What’s Gotta Stay

Previously I’ve talked about some techniques to try and get a photo in focus, but today let’s take the concept a little further.  After you have mastered the techniques to hold your camera still and you get good lucky enough to capture your favorite entertainer holding still enough to get a great shot, the question is where to get your camera focused on.

Now I realize this may be a new concept for many people because you typically just let your camera focus wherever it is going to focus; this is common with a point-and-shoot camera.  Some newer cameras have a great face recognition feature that often does a fairly decent job of identifying where a face is in a photo and attempting to focus right there.  Much of this article will be for those that have cameras that let you either selectively choose a focal point in your frame or if you are hoping to try and use the “focus and recompose” technique, which I will explain a bit more later.

The Good and the Bad…not the Ugly

First let’s look at a sample photo:

This is a local singer that was an opening act at a local indie concert I was photographing.  He had a Johnny Cash vibe going that I rather enjoyed.  I shot a variety of photos just for fun, which I often do with opening acts as a warm up to photographing the main entertainer.  This shot isn’t bad.  I like the composition overall, his expression didn’t change much from this so my choices were limited; but it seems a bit…off.  Do you notice it?  The reason it is off is the everything is just slightly out of focus (OOF).  You may not notice it at first glance, but after you look a bit I am sure you will.

Now let’s look at a shot taken just a moment later.

Now granted the composition of this photo is different, but I use it to illustrate my point.  With the low lighting I was using a wide open aperture (small aperture number of f/2.8) to let in as much light as I can.  Because the aperture is open, the depth of field is also narrow, meaning there is only a small area that can be in focus from front to back of the subject.  If you notice, my point of focus is his face; more specifically his eyes.

Focus on the Face/Eyes

When looking at a photo of a person, the first thing most people tend to look at is the eyes.  In the case of an concert entertainer, this is also true.  But focusing on his eyes, this profile shot puts his entire face and even the microphone in focus.  Note that his arm, guitar, etc. all are slightly out of focus, but they are not the parts of the photo we are really paying attention to anyway.

 The further back you are from a subject, this matters less and less.  If you are back a distance, you are trying to focus on the subject on the whole, but if you are zoomed in, use the eyes.  Even if you are a distance back and either unable or choosing not to zoom in, using the face as a focal point is perfect.  If you focus on an instrument or the microphone you may end up with unpleasant results because the face of the subject ends up out of focus.

That’s great, but how do I do it

If you have an SLR camera, many of them will offer a feature to “dial in” a focal point.  My particular camera for this shot was a Canon 20D which has 9 points of focus in the viewfinder that you can individually select as the point of focus.  If I am shooting in a portrait mode (tall), I dial in a point on the top of the frame, or the right side if it were tilted to the side.  If I am shooting in landscape mode (wide), then I either dial in the top, middle or slightly to the side depending on the composition of the shot I am working on.  Once I have my spot chosen, I put that “dot” directly on the eyes of the subject and push down the shutter halfway to “lock in” the focus for the shot.

The half shutter technique works on practically every camera made.  When you push the shutter button halfway down, the camera goes through the process of focusing the lens in anticipation of the final shot.  You can hold that shutter half way for an indefinite time period too, so you can wait for just the right expression before pushing the button the rest of the way to finally take the shot.

Now for non-SLR cameras, you may or may not have the option to select where to focus in your frame; some cameras have such manual controls, so check your camera out.  If you don’t have this option, don’t fear.  One option you have is to keep depressing the button halfway until your camera hunts and finds the right focal point.  Many cameras will choose a new point of focus if you go through this process repeatedly, programmed to discard the previous point of focus and try something different.

Focus and Recompose

Other cameras will give you the option to center focus, meaning focus on whatever is in the center of your viewfinder.  If this is the case, you can use the focus and recompose technique.  There is a lot of debate I have read on whether recomposing your shot is the best option based on the curvature of the lens and depth of field, but frankly that is pretty advanced for this discussion.  In a practical sense, this option will work just fine.

The concept here is to use your prefocusing of the center weighted option but pointing the center of your viewfinder directly on where you want to focus, such as the eyes.  Once you have pressed the shutter halfway to gain your focus, then hold it down while you move the camera to then compose the shot how you want it to look.  In the case of the example above, I would focus on the singer’s eyes, then shift the camera slightly to the right to put my subject on the left of the frame.  Once I have my composition just as I want it, then I press the shutter the rest of the way to take the shot.  Presto, well composed and in focus shot.

Get Creative

Now that I have talked about getting the best, typical focus of a shot, now think about what you can do differently.  Of course often we are all looking for a great shot of the personality we have come to see in concert.  Get that shot or shots and enjoy them.  Once you have them, though, think about what other shots you can get that are interesting and perhaps artistic.  Using creative focus can be a great part of an artistic photo.

For example, in the following photo I thought the candles used on stage were an interesting aspect to the low budget lighting experience of an indie concert.   So, to highlight the candles I selectively focused on them instead of the act itself for what I thought turned out to be a photo I enjoy.

Have some fun the next time you are at a concert, both enjoying the music and with your camera.  Try to nail that perfect focus on the entertainer and perhaps try some creative shots to see what you can come up with.  Concerts are all about having fun, and a big part of that fun for me is the photos I can capture.

P.S. I would love to read any feedback you have on this tip and others so I can know better how to share additional tips with you in the future!