Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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When do you use manual focus? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by DiablolicalScientist@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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I feel like autofocus is so good. Are there times that you use manual focus? When I am looking through the view finder it almost seems impossible to actually manual focus a shot anyway.

Am I doing something wrong here? Just checking. Thank you.

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[–] MontEcola@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I use it in some wildlife situations.

There are eagles where I live. They eat the dead salmon in the rivers. I scope out a popular dead fish that is getting some attention. Then I set up my camera on a tripod. I set the focus to that an area of about 3 feel is in good focus. Then I turn it to manual focus. That way it does not change. Then I step back and use the remote anytime there is action I like in that 3 foot area.

I do a similar thing with flowers visited by hummingbirds. An area of about a foot is in focus. Step back and use the remote to clid when a bird is at the right angle inside that little area.

I am not using the rings on the lens to focus. I am just setting it to manual so it does not change.

Or, if I am taking a photo of a stationary thing, I will use manual to get the focal point on my subject. When the subject is moving, I need the above method.