How to set and operate focus in children’s photography

Introduction: Children are lively and active, unlike adults who will stand still and take pictures slowly for you, so focusing is very important for taking pictures of children. How to focus when photographing children in different situations? How to set the camera’s focus system? Let’s share it with you.

Children are lively and active

Example 1. The child stands and slowly takes pictures for you

Camera settings:

F area mode ?Single-point AF

Focus mode?Autofocus (AF-S) When photographing children, it is customary to place the focus point on the children's eyes or faces in order to capture the children's clear expressions, especially in With a large aperture. Because the depth of field of a large aperture is too shallow, if your focus is on the child's body, the face will be blurred.

Also, compose the shot first and focus later. That is to say, I have planned the position of the child in the frame in advance and moved the single-point focus point in the camera to that position. Then I can press the shutter as soon as the child is in position. In this way, the success rate of focusing will be greatly improved and the shooting speed will be faster. Of course, if the child moves too fast, it is not a bad idea to adopt the traditional method of "focus first, then compose the picture" (that is, use the camera's preset center point to focus, then move the camera to compose the picture, and finally press the shutter), but the focus was successful. rate will decrease.

Shutter speed 1/60s, aperture f/1.4 ISO/12800

Example 2. When children move or play quickly

My camera settings:

AF area mode? Dynamic area AF

Focus mode? Autofocus (AF-C)

When shooting a child moving or playing quickly, you will first face the child’s eyes Or half-press the shutter button to focus. Since I selected continuous AF-C, when the child moves, the camera's focus system will continue to follow the child to focus. As long as I keep half-pressing the shutter button and move the camera along with the child's movements, once I encounter a satisfactory composition and action, I can immediately fully press the shutter button to shoot, and I will definitely be able to clearly capture the action you want to capture. Of course, you can also use high-speed shutter bursts to capture a series of actions, and then select the photos you want.

High-speed shutter continuous shooting one (shutter 1/400s, aperture f/2.8 ISO/400)

High-speed shutter continuous shooting two (shutter 1/400s, aperture f/2.8 ISO/400)

High-speed shutter three consecutive shots (shutter 1/400s, aperture f/2.8 ISO/400)

High-speed shutter four consecutive shots (shutter 1/400s, aperture f/2.8 ISO/400)

Five high-speed shutter bursts (shutter speed 1/400s, aperture f/2.8 ISO/400)

Example 3. Low-angle shooting

My camera settings ：

AF area mode? Auto-area AF

Focus mode? Auto-focus (AF-S) Sometimes you need to shoot children from a low angle for composition reasons, but you cannot shoot through the viewfinder. When shooting, I will choose to use automatic area AF and let the camera decide the focus point for me. Since I usually use this method to take close-ups, the probability of accurate focus is very high.

Shutter speed 1/250s, aperture f/2 ISO/500

In addition, there is a focusing method called trap focusing, which is usually used to photograph insects such as butterflies. Sometimes I also use it for shooting fun. For example, when children swing on a swing, they usually move very fast. We can use manual focus mode to focus on the place where the child will reach, wait for the child to swing to the focus position and then press the shutter to take clear photos.

Swinging sample

Shutter 1/2000s, aperture f/4 ISO/400

However, this focusing method will not be successful if you are inexperienced or have poor eyesight. The rate is greatly reduced, and it requires continuous practice and some luck to succeed. So this method is definitely not the best method. I’m just sharing other methods here because that’s the joy of photography.