Hocus Pocus, Manual Focus

The first time I laid my hands on a DSLR camera, I was utterly delighted to find out that I could use it just like any other point-and-shoot camera: just put it on AUTO mode and the lens on A (auto-focus). Point. Shoot. Point. Shoot. Easy-peasy!

But at some point, auto-focus just won't do anymore.

The D40 is equipped with 3 AF (auto-focus) points. They are the 3 small rectangles in your viewfinder -- one wide rectangle in the middle and two tall ones on each side. Everytime you press the shutter release half-way down, a beep will go off and one of those AF points will light up. That will show you the area that will be focused on.

Here's a gif from Megapixel.net that shows how it looks like:


Auto-focus is great at focusing. The problem is, it's not very good at deciding what to focus on. The default setting is the closest subject, which is not necessarily what you want.

The solution is to switch to Manual Focus. Manual focus gives you total control over the focal point of your photographs, making them exactly how you want them to be.



So take a deep breath and push that tiny lever on the side of your lens to switch from A to M. This will take a bit of practice but, eventually, you'll get the hang of it.

But how to focus manually? Theoretically, it sounds very simple.

• First, make sure your intended subject is inside the frame.
• Turn the zoom ring to zoom in or out, depending on how you want your photograph to look like. At this point, don't worry if your subject is still out of focus.
• Now, slowly turn the focus ring to make it go totally out of focus.
• Then slowly turn the focus ring back to focus.

You'll find it so much easier to focus if you are initially out of focus. This is a trick that a good friend of mine taught me. Sounds maddeningly simple, but it works for me.

But as I said, theoretically, it sounds very simple. It takes practice, practice and lots of practice to be truly able to focus manually. This is where the "digital" part comes in handy -- just shoot, shoot, shoot, then discard, discard, discard whatever's out of focus.

I will post later on sample pics using auto vs manual focus.