Understanding Focus Modes

Many digital cameras now have a variety of focus modes. Understanding focus modes may seem a bit confusing at first, but once you understand the differences, it will help you get sharply focused subjects in your photos.

Each digital camera manufacturer has it's own naming system. There are three major types of focusing: Manual, Pre-focusing, and Auto-focus.

Manual Focus is usually done by turning a ring around the lens barrel. There are also systems that have you push down a manual focus button and turn a dial until you see that your desired subject is in focus.

Using manual focus by focusing on the flower is a technique that works well in a situation like this hummingbird photo.

Auto-focus could fail if your camera focuses on the more distant background.

Pre-focusing is easiest to do by holding the shutter button down halfway. This will help avoid the annoying delay in taking your picture called shutter lag.

This is very useful if you are photographing a moving subject and want to capture it at a specific spot.

This barrel racing photo is a perfect example of using this photo technique.

You can also try aiming your camera at that spot, hold the shutter button down halfway, and then follow your subject using the digital camera's screen or its viewfinder.

When you actually take your photo, the camera will react quicker, and your timing will be more accurate.

Some high end digital cameras actually have a focus mode called pre-focus which is extremely fast. See your camera's instruction manual for that one.

Auto-focus has several options and is by the most popular mode used. Understanding those options can be very valuable.

Continuous (AF)auto-focus is one of the auto-focus options. It works by continually focusing on a subject. Continuous AF can be helpful, though not always perfect, when shooting subjects that are not moving too fast.

Multiple area (AF) auto-focus is when the camera automatically focuses using multiple focus points.

This is good for average snapshots where you want everything in your photo to be reasonable sharp.

This photo is the viewfinder of a Canon 5d DSLR.

It has 9 different focus points. They can be used individually or collectively to get a sharp photo.

Spot focus(AF)auto-focus is used when you want to use one small precise spot on the screen to determine what will be sharp in your photograph.

If the desired object you want to be sharp is not in the center of your composition, you may have to get the sharpness set first by using the Press the Shutter Button Halfway Technique described above.

Face-priority (AF) This is a digital camera focus mode that scans for facial details. It's an amazing advancement in digital photography. Some give exposure priority to the face as well to get perfect exposure under unusual lighting conditions.

Many digital cameras have focus modes for specific shooting situations like this Pentax Optio W60 camera.

The menu button brings up the little icons on the screen for the available focusing options.

This photo shows the mode chosen as standard auto-focus.

It is true that you have to grab a few digital photo tips along the way when you are improving your photography.

With the advancements in technology in our society in many areas, especially in photography, it is necessary to educate yourself a bit to take full advantage of all that is available.

Happy Shooting!
Photo TipMan

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