Focus

T

Tot1984

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Name
Michael
Edit My Images
Yes
When I turn the switch on the side of the lens to manual, to select a focus point, my pictures become blurry. How do I manual focus?
 
It happens to us all :)
 
I'm not sure if I get what you're saying here Michael....

If you switch the lens to Manual Focus, you will need to adjust the focus ring on the lens to manually focus your shots.

But then you mention "selecting a focus point", do you mean the the actual part of the scene or the subject you want to focus on or choosing the the number of focus points the camera uses to focus?
 
Yeah that's what I mean, like in auto focus, it focus' on the foreground and blurs the background, is that easy to do I manual focus?
 
You're looking for a shallow depth of field. You need to be looking at your aperture (the wider it's open (lower f/ number), the shallower the depth of field)), as well as the distance from your foreground subject to the background.

EDIT: You're looking for this effect, yes?
 
Last edited:
Yeah, that's the effect I'm looking for in manual focus. Ain't took my camera out to test in manual, just asking before I do
 
You don't need to use manual focus for that effect, auto will work fine (by all means go full manual though). As I said you need to consider your aperture setting and the relative distances between the camera and foreground subject, and the foreground subject and the background.

Experiment!
 
Tot1984 said:
Yeah, that's the effect I'm looking for in manual focus. Ain't took my camera out to test in manual, just asking before I do
Click to expand...

As Number 45 said, you don't need manual focus to get the out of focus background effect.......

Set the lens back to manual focus and then the camera to aperture mode, selecting the lowest aperture possible (this will depend on which lens you're using.

Find a subject you want to take a picture of and get reasonably close to it and take a picture. How out of focus the background is will depend on how far away the background is from the subject, what focal length you're using and the aperture setting.

This is a great site for learning stuff like this http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/
 
Tot1984 said:
What's focal length, how can I set it on my camera?
Click to expand...

That will be the focal length of the lens you have attached to your camera.

If it's a kit lens (the one that came with the body) it's likely to be 18mm-55mm, it will tell you this somewhere on the lens itself.

There are fixed/prime lenses that don't zoom so will only be one focal length i.e. 35mm, 50mm, 200mm.

There are zoom lenses which will have a minimum & maximum focal length i.e. 18mm-55mm, 18mm - 200mm, 70mm-200mm, you set the focal length when you zoom in/out.

The smaller number is known as the "wide end" as it will give you the widest viewing angle.
 
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