Why should you learn how to use manual focus (MF or M), especially with all the amazing advances in autofocus (AF or A) technology? Well, there’ll be times when all the AF points in the world won’t help you get sharp shots. Often, activating MF is the only way of beating the dreaded blur.

Macro photographers often use manual focus to dictate their focus point. So do low-light shooters and photographers working in tricky situations, such as shooting through glass, or perhaps focusing on a distant horizon on a misty morning, when autofocus may struggle to get a lock. Sports photographers benefit from pre-focusing in manual focus, especially if they can predict exactly where the action is going to take place.

So don’t ignore the little AF/MF (or A/M) switch on your lens barrel, and remember that when the focusing gets tough, using manual focus might just get you going.

How to use manual focus

Step 1: Flick the switch
Locate the AF/MF switch and move it from AF (autofocus) to MF (manual focus). The switch might be in different locations depending on the camera system and lens you’re using, but typically, it will be somewhere on the lens barrel.

Step 2: Do the twist
To manually focus a lens, you simply twist the focus ring. You’ll be able to see when the image is sharp through the viewfinder. You might have to twist the focus ring back and forth, moving through and beyond your chosen point of focus until you see that focus is spot on.

Step 3:: Get some help
Different shooting situations will call for different focusing techniques. In really low light – when you’re shooting at night, for example – try using the distance numbers on the lens to judge your subject’s distance from the lens. Most lenses will have this feature.

Step 4:  Review your shots
To double-check that your shots are pin-sharp, use your D-SLR’s LCD screen for a close look. All you need to do is zoom in and navigate to the specific area you focused on. This way you should get a good idea of whether your image is sharp. If it’s not, just refocus and shoot again.

With your camera’s basic settings taken care of, you’re ready to start snapping away, but you’ll soon want to know how to take advantage of all the other features your SLR has. Read on to find out how to take your camera craft up a notch.

Exposure modes

Choosing an exposure mode gives you the freedom to stop worrying about settings and start concentrating on taking great shots. Your camera will offer a number of automatic settings, including modes that help you to shoot action, close-ups and portraits, but these modes can be restricting and should generally be ignored. Get to grips with your camera’s semi-auto and manual settings (below), and you’ll soon see an improvement in the results.

Auto

This is the basic beginner mode, with minimal manual control. The SLR effectively becomes a point-and-shoot compact, with all the exposure settings taken care of.

Program (P)

Here, aperture and shutter speed are set automatically for you. However, you can control ISO, exposure compensation and other settings, enabling you to override the suggested settings if you wish.

Shutter priority (S/Tv)

This mode is similar to aperture priority, but you select the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture. This mode is perfect for freezing high-speed action or for creating motion blur.

Aperture priority (A/Av)

This semi-automatic mode enables you to choose an aperture value that gives you your desired effect (blurred backgrounds, for example), and the camera then selects the shutter speed that’s needed for a correct exposure.

Manual (M)

In manual mode, you set both the aperture and shutter speed for any given scene, which places you in total creative control. It gives you access to all of the available aperture values and shutter speeds, and an exposure level indicator in the viewfinder (or on the LCD screen) tells you whether your shot is correctly, under- or over-exposed. The Bulb mode enables you to shoot exposures for as long as the shutter button is held down, making it ideal for night photography, when exposures of 30 secs or more are required.

File format

As mentioned here, there are two main options here – JPEG or raw. The JPEG format was created for digital photography, and is now a universal standard that’s viewable on any suitable device. In contrast, raw files are specific to individual makes and models, and specialist photo-editing programs are required to open or edit them. The big advantage of shooting in raw is that the image contains more information, which can be used to get the highest quality images. JPEGs compress the image slightly, losing quality.

ISO sensitivity

Your SLR’s sensitivity to light is determined by the ISO setting. To produce noise-free images, it’s best to use your camera’s lowest ISO, but this isn’t always possible. In low light, for example, a slow shutter speed is often needed to expose the image correctly, and this can result in motion blur caused by camera shake. If you’re already using your lens’s widest aperture, the only way to get a faster shutter speed – and therefore avoid camera shake – is to increase the ISO. And the higher the ISO, the more noisy the image.

White balance

You can rely on the auto white balance (AWB) setting in most shooting situations, but there are some occasions where it can’t be relied upon. If you’re shooting in mixed light or in dark shade, for example, your camera’s auto white balance setting may produce images with a so-called ‘colour cast’. To eliminate this cast, switch to the preset closest to the type of light you’re shooting in. When it’s important to get the white balance exactly right, shoot in raw, because the white balance in a raw file can be fine-tuned later.

Custom functions

Scroll through your custom function menu for the first time and you’ll be amazed at the volume and complexity of the changes you can make to the way your SLR operates. Don’t be daunted, though – configuring some of these to suit your preferences will enable you to work much faster than sticking with the defaults. Some cameras enable you to save the most commonly used functions in a quick-access menu, or to assign custom function settings to different shooting situations. See your SLR’s manual for your options.

Back to: Set up your camera

Forward to: Get better exposures

When you look through your SLR’s viewfinder and half-press the shutter button, you’ll see the multiple autofocus points flash when they’ve achieved focus, and you may also hear a beep – depending on the make and model of your camera. These cues are designed to help you take sharp photos. However, if you shoot using basic shooting modes (such as portrait, landscape, sports, and so on), most SLRs will automatically select the AF point, and will then use this AF point to focus on what it thinks you want to focus on – usually the thing closest to you, which might not be what you want to be in focus at all!

Points of interest

However, one of the many advantages of using an SLR is that you can control what your camera focuses on by selecting your AF point manually. This means – when shooting portraits, for example – that you can focus on one of your subject’s eyes, even if it’s off-centre in the frame. The number of focusing points you have varies from camera to camera. The Canon EOS 1100D, for example, has nine AF points, the Nikon D5100 has 11, the Canon EOS 7D has 19, and the Nikon D7000 has 39.

Control the focus

To manually select individual AF points, press the AF Point Selection button on your camera and then look through the viewfinder. Use the top dial, crosshair buttons or joystick to cycle through each AF point until the one over your chosen subject is highlighted. Half-press the shutter button to lock the focus, then fully press it to take the picture.

Helpfully, the AF points are placed on (invisible) vertical and horizontal lines at points one-third into the frame, so they can also help with composition when it comes to the rule of thirds – use them as guides for placing the subject in the frame. Note that if all the autofocus points light up at the same time, you’re on Auto Point Selection.

Single Point AF

This mode is best used when shooting a portrait, say, or any subject that stays relatively still. It enables you to select a focus point manually. By default, the centre focus spot (which is the most accurate) is used for focusing in single point autofocus.

Dynamic Area AF

This mode is perfect for shooting fast or erratically moving subjects. Some SLRs have up to 50 autofocus points – you choose one, but if the subject moves away from that point, the camera will continue to focus using one of the adjacent AF points.

Single-Servo/One shot

This is the most commonly used autofocus mode. All you need to do is point the camera at the target, half press the shutter-release button and the lens will focus. Crucially, the focus point will remain locked for as long as you maintain the half press on the shutter release button, enabling you to recompose the shot while keeping the selected point in sharp focus. You can only shoot once the focus is locked, but you can usually override this with a setting in the camera menus, should you wish to.

Continuous/AI Servo

This is more suited to moving targets, such as sports or wildlife subjects. The main difference between this and one-shot autofocus is that the lens continuously focuses on your subject. The autofocus system tracks the subject to ensure that it’s sharp in the captured image.

By default, continuous mode enables you to take a shot whether focus is achieved or not. There are limitations, such as in motor sport, where a car comes towards you at a higher speed than the autofocus can keep up with. In situations like this, it’s best to pre-focus in one-shot mode.

Auto-Select/AI Focus

In this ‘intelligent’ autofocus mode, often referred to as ‘auto-select’ or AI Focus, the camera’s autofocus system automatically senses whether an object is stationary or moving, and then switches between one-shot and continuous modes.

Manual

Single-frame shooting

The camera exposes a single frame each time you press the shutter release. This is best used for still subjects such as landscapes and portraits, where you don’t need a burst of frames to catch a fleeting moment.

In this mode, your camera will fire off shots
at its maximum frame rate for as long as the shutter button is held down. It’s ideal for sports, but you need a memory card with a fast write speed for long bursts.

With typical options of two- or ten-second delays, the self-timer mode can be used to fire the shutter remotely when, say, your SLR is mounted on a tripod. This enables you to press the shutter before positioning yourself in the shot, or to reduce camera shake.

Back to: Perfect your exposures

Forward to: Choosing a lens