Digital SLR Photography

Nove mber2016Digital SLR Photography 71Th e B e ginner’sGuideFACE DETECTION:This is acommonfeature,especially in digitalcompacts. Thecamerarecognises afacein your scene and biases thefocusingto make sure it’s sharp. If there’smorethan oneface, the most prominent one is givenpriority. With smilerecognition, thecamera takesashot when the subject smiles as itrecognises thesigns – wideeyes and upturned mouth.TRAPFOCUS:This modelets you set afocustrapfor your subject. Allyou do is pre-focus onapoint using the AF-On button on the backof yourcamera, hold the shutter button down and whenyour subjectreaches that point the shutterfi res. Ifyou setcontinuous shooting,your camera willfi rerepeatedly while the subjectremains infocus.BACK BUTTONAF:A techniquefavouredbymany professionals, this involves changingyourcamera's controls so that the shutter button nolonger activates autofocus. Instead, autofocus isactivated using the AF-ON button on therear ofthecamera. Doing so allows you to quicklychange between one-shot AF (press the AF-ONbuttonto focus and thenlet go),continuous AF(press and hold the AF-ON button andfollowthesubject) or manualfocus(don't press the button).``````Although AFsystems arefastandreliable, there's stillacase for using manualfocus. Ifyou’ve beenaphotographerfor a longtimeyou may simply prefer it- old habits die hard and allthat – butfor some static subjectsbeing ableto choose where thelens focusescanbe a benefit. With landscapes,for example,youusually want to record the whole scene in sharpfocus.Todo thatyou needto be ableto controlhow far into the scene thelens isfocused (ideallyon the Hyperfocal Distance) and it’s much easierto do that ifyou focus manually. Once thelens isfocused manually, you can alsoleave thecamerain position whilewaitingfor the lightto improve,say, and bereadyto shoot. Macro is anothersubject where manualfocus is handy, asdepth-of-fi eld isoften incredibly shallow.OTHER AFOPTIONSMANUAL FOCUSAF-AAF-AAI-FOCUSThis is an ‘intelligent’AF modefound in some DSLRswhere the camera automaticallyswitches between single-shotand continuous AF depending on the subject.If the camera detects the subject is stationarythen it sets single-shot to achieve sharpfocus,whereas if it detects that the subject you’reshooting is moving, it will set continuous toincrease the chanceofyou getting a sharplyfocused image. It’s a handy mode to use ifyou’re shooting a varietyofdifferent subjectsin quick succession, some moving, some not.However, experienced photographers preferto stick with a specific AF mode so they knowexactly what the camera is doing.2XSAMARA.``````COM/SHUT TERSTOCK``````SHUT TERSTOCK``````SHUT TERSTOCK``````2XSAMARA.``````COM/SHUT TERSTOCK