Best camera focus techniques: 10 surefire ways to get sharp photos

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Hyperfocal distance focusing

This is a popular camera focusing technique that is designed to get the maximum amount of a scene sharp at any given aperture.

The traditional way of using it is to focus on the subject and then use the lens’ depth of field scale (or a tape measure and depth of field tables) to find out where the nearest acceptably sharp point is.

This point, where the depth of field starts in front of the focus point, is known as the hyperfocal point.

Once the hyperfocal point is found/calculated, the lens is refocused to it so that the subject remains sharp and greater use is made of the depth of field.

The popularity of zoom lenses and consequent loss of depth of field scales has made it harder to apply this technique precisely, but you can still measure or estimate the focus distance and use smartphone apps such as DOF Master to tell you the hyperfocal distance.

Alternatively, you can rely on the principle that depth of field extends roughly twice as far behind the point of focus as it does in front and focus approximately one third of the way into the scene.

Hyperfocal distance focusing is popular in landscape photography and whenever you need lots of depth of field.

PAGE 1: Manual Focus
PAGE 2: Single AF, Continuous AF
PAGE 3: Automatic focus point selection, Manual focus point selection
PAGE 4: Face Detection AF
PAGE 5: Focus and re-compose technique
PAGE 6: Back button focusing
PAGE 7: Hyperfocal distance focusing
PAGE 8: Focus stacking