Focus Points Photography Tip with Hoot Photography

This post may contain affiliate links. Privacy policy.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Pinterest

Hi, My name is Chrissy and I’m excited to be guest posting here on Mom Endeavors!  I have two blogs one Hoot Designs that’s my go to everyday blog and my photography blog called Hoot Photography, it’s new, and I post photo tips along with my own photo shoot photos. I’m going to share a tip on focus points and some cute wooden animals are starring in the photos.

Here we go~ All about the focus points within the viewfinder of your camera. When I look through my camera (I never use the digital screen to view the subject when taking photos) there are many dots in somewhat of a clock circle. For my Canon they are at 12, 1:30, 3, 4:30, 6, 7:30, 9, 10:30 and back to 12 noon. Each of these are focus points that can be manually set for each and every photo you take ~ I use this tool all the time.

Right out of the box your camera most likely was set on auto and what that means is your camera is making the best guess as to what “it” thinks you are trying to focus on in the picture, however, you are able to set this focus point manually. For my Camera a little red blinking light will light up as I gently push the shudder button showing where the main focus point is set. Using the buttons on the back of the camera I can move the red dot to any of those points and click set and that’s where the camera will focus, leaving the rest perhaps out of focus and maybe creating a great bokeh effect, depending on the photo being taken.

Below is what my screen or through the viewfinder looks like.
 
Here is a photo of the points of focus changing as I changed the focus point.  Everything is blurry because the objects are not on the same plane.  So if your subjects are not in a straight line across you will have some people in focus and some people out of focus, as shown below! And if the person you want to photograph is in the left position and your camera chooses right, or somewhere else, your person may be out of focus and you will be unhappy with your photo(s).

Here is a photo of all animals in a straight line and everyone is in focus weather I choose left center or right focus the reason for that is everything on the same plane, the camera sees as one.

 
Something else to try is looking through your viewfinder and with the focus on Manual (center) you then will move the camera around and get the center blinking light/focus point on your subject you want to “focus” on and gently press the shutter button this will lock the focus…keep holding the button…. and then reposition the camera to compose your shot and press down the rest of the way to take the picture.  That’s how I took the flower photo, but notice, the non petaled flower is what is in focus.  With my focus point in the center I locked the focus on the spiky flower and then slightly pushed down the shutter button and moved the camera to the left to get the purple flower in the picture and clicked the rest of the way – it gave me the blur I wanted on the left with an off center focus point. This is often referred to as focusing and recomposing your shot.

I’m happy to answer any questions via the “contact me” on either of my blogs!!

Thank you again Sara!! 

Explore More

welcome!

I’m Sara, a mom to three adorable boys living in the Arizona desert. As a former teacher, I love sharing my passions with others. So, have a look around for creative inspiration about cooking, creating, celebrating, traveling with kids, and more everyday mom endeavors!

DON'T MISS A THING!

Get freebies, new recipes, and fun ideas sent right to your inbox!

Looking for Something?

Search

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *