Welcome to Lesson 5 of our “Learn Photography” series.

Today, I am going to talk about focusing. It is very important to understand how to get sharp photos every time.

Getting images that are sharp is vital, some would say. And with modern DSLR cameras, featuring many focusing points spread across the entire frame, it’s important to know how to use focusing best.

Setting Focus Point

The first step would be to decide whether you want to use many focusing points or just one. As an example, on my camera, I can set it up to use the entire matrix or a single focusing point as well as a group of focusing points. Let me show you that:

 

The image above shows how to set up focusing point on the Canon camera. Different cameras will have this setting in different places, so check the instructions for your camera. Then, depending on how many focusing points your camera has, you will be able to choose which focusing point you want to use. This focusing point is going to be used by the camera to make this part of the image in focus (sharp).

Once you’ve decided on focusing point (or area), it’s time to set up the shooting mode.

Shooting Mode

The most useful shooting mode for most situations will be Single Shot. What does it mean? It means that when you focus on an area within the image the focus will lock on the area that is within your focusing area, and stay there until you press the shutter button down.

On Canon DLSR cameras it’s the AF-Drive button you see on the image above (directly above the screen),

On Nikon cameras it’s usually the AF/M button near the lens release button.

And, you’re done! You’re ready to go! Enjoy!