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

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Focus stacking

This is a digital technique in which several images taken with different focus distances are combined into one image that is sharp from the foreground all the way through the background.

Although it can be applied to landscape photography, it is especially useful for macro photography because depth of field is very limited when subjects are extremely close.

With the camera firmly mounted on a tripod, take the first shot with the nearest part of the scene in focus. Then, without moving the camera, refocus just a little further into the scene and take the second shot before focusing further in again.

Repeat this until you have a shot with the focus on the furthest part of the scene.

Now all the shots can be combined to create one image that is sharp throughout. This can be done manually using any image editing software that supports layers – Photoshop Elements is fine.

But it can also be done automatically using software like Combine ZM, which is free to download and use, or using Photoshop’s Photo Merge function.

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