are mainly two Focus Modes:

1- Manual Focus: When you switch OFF the AutoFocus on the side of your lens and focus completely manually, moving the focus ring left and right until you have the subject in focus on your viewfinder.

2- Auto Focus: Divided in 3 sub types:

• One Shot / AF Single: This mode
• AI Servo / AF Continuous:
• AI Focus / AF Auto:

Other functions: AF/AE-Lock

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