F - Focus: Ensuring Sharpness and Clarity
Is this image sharply focused?
(Image Credit: Stefan Cosma)
Sharpness is a vital aspect of creating impactful photographs, bringing the viewer’s attention directly to the subject and emphasizing details that tell a story. Whether you are using manual focus or relying on autofocus, mastering focus control is key to capturing those striking, crystal-clear images. In this article, we’ll explore various techniques to control focus points effectively and ensure your images are always sharp and well-defined. We’ll also delve into advanced tips, focus modes for different scenarios, and common mistakes to avoid for achieving the ultimate clarity in your photos.
Many modern cameras have a focus selection button to set the autofocus point.
(Image Credit: Chris Reyem)
Understanding Focus Points
Most electronic cameras come with multiple focus points that help you choose which part of the frame to bring into focus. These focus points can either be manually selected by the photographer or automatically chosen by the camera. Understanding the different focus modes and how to use them effectively is crucial for consistently capturing sharp images. To start, it's important to understand the type of focus mode that best fits your scene:
Single-Point AF: This mode is ideal for static subjects, such as portraits or landscapes. You manually select a single focus point, allowing precise control over where you want the focus to be. This is especially useful for framing your subject off-center while still ensuring sharpness. The benefit of single-point AF is that you can precisely decide what element of your composition should be the sharpest, ensuring that the viewer’s eye is drawn to the most important part of the image.
On smartphones, simply tap the area you want to focus on for a clear subject.
(Image Credit: Josh Rose)
Dynamic Area AF: In situations where your subject might move unpredictably (like wildlife or sports), dynamic area AF allows you to select a starting focus point, and if your subject moves, the camera will use surrounding points to keep focus locked. This mode is especially useful for action shots where precision is required. Dynamic area AF can adapt to the movement of the subject, ensuring that even if it doesn’t stay exactly where you initially focused, the camera compensates to maintain sharpness.
Dynamic Area AF is great for tracking subjects with unpredictable movement.
(Image Credit: Casey Allen)
Auto Area AF: This mode works well when you need the camera to decide which elements to focus on. It is convenient but doesn’t offer the same level of creative control as manual selection of focus points. Auto Area AF is ideal for situations where you don’t have time to select specific focus points, such as in fast-paced environments or when capturing spontaneous moments. However, it’s important to be cautious with this mode as it may not always choose the focus point you intend, which can lead to unintended blur.
When timing is critical, use Auto Area AF to let the camera handle focus.
(Image Credit: Himanshu Singh Gurjar)
Main Subject Detection with Deep Learning
Modern cameras increasingly use deep learning algorithms to automatically detect and prioritize the main subject in a scene. These systems are capable of recognizing people, animals, vehicles, and other common subjects, making it easier for photographers to capture sharp images. The camera can intelligently determine which parts of the frame are most important and adjust focus accordingly.
People Detection: Cameras with advanced subject detection can recognize faces, eyes, heads, and even bodies to ensure the focus is set exactly where it’s needed, such as the eyes for a portrait.
Animal Detection: Wildlife photographers benefit from animal detection, which can lock onto the eyes or body of moving animals, improving the chances of capturing sharp shots in dynamic environments.
Vehicle Detection: When photographing vehicles, such as in motorsports and planes, the camera can detect and track the vehicle, maintaining sharpness even as it moves at high speeds.
This auto-detection technology, including features like eye detection, face detection, head detection, and body detection, helps streamline the focusing process, especially in fast-paced situations where manually adjusting focus can be challenging.
AI assists by identifying and maintaining focus on the main subject.
(Image Credit: Vincent van Zalinge)
AI Focus for Predictive Subject Tracking
Some professional cameras are equipped with AI-driven focus systems that can predict the movement of subjects and adjust focus accordingly. This AI focus is incredibly useful for subject tracking, especially when photographing fast-moving subjects such as athletes, pets, or children. The AI algorithms analyze the movement patterns of the subject and predict where it will be, allowing the camera to adjust focus seamlessly. This feature can greatly increase your chances of capturing sharp images, even in unpredictable situations where traditional autofocus modes might struggle.
AI can also be used for predictive movement, helping to compensate for the delay between pressing the shutter and the actual capture moment. This ensures that the subject remains in focus, even if it has moved from its original position when you pressed the shutter.
(Image Credit: Joe Caione)
Advanced Autofocus Tips for Sharp Images
Autofocus systems can be a photographer’s best friend, but to get the best results, it's essential to know when and how to use them effectively. For instance, autofocus is particularly useful when photographing a fast-moving subject, like a child running in a park or a bird in flight, where quick adjustments are needed to maintain sharpness. However, it can be challenging in low light conditions or when trying to focus on a subject with minimal contrast, such as a person wearing dark clothing against a dark background. Here are a few advanced autofocus tips to help you consistently achieve sharp images:
Use Back-Button Focus: By assigning focus activation to a button on the back of your camera, separate from the shutter button, you gain better control. This is especially useful in dynamic situations, where you might want to lock focus on your subject before reframing. Back-button focus can be a game changer for photographers who need to switch between focusing and shooting quickly without the risk of the camera refocusing on an unintended area.
High-end cameras often include an “AF-ON” button for back-button focusing.
(Image Credit: Alexander Andrews)
Focus and Recompose: This technique involves locking focus on your subject and then recomposing the shot to create a more aesthetically pleasing composition. To ensure your subject remains sharp, be careful to keep the same distance after focusing. This technique is especially useful for portrait photography, where you might want to place your subject off-center for a more dynamic composition.
Use “focus and recompose” for off-center subjects.
(Image Credit: Robert Mathews)
Continuous Focus Mode (AF-C): For moving subjects, AF-C (continuous autofocus) is crucial. The camera will constantly adjust focus to maintain sharpness on a subject in motion, ensuring you don’t end up with blurry action shots. This mode is particularly helpful for wildlife and sports photographers, as it allows you to track the subject effectively while maintaining focus even as it moves unpredictably.
Continuous focus mode works best for fast-action shots.(Image Credit: Alex Lange)
Customizing Focus Settings: Many cameras allow you to customize autofocus settings to better suit specific shooting scenarios. For example, you can adjust the sensitivity of focus tracking, telling the camera how quickly to refocus if the subject briefly leaves the focus area. This can be particularly useful when shooting in busy environments where there are multiple elements that could confuse the autofocus system.
Pro cameras offer focus tracking sensitivity adjustments in the menu.
(Image Credit: Canon)
Eye-Controlled Focusing: Some professional cameras come with eye-controlled focus technology, which detects the movement of your eye when looking through the viewfinder and selects the focal point accordingly. This feature allows the camera to focus precisely on where you are looking, making it incredibly intuitive and effective for quickly changing focus points, especially in dynamic scenes.
Released in 1992, the Canon EOS 5 was the first film camera with eye-controlled focus.
(Image Credit: Canon)
Mastering Manual Focus
While autofocus is generally faster and more convenient, manual focus offers greater precision and creative control in certain situations. For instance, manual focus is often preferred for macro photography, where pinpoint accuracy is essential, or in low light conditions where autofocus might struggle. By understanding when to use each focusing method, you can achieve the sharpest and most visually compelling results for a variety of shooting scenarios.
Autofocus often struggles in close-up shots, so manual focus is commonly used in macro photography.
(Image Credit: Mister Starman)
Focus Peaking: Nearly all digital cameras supporting live view focusing have focus peaking, which highlights the areas in focus with a colour overlay, such as red or yellow, providing real-time visualization of the sharp areas. This makes it much easier to see what is sharp, especially when shooting in low light or using a shallow depth of field. Focus peaking is particularly beneficial for macro and portrait photographers who need precise control over what part of the subject is in focus.
Activating focus peaking in manual focus mode is highly recommended, as it highlights focus edges to help confirm the focus area.
(Image Credit: David Clode)
Magnify the Viewfinder or LCD: When using manual focus, magnify the viewfinder or LCD screen to make precise adjustments and ensure your focus is spot on. This technique is valuable not only for close-up shots but also for focusing at infinity — such as when capturing stars in Milky Way photography. Additionally, immediately reviewing the photo by enlarging it during playback lets you confirm that the focus is exactly where you intended.
For astrophotography, immediately review the enlarged image to ensure sharpness.
(Image Credit: Jacky Lee)
Zone Focusing for Street Photography: Zone focusing involves pre-focusing on a particular distance and using a small aperture (e.g., f/8 or f/11) to keep most of the scene in focus. This technique is incredibly effective for street photography, where quick reactions are key, and you might not have time to adjust focus for every shot. Zone focusing allows you to predict the point of sharpness, making it ideal for capturing fleeting moments without hesitation.
Street photographers develop a strong sense of distance, often presetting the focus range on the lens to capture candid moments.
(Image Credit: Terrace Grain)
Using Hyperfocal Distance: Hyperfocal distance is the distance at which everything from half that distance to infinity will be in focus. This technique is particularly useful for landscape photography, where you want the entire scene, from foreground to background, to be sharp. Calculating and setting your lens to the hyperfocal distance will maximize the depth of field and ensure a sharp image throughout.
To keep everything in focus, set the aperture to f/8 and adjust the focus ring so that infinity aligns with the right 8 mark on the depth of field (DoF) scale. In this setup, the 5m mark aligns with the center orange line of the DoF scale, while a point between 2m and 3m aligns with the left 8 mark. This setup ensures that everything from approximately 2.5m to infinity will be in focus, achieving hyperfocal distance.
(Image Credit: Julius Drost)
Focus Stacking: It is a technique often used in macro and landscape photography to achieve greater depth of field than is possible with a single shot. In focus stacking, multiple images are taken of the same scene, each with a different focus point, and then combined in post-processing to create an image that is sharp from front to back. By combining the sharpest parts of each frame, focus stacking results in an image with exceptional depth and clarity.
When the subject is very close to the camera, even the smallest aperture (e.g., f/22) may not ensure sharpness across the entire frame; focus stacking becomes necessary in this case.
(Image Credit: Max Muselmann)
Tips for Achieving Overall Sharpness
Regardless of whether you’re using autofocus or manual focus, there are some universal tips to achieve tack-sharp images:
Use a Tripod: Camera shake is one of the biggest enemies of sharpness, often caused by hand movement, unstable surfaces, or even pressing the shutter button too forcefully. These small movements can lead to blurred images, especially when shooting at slower shutter speeds, reducing the overall quality and clarity of your photos. A sturdy tripod can make all the difference, especially in low light or when using longer lenses. Using a tripod not only stabilizes your camera but also allows you to take your time with composition and focus. For added stability, use a remote shutter release or the camera's self-timer function to avoid introducing movement when pressing the shutter.
A tripod is essential gear for professional landscape photographers.
(Image Credit: Djan MacAlister)
Shutter Speed Matters: Use a shutter speed that is fast enough to eliminate motion blur. A good rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed that is at least equal to the focal length of your lens — for example, 1/100th of a second for a 100mm lens. For fast-moving subjects, you may need to go even faster to freeze the action and ensure sharpness. When shooting handheld, remember that camera shake is amplified with longer focal lengths, so faster shutter speeds are necessary.
Fast shutter speeds freeze motion, capturing crisp, clear action.
(Image Credit: Yosef Futsum)
Image Stabilization: If your lens or camera body has image stabilization, use it when hand-holding the camera. However, remember to turn it off when using a tripod, as it can sometimes cause unnecessary vibrations — unless your camera or lens has a tripod detection function that automatically disables image stabilization when set. Image stabilization can be highly beneficial in low-light situations or when a fast shutter speed isn’t feasible.
The Fujifilm GFX 100II is one of the few cameras that offers an impressive 8 stops of image stabilization by today’s standards. What does this mean? With a 63mm lens attached, you can theoretically achieve a sharp handheld image at an exposure of 1/63 × 2^8 = 4 seconds. Some mirrorless cameras, particularly with wide-angle lenses, can even capture a clear handheld image at up to 30 seconds of exposure.
(Image Credit: Fujifilm)
Aperture Choice: Most lenses reach their sharpest point around f/8. Using a wide aperture (like f/1.4) can reduce sharpness due to optical limitations, such as lens aberrations. Stopping down the aperture (using a higher f-stop number) minimizes these aberrations. However, using a very small aperture (like f/22) can introduce diffraction, reducing overall sharpness.
F/8 often provides optimal sharpness for most lenses.(Image Credit: Alberto Restifo)
Proper Focus Technique: When shooting with a shallow depth of field, such as in portrait photography, it’s critical to focus on the eyes of your subject. The eyes are naturally the focal point for viewers, and having them in sharp focus is crucial for a captivating portrait. In cases where multiple subjects are involved, consider where you want the viewer’s attention to be drawn and focus accordingly.
In portrait photography, focus on the nearer eye for the best result.
(Image Credit: Javier Reyes)
Environmental Factors: Conditions such as wind, heat, and humidity can affect sharpness. When shooting landscapes, wind can move foliage and create motion blur. Consider using faster shutter speeds or waiting for calm conditions. Heat haze can also reduce the clarity of distant subjects, especially in warmer climates. Being mindful of these factors and adjusting your settings accordingly can help in achieving sharper images.
Use a faster shutter speed in windy conditions to reduce blur.
(Image Credit: Seth Schwiet)
Cameras Without Adjustable Focus
Not all cameras have adjustable focus settings. Some basic point-and-shoot cameras, smartphone cameras, and action cameras have fixed-focus lenses. These cameras are designed to provide a broad depth of field, ensuring that most of the scene remains reasonably sharp without requiring the user to adjust focus manually or automatically. This can be convenient for casual photography, but it limits the creative control a photographer has over the focus point, making it challenging to achieve selective focus or emphasize a specific subject within the frame.
Most instant cameras have fixed-focus lenses, with some offering dual-focus settings for near and far subjects.
Image Credit: Josh Carter
However, modern smartphones have made significant advancements through computational photography. They can simulate the depth of field using software in post-processing, often creating a convincing bokeh effect. Smartphones also use 3D lens sensors to capture depth information, allowing for more accurate simulation of focus. This technology helps to mimic the shallow depth of field typically achieved with larger camera systems, giving photographers more creative options even with fixed-focus hardware.
This smartphone has five circles: three lenses, an upper small circle for the flashlight, and a lower small circle for the 3D sensor, which captures depth information.
(Image Credit: The Registi)
Bringing Focus to Your Photography
Ensuring sharpness and clarity in your photos is a combination of understanding your equipment, choosing the right focus mode, and mastering the techniques that work best for each situation. Whether you are photographing fast-moving subjects or crafting a carefully composed landscape, the ability to control focus will set your images apart. Practice using both manual and autofocus methods, experiment with different scenarios, and you’ll soon see a marked improvement in the sharpness of your shots. Pay attention to environmental factors, learn to use advanced techniques like back-button focusing and hyperfocal distance, and make use of your equipment’s capabilities to the fullest.
In photography, 'focus' has a dual meaning: scientifically, it refers to the subject being in sharp focus, while artistically, it represents the main theme or emphasis of the image.
(Image Credit: Valentin Salja)
That said, does sharp focus always matter in creative photography? The answer depends on the artistic vision you are aiming for. Sometimes, deliberately using soft focus or even embracing blur can add an emotional and artistic quality to your images. Creative photography often involves breaking the rules, and sharpness isn't always the goal. Techniques like intentional camera movement (ICM) or selective blur can evoke a dreamlike quality or emphasize the mood of a scene rather than its details. Therefore, while sharpness is important in many genres, creative photography allows for experimentation, where sharpness may take a backseat to emotion, mood, and artistic expression.
Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) creates an artful, painterly effect in photography.
(Image Credit: Jacky Lee)
Focus is not just a technical aspect of photography — it’s both a science and an art. While understanding the science of focus is crucial, knowing the art of focus is equally important. What is the main focus of your image? What story do you want to tell? The artistic intent behind your focus decisions is often more significant than the technical details. By directing your viewer’s eye with intention, you can convey a deeper narrative and evoke emotion, ensuring your image speaks to its audience. Remember, photography is both an art and a craft, and mastering focus is one of the fundamental skills that will help you bring your artistic vision to life.
After reading this article, has your perspective on focus changed?
(Image Credit: Sardar Faizan)
Written By Jacky Lee, Founder of PSHKA.
