Photographers' Newsletter

Your newsletter will be focussing on the practical issues of photography for the community photographer.

This Month's topic: Deciding where to place the focus point in your image.

How do you decide what should be in focus in your images?

Last month at our Seminar we discussed the interaction of f-Stop and shutter speed.which vary with the ISO setting for your camers. You will recall my recent Tips for Digital Photographers showed you these relationships.

This month we will look at the use of f-Stop and depth-of-field to give differential focus in your images.

Ask yourself the following:

• What is the key interest of my image?
• Why am I taking the photograph?
• What do I want to emphasise?

Where you decide to focus depends entirely on the number of points of intertest and which one may be your key interest. You should look for the most distinctive feature of your scene/ image. Is there something in part of the scene that can convey the emotion of the image or event being portrayed better than the entire photo?

Use the focus in your image to emphasise the key point of interest and then the other components will become secondary in impact. It may be particularly important in a portrait or the petals or stamen in a close up of a flower. Close-up/ macro photography may also require manual focus and a tripod to prevent camera shake

For example the eyes are important in a portrait but there may be many points of interest in a landscape. Do you want to emphasise the foreground, mid-distance trees or hut or the mountains. In many cases it is important to have ALL the landscape in focus.

The use of differential or depth-of-field focusing will also add to the creativity of your images when you are able to isolate the key interest from background detail. Try some wide open lens shots and see the difference it makes. Your creativity may surprise you.

You may also find the need to switch off your autofocus and use manual mode.

When you need to be extremely precise with the focus, such as close-up / macro, and your camera is unable to lock onto your subject, switch to manual mode. You know where your subject is located. Conversely, if the ambient light is low, you may find infra-red auto-focusing most helpful.

If your camera is starting to get confused (do you hear the whirring as your camera tries to find a spot to focus on?) it may be easier to use the manual focus setting. Alternatively set the focus field for your camera to the centre point of viewfinder. After focussing on the point of interest use focus lock by holding the shutter button at half pressure and then recompose the image. The focus will remain on the point chosen until you complete the button press with your preferred composition.

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Lifetime Sunday Workshops

Our workshops are offered to assist you to learn the basics of digital photography and by better understanding become more competent and creative. You will marvel at the improvement of your images and be encouraged by your newfound skills.

Temporily not available

workshop page

UK Photographers' Public Access

Increasingly, amateur and professional photographers are being prevented by privately employed security guards from taking pictures in public places and semi-public places.

Read more here

Does Your Subject Always Look Into Your Camera?

Most people look straight at the camera and smile. While this quite good most of the time, it isn’t particularly creative. You can usually make a much more interesting picture when your subject isn’t looking directly into the camera.

When your subject looks somewhere else the camera is no longer the center of their attention. Your subject is concerned about something else. If your subject is looking at a point outside of the frame, your viewer will always be curious about what’s catching your subject’s interest.

If your subject is looking at something inside of the frame, you have a chance to tell a story about the person, place, or thing your subject is interested in. Give your subject some extra advice on how to better play the role. This is a posed shot and you are able to build up the sense of emotions.

Whenever your subject isn’t looking directly at the camera, you need to also consider space in front of your subject; they need somewhere to look into. Don't have them central in your composition or have their faces up against the frame of the image.

You will be amazed how this will make your images much more interesting and creative.