FOCUS OREGON - V1 Issue 2

Shooting in
Manual Focus
for Complete Control
By Tracy Page, M. Photog, Cr. CPP
made the statement once that I had picked
I up an autofocus lens and suddenly did not
know what to do. I focused and composed
and the camera re-focused! What the
heck? It’s supposed to stay at where I put
it! Quite honestly I have now been shooting
completely on manual focus for the better
part of two years and I’m not sure I ever want
to go another way. The complete control
that I have creatively has made a substantial
difference in my work and workflow.
At this point, I am betting the majority of
you are mentally shaking your heads and
thinking, “nope, it’s not for me.” “Too much
work,” or “my eyesight would never allow
me to do that.” I am going to tell you the
secrets of how easy this is and hope that you
will try the world beyond auto-focus.
First let’s discuss some pros and cons. On
the auto-focus side, I found that more often
than not, I would focus on the eyelash
instead of the actual eye, making my images
an almost there shot. To remedy this, I was in
the habit of shooting at least three of every
image and hope that one of them would
be completely focused. I don’t do that any
longer. I am focused. Period. So that may
leave you thinking, “OK so you are focused,
but you can’t be fast and you probably
miss the moment.” No. I anticipate my
moments with how I have my camera set. If
I am shooting a toddler for example that is
moving around a little, I increase my depth
of field. Instead of missing moments, I find
that I take my time and better compose my
shots and then when I am in post, I have less
waste – both of images to go through and
my valuable time.
And then you might be tackling that thought
that your eyesight is not good enough to
manually focus each shot. First of all, until the
last maybe 15 or 20 years, that was how we
all worked. Our camera focus was manual.
And we captured beautiful images. You have
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