The Canon Magazine 91
EOS S.O.S
he AF systems needs
a certain level of
light and contrast
to work with. This can be a
problem when you’re
shooting in low light or
using a slow lens (one that
has a relatively small
maximum aperture), where
the number of cross-type AF
points may be severely
reduced or non-existent.
If you find that the lens is
‘hunting’ back and forth, the
vertical sensors might not be
detecting any horizontal lines
of contrast. You could try tilting
the camera slightly to see if
that helps, or find something at
a similar distance to your
subject which has more
contrast (in both cases, locking
the focus before recomposing
your shot). Alternatively, if
you’re using a lens that offers
full-time manual focusing, try
focusing the lens by hand until
the camera ‘bites’.A high-contrast scene like this should pose no problem for the
AF system, until the light level drops and reduces the contrastA helping hand...
If your camera is struggling to focus, tr y this trick
irst introduced in
the EOS RP and sure
to be seen in new
EOS cameras, Focus
bracketing is an automated
feature that uses small AF
adjustments to bring more
of a subject into focus. Once
enabled, the camera takes a
sequence of between two and
999 images, increasing the
focus distance between each
picture. The resulting shots can
then be stacked together in
sof t ware (including DPP) to
produce an image which has an
- often substantial – increase in
depth of field.
You could use the
smallest aperture available
on a lens to get the max
depth of field, but the smaller
the aperture gets, the softer
a picture gets overall. When it
comes to close-up and macro
photography, even an aperture
as small as f/22 or f/32 won’t
give you a big depth of field.
The lens needs to be set to
AF mode for Focus bracketing
to work, which feels almost
alien when you’re used to
taking macro shots using
manual focus. For consistent
results the camera should be
locked on a tripod. If you shootin Av or M mode, you can
choose the aperture – going
for a mid-range one such as
f/8 or f/11 means that you
won’t have to bracket as
many shots compared with a
large aperture of f/2.8 or f/4.
It’s worth creating a
separate folder on the memory
card to store your files – you’re
given this option when you
select Focus bracketing in the
red Shooting menu.F
T
Focus bracketing
This useful feature extends the depth of sharpness
BRACKETING TIPS
School tip Smarter menus
Be more ef ficient when navigating your set tings
IT’S EASY to find yourself getting
lost in the extensive menus of some
cameras, but you can jump to the
first tab of each section by pressing
Q or INFO, depending on the model.
If you notice that an option that you
want to select is greyed out, it means
that option clashes with another
currently active function. To find out
which one, highlight the option you
want to use and press SET. Don’t
forget to add your preferred settings
and Custom Functions to the green
MyMenu tab – many cameras allow
you to set the camera up so that only
this section is displayed when you hit
MENU: tweak it under ‘Menu display’
on the MyMenu tab.WB
SET AFISOThe^ modes^
Focus^ bracketing^ can^ be^
activated^ in^ the^ P,^ Av,^ Tv,^
Fv^ or^ M^ shooting^ modes^(^) Increments
Options include the number of
shots to (^) be bracketed, the
increment the focus is (^) increase
d