Sisters Pet Pics’ Blog

Bella The American Eskimo Dog (Click to enlarge)

We’ve talked about focusing before, but as one of the biggest problems people seem to have is out of focus (OOF) subjects, it bears discussion again. In conversations with folks who desire to improve their photography, it is obvious that reading the manual is something few do.  Unpleasant suggestion alert:  YOU MUST READ THE MANUAL.  Okay, that’s out of the way.  Now we can talk about what you should try.

I will speak about the Nikon that I use, the D200.  I always use Auto Focus, as I just don’t trust myself to make a tack-sharp image.  Most cameras have the settings I’ll speak about; they just may be in a different place.  There are four AF-Area Modes, but I use either the Single-area AF or the Dynamic-area AF mode.  The lever-looking control can be found on the front of the Nikon body.  I find these two settings serve me well in most instances, but you should try all the modes your camera has, to familiarize yourself with the advantages of each.  The Single-area is for fairly static subjects and Dynamic-area is for those subjects running and jumping about.

Learning about these modes, however, won’t do you a lick of good, if you don’t find and use your focus brackets.  Look through your view finder.  See those little bracket thingies?  Notice that one of those is weighted or bold.  If you are shooting an animal, either human or other species, you will want your subject’s eyes to be in one of those areas.  That’s what you’re focusing on.

How do you move that weighted area around?  Glad you asked.  On the back of Nikon bodies is a Multi-Selector button.  This is how you move that area around your view finder.  It won’t move?  Wake up your camera.  Uh huh, some of us need a little waking every now and again.  Press your shutter release button half-way.  This will make your camera sit up and take notice.  Now you can move the weighted focus area to where your subject’s eyes are.  Wait until you see the focus indicator flash, then make your capture.

OOF images are the bane of the existence of all photographers, especially when the subject has lots of hair.  You want to see that coat.  Their coats make them beautiful.  Let’s make the capture that celebrates that.