Avoid blurry pictures with proper focusing techniques.
Reviewing your pictures is one of the most gratifying aspects of photography. However, when most of the shots appear blurry or inaccurately focused, it's hard to take pride in your work. Though modern camera outfits provide sharp focus under average circumstances, tricky lighting or a fast-moving subject may cause your lens to falter. By familiarizing yourself with your equipment and adopting helpful habits, you'll find your time behind the lens more productive and artistically satisfying.
Instructions
1. Avoid low-light shooting situations. The lack of well-defined edges and contrasty areas will render your camera's autofocus sensor useless. Use flash or an external light source to brighten the scene or subject.
2. Use a smaller aperture (lens opening). Depth of field, or range of effective focus, at f/11 is far deeper than it is at f/2.8. This puts your subject, as well as much of the area behind or in front of it, in crisp focus. A deep depth of field also helps mask any accidental focusing errors.
3. Switch to a faster shutter speed to reduce the effects of camera shake. Shutter speeds of 1/125th of a second or faster allow you to handhold your camera without worry of motion blur.
4. Follow moving subjects with your camera. By panning your lens along with a racing cyclist or fast car, you'll keep the subject in sharp focus while blurring the surroundings.
5. Focus manually when using a a shallow depth of field (or wide aperture, such as f/1.7 to f/4). Because the range of effective focus is so short, your camera's autofocus function may provide blurry results. Switch to manual mode and move your lens's focusing ring until you achieve precision.
Tags: your camera, your lens, camera autofocus, depth field, effective focus, range effective