Manual focusing skills of landscape photography

Most of my landscape photography is inseparable from manual focusing. In my opinion, manual focusing is extremely accurate, which is the basis for repairing sharp films in the later stage, especially suitable for static landscape photography.

First, why should we master manual focusing?

Many people think that in the modern digital photography era, the automatic focusing of cameras is becoming more and more accurate and faster, and there is no need to use manual focusing. In fact, manual focusing is not only practical, but also necessary in some specific situations.

The psychological influence of manual focusing on photographers can not be ignored. My feeling is that after manual focusing, you can confirm that the photo is really in focus, instead of repeatedly confirming whether it is really in focus after the camera's back screen is enlarged. There is also the application of autofocus, and I am still uneasy, because autofocus is not 100% successful, especially when I don't have time to look at the back screen, I am eager to go back and enlarge it on the computer.

The application of manual focusing is roughly as follows:

1, low light environment

Many friends who shoot the stars have this experience. When you want to shoot a clear foreground and focus on a dim subject in the distance, you half press the shutter, only to find that the camera can't focus. In the environment of low light and low contrast, the camera can not focus accurately. At this time, manual focusing is the best choice.

2. Macro shooting

Shooting an object at close range, half pressing the shutter, the image has been hovering between in-focus and out-of-focus, and it is always impossible to shoot it by pressing the shutter completely. This is the most embarrassing moment, because the depth of field is too shallow, which makes the camera unable to focus automatically. At this time, manual focusing can solve most problems.

There is a shelter in front of the main body

On some occasions, there are other objects in front of the subject you want to shoot, such as railings and glass. And autofocus often focuses on the foreground object, not the subject you want to shoot. At this time, manual focusing can solve the problem quickly.

Step 4 use old lenses

Most of the old lenses don't have autofocus mode, and only support manual focusing, so there is no other choice at this time.

5, photography fun

I used to love the Zeiss lens. The photos it takes are rich in color and have German flavor, but Zeiss heads are all manual. Hesitantly, I was lured into a Zeiss 50/ 1.4 lens six months ago. Since then, I have used it for street shooting or portrait shooting many times. I have to say that the fun of manual focusing is beyond others' understanding.

Second, the manual focusing method

This paper mainly aims at the field of landscape photography and shares some methods of manual focusing.

1, camera settings: (Take Nikon camera as an example)

The focus mode of 1. lens is set to manual, that is, the "M" file.

2. The focus mode of the camera is set to manual, which is the "M" file.

In addition, I shoot scenery, and the camera shooting mode is also manual "M" file.

2. Focus selection:

1. In static landscape photography, nearly one third of the focus of Quan Jingshen is generally selected.

2. The night view of the city, the focus area should be selected as far as possible in an area with a relatively high light ratio, such as a window, which is convenient for confirming the focus.

3. A strong flashlight can help illuminate the subject, which is also a magic weapon for manual quick focusing.

3. Manual focusing method:

1. Stability: use tripod and other equipment to fix the camera.

2. Aperture: Generally speaking, the aperture of landscape photography is set to F8-F 16. When focusing, first set the maximum aperture of the lens, so as to get the shallowest depth of field and facilitate focus recognition. This step is the key to manual accurate focusing!

3. Open the camera back screen display mode:

4. Select the focus point: move the red square on the screen left and right up and down to select the focus point.

5. Maximize the focal length: Press the zoom button on the camera to maximize the focal length.

6. Turn the focus ring of the lens manually until the focus is the clearest.

7. Adjust the aperture setting back to the real aperture, namely F8-F 16.

Eight. After manual focusing, you can actually shoot.

Third, other `focus confirmation methods:

Above, we zoom in and focus on the back screen of the camera in real time to confirm whether it is focused accurately. This is our most powerful tool for manual focusing. It depends entirely on the photographer's subjective judgment, and there are no other factors.

The following two methods assist the camera's focus judgment, and can also help us achieve focus.

1, camera focus prompt

Adjust the focus ring and observe the eyepiece of the SLR camera, which has a focus display prompt. Nikon cameras have white dots. When out of focus, the right or left side is a white triangle.

2. Peak focusing

Peak focusing is a focusing method of Sony micro-camera. Its principle is to highlight the areas with the highest contrast. The closer to the focus, the more obvious the red (color can also be set to other colors) particles appear on the screen. These red particles are called peaks.

The "peak focus" function of Sony micro-camera greatly facilitates the confirmation of focus, and the Nikon D850 that has already appeared has also added this function.