Focus is what separates the men from the boys. Manual Focus I believe it is best for just about everything. All of my photos since getting the 5D Mark II have been fully manual due to my use of Nikon Lenses. It may be hard at first but with time and training you will get it. It will become almost innate. Honestly it feels more “right” for some reason. Maybe that’s just me. Training The best way to learn manual focus is to just stick with it. The longer you do it the better you will get at it. In order to really master it you have to get good at four essential skills.
Quick Focus – It’s crucial that you be able to quickly focus between subjects near instantly. Place two subjects at different distances in front of you. Then practice quickly focusing between the two subjects paying attention to the distances between then. After you’ve mastered two subjects add more as you get better. Once you can do a few place them randomly all around you and train. You have to learn to feel how much you need to shift focus and in what direction.
Pre-Focus – Learning when to take the shot can be tricky with moving subjects, especially if you want to use a shallow depth of field. What you can do is pre-focus at a certain distance and take a series of photographs exactly as the subject passes through the area of focus. This makes it crucial you know exactly where you’re focus is and the moment the subject passes through. This is appropriate when you are in a constant static position so your eye should never leave the viewfinder. It’s a bit of a waiting game.
Zone Focusing – this is a technique popular for street photography and a bit of a fraternal twin to the pre-focus. The difference is that instead of being static you will be on the move and become static only when you decide to take the photo. What you will do is use a high f-stop such as f/8 or f/11 and use the focal distance scale on your lens to set it between two different distances. Then you must learn to visually calculate the distance between you and your subject and position yourself accordingly. Since you are shooting at such a large f-stop your focus doesn’t have to be as perfect. With practice you can learn to shoot from the hip although that’s more suited for rangefinder cameras.
Follow Focus – This is where you separate the men from the boys. Photographing sports manually is the best way to learn how to do this on the fly. You must learn to flow with the subject to keep it in focus. To start you can try keeping a subject coming towards you in focus, then move on to subjects moving diagonally, after which more chaotic and random subjects will further enhance your ability. It will take time to get it right but when you do you will be skilled in a lost art.
Lens Gears – If you want even more control you can use some lens gears to enhance the feedback of the focus ring. Make sure to get one for each lens and just leave it on.
Zoom – This is the most important skill out of the four. You must learn to be aware of your surroundings so that you can zoom with your legs. The last thing you want to do is bump into anything and risk destroying your expensive gear. All your senses come into play here. I do not recommend trying to zoom with your eye in the viewfinder. Just tilt your camera down so you can see and move forward. Again learning to calculate distance comes into play.
Focusing Screen DSLR’s come with something called a focusing screen inside the body. What this does is aid with manual focus. The problem is that almost all of them come with a laser matte focusing screen meant for focusing at around f/5.6 or higher.
[Precision] - This is the kind of screen I use most. All it does is make the areas that are not in focus appear more out of focus while the area in focus has much more pop. It’s great for people who manually focus with lenses lower than 2.8. Any lower than 1.8 and it becomes a bit of a guesstimate although only pixel peepers will notice. The downside is that anything higher than 2.8 will appear very dim forcing you to learn to focus before adjusting the aperture ring on the fly.
[Microprism] – This is my second favorite type of screen. It was standard back in the days and uses a circle at the center of the screen that diffracts when the image is not in focus and eliminates the diffraction when a subject is in focus. These tend to be dark like the precision screen. The only downside is that high quality one’s are expensive.
[Split Image] – This type uses a horizontal or vertical line that splits the image when not in focus and aligns it when it is. In my experience these give me headaches. Some people really like them because of the vintage feel. http://www.focusingscreen.com
[Laser Matte] - This is the most common focusing screen found in DSLR’s. The great thing about these is that they’re very bright and make some with grids for landscape photographers who tend to shoot at very small apertures and are also good for street photography. The downside is that for manual focus it just plain sucks. When shooting below f/5.6 things that appear in focus might not be in focus, go lower than f/2.8 and you’re lost.
Auto-focus – If you’re shooting sports or for some reason shooting in pitch black conditions then auto-focus will help you pull through. Since I use Nikon Lenses on a Canon Body I can’t take advantage of these modes. Maybe you can.
Single – This is great when paired with a focus assist light. You can auto-focus in near pitch black conditions so long as you’re not too far away from the subject.
Continuous – If you ever want to get a subject as it’s moving towards you and aren’t fast enough yourself this mode will continuously focus the lens on the subject as it moves. Canon L Lenses paired with the 1DX are lightning fast when doing this. The mode becomes crucial when you only have one chance to get the shot.
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