I've watched a ton of videos on this subject and this one does such a great job of highlighting the main points. Super practical. Super useful. Thanks, Sean!
Choose contrasty, direct light instead of soft light, try to apply it from the sides, and over the surface of your object. This boosts the sharpness too.
Great video, Sean. All points are very useful. Here are the timestamps. 1:00 Always use AF. 3:12 Use single point AF. 4:24 Use back button AF. 5:44 Your shutter speed is too slow. Use at least 1/60. 7:28 Know the limits of your aperture. 8:27 Be deliberate with your focus. 9:28 Know the minimum focusing distance of your lens.
Of course if your lens cannot autofocus then that's a given. With lenses that do have AF, the camera body seems to play a bigger role in the focusing capabilities these days. For most people using newish cameras, AF is pretty powerful and MF should only be used in select situations. Unless it's something you prefer to use, which is fine as well.
1:00: you clearly never used Magic Lantern. I get to see every little bit in focus with overlays, so manual focus being a problem? Zero minutes of the day. Zero. And in fact: On my EOS 600D that I'm stuck with, autofocus is _crap_, no matter if I spot focus or not. I _rarely_ can rely on it, and can I calibrate it? Nooope.
5:13 , I used to have AF-ON on back button focus, but now i've gone back to shutter focus and assigned AF-ON to "focus hold" so now I only press that button to stop the camera refocusing.
I know about cameras (as an amateur) but I just learned a lesson. I had taken my camera out to test a new zoom lens which had disappointed me in sharpness. On my PC, I found a few pictures that were really sharp and wondered, "Whoa - what happened?!" Well, F13 is what happened. I had changed to Aperture mode to try that out. Usually I only worry about shutter speed. I'm thinking that since I started with big-zoom point-and-shoot cameras (Lumix FZ1000, Canon SX50) I paid attention to shutter speed to avoid blurry pictures, and let the aperture take care of itself. But with better cameras, that isn't necessarily so. And I also saw a video showing that a smaller aperture isn't necessarily sharper. I should do a lens test at various speeds and apertures to find the "sweet spot".
Hey Paul, glad to hear this video helped you reflect on your past photos and realize how aperture effected your images! I think you'll enjoy shooting in Aperture priority mode.
Great channel. Great to come across someone who gets straight to the point and isn’t spending half the video trying to be funny like most of the other RU-vidrs. Great stuff Sean.
Great points. Back button focus is the only one I don't follow. It seems t be a very personal thing, and it's something that I just can't get used to. But all the rest are spot on.
It’s def a personal thing and I understand why others don’t use it. Ultimately it doesn’t matter all that much, I just got used to it find it to be efficient for my shooting style
I purchased your presets today, the wanderlust travel pack, I have to say they are lovely, I love their colours especially Kobe. I have also been following your skill share classes which to really help :) thank you
Really good video. I try to do all that you mentioned with shutter speeds, aperture, and single point, but I think that back button AF is gonna be a serious game changer for me. Can't wait to go play. Awesome presets as well. Sub'd
Very good video but tip about AF/MF should not be here... These issue should be decided and felt individually by photographer, cameras from other brand can working differently with AF etc. Except that really good video!
I've taken my best pictures with manual focus 🤙🤙 Just something about the extra feel to it. Plus I just got a BMPCC4K, and that 12-35 is keeping me spinning that ring, lol. I feel like I still need to master autofocus with my A7II.
Manual focus can get you better results no doubt. Especially with static subjects. Some portrait photographers also use manual focus. It has its place for sure and some swear by it
Manual focus is sometimes the only thing you can use when af lenses are too expensive. I use manual focus a lot and yes it takes a little bit more time to focus. But thank you for all the information, very useful!
@@papsny I do have af focus lenses as well but cannot afford the more expensive lenses. The ttartisan lenses are really great manual lenses! 1.2 and 1.4 aperture. For a much lower price
TIL that changing settings ONLY changes the behavior of the autofocus while HOLDING the focus button. For some reason i thought continuous autofocus was a function that locks onto something and tries to keep focus on it... This from the nikon manual/site helped me alot: "In single-servo AF (AF-S), focus will lock if the shutter-release button is kept pressed halfway after the camera focuses... If you frame the shot so that the main subject is in the selected focus point, focus, and then change the composition while keeping the shutter-release button pressed halfway to lock focus, you can create compositions in which the main subject is not in a focus point but is nevertheless in focus." this means that with single servo: you can point at subject> hold down the focus button> frame the shot, changing the position of the focus point> take picture and the subject will be in focus! With continuous: HOLDING DOWN the af button will continuously focus on anything on the focus point.
Yes, that's correct! A little life hack to use back button AF and only engage the AF when you need it. Allows you to shoot non-moving scenes and also be able to adjust and capture movement without changing focus settings. Great insight Pat, thanks for commenting here.
Very well done. I know how much work this is, but it would be great to see examples of literally everything you mention-even the bad choices, like focusing on the nose.
Interesting video, but I'll just use the technology the way it is intended to be used. No need for back button focus... just turn on eye detection, compose and shoot. If the camera is in servo AF and you keep the shutter button half-pressed.. the camera is always in focus, ready to shoot... but PROPERLY in focus and not "sort of" in focus, which is what happens if you recompose. With a 1.2 or 1.4 lens you are risking going slightly out of focus using BBF and recomposing. I prefer the image being constantly refocused and getting 100% hit rate, even with moving subjects.
Lol,"manual focus,trow it up the window". I used Zeiss 135mm f/2 apo,Voigtlander 58mm f/1.4,Nikon 20mm f/3.5 AI and some samyang lenses. You get used to it,from 10 shots only one was out of focus and don't be fooled by auto focus,i had more problems with it than with manual focus :)
You missed one important thing and that is light. If you use all things like you said and have bad light you won’t get sharp images…..I had to learn that the hard way…… I have Nikon D7200 and 35mm F1.8g when I take photos of my kids in our apartment I use 1.8 apature shutter speed 1/100 but my iso is over 1000 in that case I don’t get sharp images. Don’t get me wrong I do get usable photos for me they are ok but they are not sharp. But when I use flash the photos are super super sharp. So light is very important!!
Excellent video. One of the best I've seen regarding focus. Easy to understand, explains the basics, and keeps it simple. I feel like I understand my camera better now thanks to you video. Saved in my photography playlist for future reference as well. A+++
i have an old nikon 50mm E series.. that has no AF, but you get used to it pretty quickly, i can take perfect focus pics first try and it is sometimes better than my AF-S 18-105mm lens.. first tip and you've lost me 🥴
Its a super informative video, but your beginning made me close the video first time around. I think if you flip it around and start with: "Do you want to take sharp photos like these?... I am Sean Dalton and...." your hook will be even closer to the beginning and it will make your video have and explosive start.
I've heard the phrase 'Focus on the eye' for a long time but how? It's hard.. The focus point is so big to point in the eye especially when the model is a little far away.
I guess this title should be reworded - How to take super sharp photos on sony cameras.. Manual focus is my favorite focusing method no matter how reliable the camera i use is.. I am prolly used to it.. Btw I just stumbled on your channel and it's some quality content for photography..
1 thing tho.. many beginners start off with a camera that don't have a trustworthy auto focus...therefore manual focusing,with focus peaking is a better option
im new in photography and it really help me to understand how to do it. but can i ask some question? i can't download the preset in your link, when i click the download button it didn't show in my phone. can you help me.
I decided to really make sure I knew how to take really sharp pictures. I started to go through a couple of videos here at RU-vid, and then I came to yours, now I am done. This is the information many others charge a lot of money to give away. Maybe they spend a little more time on each point, but I got what you said and now back to practicing. Thank you!
Well, I've been taking pictures for few years now and never really explored the auto focus function. I take all my pictures in manual focus. I'm glad I found this before I went on holiday, though I can't say that this will be very handy for my analogue cameras 😆
You can only ever focus on one person in a group anyway. You need to focus on the person in the middle of the group and use an aperture that will ensure you have enough depth to capture the people furthest from and closest to the camera. If they're all in a straight horizontal line, focusing is a piece of cake!
Some one needs to make a better point and Damn shoot! It is annoying messing around with setting for each scenario i want to strap a bomb to my camera some times😂
Shooting at 1/50s with a 200mm (full frame) only requires 2 stops of stabilization, something that every camera can handle. Was no stabilization available?
If you're being very still then it should be fine, but I wouldn't trust 1/50s at 200mm on a camera without IBIS. Even then, it's easier to just follow the reciprocal rule just in case. If there truly isn't enough light then I'd drop it down to 1/50 ish as I know my Sony can handle it. Not sure about cameras that dont have IBIS though.
Great video man, or though I knew a couple of things you recommended I also didn’t know some of the others. Will defiantly go and try them out and have a look 😊 nice, straight-to-it video 👍🏻
I stopped watching as soon as he said “use autofocus” . I’m literally searching to figure out how to master my manual skills because the camera isn’t set up to uniform footage as the day changes . Maybe I’ll keep using it after I learn but I’m still trying it out for expertise
What is the problem with manual focus? Of course manual focus is very good. Why don't you explain that at f11, for example, the picture is going to be sharp. It is very simple. Also, many great lenses doesn't have auto-focus. "peaking assist" is extremely useful for lower stops, like f1.8 or f2.8 for example. And all modern camera have it. If set at "high" you can't miss a sharp shot.
Absolutely nothing! Manual focus lenses are amazing, I have a few myself. I use MF for video especially. This video is aimed at beginner photographers who are often shooting with their newer entry level DSLRs. Auto-focus these days is pretty incredible and most professional photographers rely on it quite heavily. I also have several videos discussing aperture and depth of field in relation to focus. F11 certainly has "sharpness" benefits, but these are in the form of depth. F/11 doesn't allow you to separate your subject from the background as much as a wider aperture would.
Hey Josh, it's great for food and coffee, especially if you're on a crop sensor camera. 35mm on a crop sensor is about 52mm full frame focal length, very nice middle ground focal length with little distortion. 50mm is also a solid lens and you can't go wrong with it.
haha okay that is very fair. But even then it's difficult to use MF on an older DSLR as well. It's a nightmare with my Canon EOS Elan 7e film camera from the year 2000.
