What you’ll learn
Placing your subject
off-centre is a great
way to improve your
composition, but it
can make focusing
accurately more
difficult. We’ll explore
the best way to get
the focus spot-on
when the subject
isn’t in the centre
of your shot.What you’ll need
Any subject that you
can position away
from the centre of the
frame. A person is
ideal, but you could
also use a still-life
subject such as a
flower or other
object. It’s best to try
this project late in the
day, and in overcast
conditions if possible,
to allow you to use
slow shutter speeds.7 | Shoot an of-centre subject
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autofocus mode on your
Nikon (it is marked ‘AF-S’
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VHOHFWLRQRSWLRQThis enables you to
frame your photograph so that the subject
is to the left or the right of the frame, and
then half-press the shutter release to
activate the autofocus.
I n ma ny c a ses you r Ni kon w i l l be able to
recognise the subject as the area that you
want to focus on, and so it will correctly
focus on this, allowing you to take a shot.
But this isn’t always the most reliable, or
consistent, option for focusing on off-centre
subjects, as the camera could choose a
different area or object to focus on, or focus
smack in the middle, when your subject is
ac t ua l ly of f to one side (resu lt i ng i n t hat
classic problem of an image with a sharp
background, but a blurred subject).
Switch the focus point selection to single
point or single area, and frame your shot
so the subject is off to one side of the frame.
Move the focus point using the rear control
pad so that the highlighted area in the
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then again half-press the shutter release
and, once your Nikon has focused on the
subject, take a shot.
Another option is to keep the centre
focusing point selected, and to point your
camera straight at your subject to focus on
them. Once they’re in focus, you keep the
shutter release half-pressed and reframe
the shot as needed, before taking a shot.
Which option you go for will depend on
t he subjec t. I f you’re on ly t a k i ng one or t wo
shots, half-pressing and reframing can be
quicker, but if you’re take lots of images
of a subject in the same place, manually
selecting the AF point is probably quicker.Manual focus
Using off-centre focus
points is perfect in many
situations, but there are
times when it can’t be used
successfully. The outer
focus points aren’t as
sensitive as the central
ones, so you may find thatyour Nikon struggles to
focus using them in low
light. They also only cover
a limited area of the frame,
so if you want to place the
subject at the outer edges
you will find that there isn’t
a focus point available toposition over the subject.
In these situations you can
switch to manual focus,
and focus on the subject
to get sharp results. But
remember that if you (or
the subject) moves, then
you will need to re-focus.TAKE IT FURTHER
10
minsImage: iStock
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com March 2016 31
FEATURE