When focusing your camera manually, do not concentrate on trying to achieve perfect focus for a given detail. Instead, crank your focus control to extremes, making a detail go in and out of focus, searching for what looks “least out of focus.”
I remember my high school photography teacher explaining how deceptively difficult it can be to focus a camera. (This was pre-autofocus days.) His strategy, which remains the best way for achieving in-camera manual focus, relates to the processing tip I shared in my last post. As with processing, getting the best results when focusing is about going to extremes, making quick comparisons between what’s least acceptable, and using this information to quickly arrive at what’s “most acceptable” rather than what’s “perfect.”
Beyond Technical Jargon and Autofocus
For technical reasons (the relationship between critical focus, depth of field and apparent sharpness, for starters), when focusing in-camera, it’s actually impossible to clearly see what will be acceptably in focus in the final capture. (This is true even when taking advantage of your cool depth of field preview function.) Given this, trying to make your subject look tack-sharp in the viewfinder is impossible. Thus your more intelligent goal of making your subject “least out of focus.”
I won’t go into the nerdy tech issues of focus here. I also won’t argue that manual focus is better than autofocus. Autofocus rocks. But so does manual focus. And not only is manual focus essential in its own right, mastering manual focus helps us better take advantage of autofocus modes.
The Manual Focus Secret — In Steps
(Only read further if you are, A. Super new to photography, B. Really struggling with manual focus.) Continue reading “For In-Camera Focus, Think “Least Out Of Focus””
