Eight skills to improve the success rate of focusing in low light environment

Professional photographers know that the important factor to consider when buying a camera is the autofocus speed, but the success rate of autofocus will decrease in low light environment. So what are the tips for focusing in low light environment? Let's take a look at 8 tips shared by photographer Jim Hamel to improve the success rate of focusing in low light environment!

1. Focus on the light source

Focus on the light source

What is there to shoot in a completely black environment? First of all, try to find a place with strong light source to focus. If the composition is reasonable, the focus can be changed to complete the focusing process.

2. Find the edge focus with high contrast.

Many digital cameras are focused by contrast detection, so finding the edge with high contrast can effectively improve the success rate of focusing. When using the first point, it should also be noted that the dividing line between light and dark is the center point of focus, not the center of light source.

3. Focus first, then compose.

Focus first, then compose.

The above two points are applicable to the case where the distinction between light and shade is obvious, but the disadvantage is that the composition is not considered too much. Users can change the focus composition, or press the shutter half-way, focus first, and then move the camera for composition.

Use a flashlight

If the light in the picture is weak and the camera's focusing auxiliary light is not strong enough, you can use a flashlight to fill the light to assist focusing, and turn it off when shooting. However, due to the limited irradiation distance of flashlight, this method is only suitable for shooting close-range objects. In addition, the use of flash will affect the camera's metering, so it is also a good method to use AF-L (or similar) button to separate metering from focusing.

5. Use the focus ruler to focus manually

More advanced lenses have a focus scale, so it is a practical method to estimate the focal length first, then focus manually according to the scale and increase the depth of field with a small aperture.

Increase depth of field

You can get the maximum depth of field by using hyperfocal distance, but if it is too complicated for beginners, the photographer suggests using a wide-angle lens and a small aperture to focus to infinity to ensure the clarity when shooting general scenery.

7. Live view+manual zoom in and focus

If autofocus doesn't work, use live view to enlarge the picture and focus manually. However, this method will be tiring if you shoot by hand, and the jitter of your hand will also interfere with the focusing accuracy, so it is best to use a tripod. But if the LCD screen is too dark, you can open the aperture first to improve the sensitivity. After focusing, you can adjust the appropriate exposure settings and shoot.

8. Take more photos and check more.

The biggest advantage of using a digital camera is that you can take a lot of photos without worrying about the cost of each photo. Therefore, even if you use the above seven methods, you might as well take a few more pictures to check whether the focus is accurate, so as not to find that the focus has failed after returning home and there is no chance to remedy it. Under very important circumstances, some people will take multiple photos of continuous shooting and manually change the focus position (forward/backward) at the same time, and they will get multiple works with different focuses, and one of them is always successful. Of course, this is relatively inefficient.