Tip of the Week: Focus

There's nothing worse then a blurry out-of-focus photo. I'm not about to pretend I haven't taken a few myself, but if it's quality you want, then you have to learn to go those extra steps to achieve the sharpest photo possible.


1.) Hold your camera properly. Not doing so may cause "camera shake" which results in fuzzy photos with motion blur.

You can google tips on this, or even refer to your camera's manual (Yeah, I just said that, and won't be the last time either!). If I can emphasize just one point, it's that you have two hands for a reason...

2.) Focus before you shoot. Not doing so may cause you to miss a shot or, in your haste to get the shot, your camera may focus on an area within the frame that is NOT your subject.

The shutter button (the button you press to take the photo) on any "modern" camera has two clicks.

First click is halfway depressed and focuses your image
Second click is fully depressed and takes the photo

Most important of all...After you press the shutter button halfway and your image becomes focused, keep your finger where it is. Your camera is now ready to take a photo w/o pause to focus.

3.) Use the timer. No, that's not just a feature made for pushing the button then running to get into the shot! It's there for other reasons too :-P

Did you ever stop to think that even when you're using a tripod or holding the camera the correct way, when you push the shutter button you're actually causing vibrations in the camera that can cause your image to turn out blurry?! It sounds like some anal detail, but it's actually a very common mistake.

By using the timer, you're giving the camera a chance to come to a full rest before the shutter is opened and the image is captured.

Of course, the vibrations caused by the shutter opening and closing in-and-of itself is a separate issue, and we would then get into greater detail about mirror lock-up, but perhaps that'll be another day!

4.) Shutter Speed

I follow a basic rule of thumb I learned from a friend online...Say the lens you're shooting with has a range of 28-300mm. If you're shooting on the upper end of that range, you would notice considerable shake if you held the camera for any length of time. So having a shutter speed of 1/25th of a second probably would not make much sense, right?

My rule of thumb is, try to keep your shutter speed AT or ABOVE your focal length. If you're shooting at a zoom of 50mm, keep your shutter speed at or above 1/50th of a second. If you're shooting at 300mm, keep your shutter speed at or above 1/300th of a second (or the closest your camera can get to that number).

This rule is not universal, and there certainly will be conditions where you will have to adapt/modify...But generally speaking, it tends to work pretty well!