Tom Clark - Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

Be sure that you're familiar with your camera and lenses and how the focusing controls work on them. Your digital point-and-shoot camera may or may not allow you to focus both automatically and manually. Refer to your owner's manual to find out about your focus control and how to use it. In the following sections, I provide some general information on how to use each type of control.

Going with manual focus

If you have a digital SLR with manual focus, you can focus on your focal point by rotating the focus ring on the lens until the plane of focus is positioned on the point of your choice.

Manual focus is great when you're close to your subject and can easily see the detail in your focal point. However, if your subject is fairly small in your viewfinder, determining when your focus is spot on may be difficult. You can solve this problem by switching to auto focus mode (if your camera and lens allow it) and letting modern technology take over for your eyes.

auto focus

To use auto focus with most digital SLR cameras and lenses, you place your focusing sensor (the rectangular graphic in the center of your viewfinder) on your desired focal point and press down the shutter release button halfway. You'll hear the lens elements shifting back and forth until focus is achieved. After the focus is set, you can press the shutter release down all the way and take the photograph.

If your auto focus sensor exists in the center of your viewfinder, and you don't want to place your subject in the center of your frame, you need to lock your focal point before composing the shot. (Centering your subject makes for a weak composition and goes against the rule of thirds; check out Chapter 5 for additional information.) Most cameras offer different options for auto focus. Refer to your owner's manual to find out which setting enables you to lock your focal point.

Here's the general idea on how to lock your focal point: Position your auto focus sensor on your subject and press down and hold the shutter release button halfway. After the shutter release button is pressed down halfway, the focal point is locked on the subject, and you can move the camera to compose the scene in the way you see fit.

Some cameras contain more than one auto focus sensor point in the viewfinder. In this case, you can scroll through the points until you get to the one that's closest to where your subject is in your composition. Still, the point may not be placed exactly on the subject, so you'll have to perform the locking technique described earlier.

The closer your subject is to the camera lens, the more of the frame it covers. And the larger the subject becomes, the less significant the other elements in the frame become. (If you're wondering about those less significant supporting elements, flip to Chapter 9 for a complete discussion of your composition's background.)

The message you would like to convey with a photograph requires a certain balance of the significance of the subject and its supporting elements as well as the spatial relationships between them. So focusing on someone who's much closer to the lens than the other people in the scene creates a drastic separation in the importance of that person and the others. Having a more subtle separation between the subject and the other elements brings more relevance to the other elements. Check out the next two photos for examples of the two scenarios.

In Figure 7–3, the boy who's on the paddleboard is much closer to the camera than the person who's diving down into the water. It's clear that the boy is the subject and the diver is a supporting element.

135mm, 1/640 sec, (55.6, 200

Figure 7–3:Using a single subject and a secondary focal point.

However, in Figure 7–4, the two main elements are equidistant from the camera. Each is in focus and each provides an equal level of importance to the message. As a result, the relationship between the boy and the bird is the message. The pelican is staring at the boy, and the boy is playfully peeking from behind the piling. The photo shows a sort of standoff between the two. I represented the boy and the bird equally in the composition in order to cause the viewer to look back and forth between the two in the spirit of the standoff.

135mm, 1/400 sec, f/13, 200

Figure 7–4:Using spatial relationships to showtwo subjects.

When you look at something, your eyes focus on that one point, and you technically see two of everything else in your field of view. (I tell you more about how eyesight works in Chapter 2.) To test this theory, place your finger 12 inches from your eyes and focus on it while noticing the elements behind it. Apart from your finger, you see two of everything. Typically, you won't pay any mind to the elements that you aren't focusing on. You concentrate on what's in focus, basically ignoring everything else even though you know it's there. If you scan your focus to another element, you're then ignoring the previous one. The point? Your eyes can focus on only one thing at a time.

In reality, your eyes can jump from one focal point to another, adjusting the sharpness of the elements around you. However, when you view a photograph, you can see only what the photographer lets you see. He hides and reveals things using focus. More specifically, the photographer uses selective focus to hide background and foreground elements. Selective focus means using a shallow depth of field and placing your focal point on something to make it

stand alone regardless of its surroundings. (See the later section "Controlling depth of field" for more info.) Photographers use selective focus to tell people exactly what to look at in a photograph.

In Figure 7–5, for example, I used selective focus to highlight the figure in the stained glass window. Nothing else in the scene really caught my eye, but I was interested in the way the figure in the glass was lit. A streetlight from outside the church was shining directly behind her and affecting her alone, giving her prominence. Through the use of selective focus, I made the subject even more prominent in the scene.

50mm, 1/80 sec, f/2.2,400

Figure 7–5:The use of selective focus leaves no doubt as to whatthe subject is.

Photographers often use selective focus to reveal a specific detail. For instance, you often see it used in stock photography of an open book or a newspaper, where the technique forces viewers to read one word. The other words on the page are soft in focus and aren't as easy to read as the one that's used as the focal point.

In order to achieve selective focus on a small detail like a newspaper's text, use a macro lens (or set your point-and-shoot to macro), which enables you to get close to your subject and still achieve focus. (Turn to Chapter 3 to find out more about the macro lens.) In situations when your subject isn't so small, you can pull off selective focus by using a telephoto lens and shooting with a wide-open aperture. The upcoming section "Controlling depth of field" tells you more aperture and focal length.

Getting creative With qow focal points

The way you choose your focal point can reveal a lot about your subject and its relationship to other elements in the scene. When taking a portrait of someone, it's generally nice to make their eyes the focal point. After all, it's human nature to look at people's eyes when communicating with them — the eyes are known as a "window to the soul." However, when you're trying to tell a story, the eyes may not always be the best place to focus. Try focusing on a person's hand touching something or making a gesture.