It’s a skill that everyone needs to learn and practice.

Essentially, each camera has an area that it focuses. On most cameras it defaults to dead center.

That’s why so many folks put their subject in the center and leave them there. Unfortunately, that is the worst place for most images.

I just received a great question from a friend. Once I try to compose my subject off-center, the camera automatically re-focuses in the middle. What can I do?

I call it defeating the autofocus.

There are two main ways to do this.

1) A lot of the more expensive DSLR cameras allow the user to pick a spot where they would like the camera to focus. For example, for the image above, you would set the focus point to the far left. But you still might have problems with subjects on the extreme edges. Or…

2) You can learn to “trick” your camera. Pushing the shutter half-way, freezes the focus, which allows you to slightly re-compose the image and voila! You control where the focus is and are now master of your camera!

Let’s take a look:

Find your main subject and press the shutter half-way down. This part take a lot of practice. It’s way harder than it looks and you’ll end up with a bunch of weird images until you get the hang of it. Once the image is in focus, a green square or rectangle will light up, letting you know that your subject is locked in focus.

Now, with the shutter still half-way depressed, slightly move the camera to the right or the left to place the subject in an area of stronger composition. Note, the camera must remain the same distance from the subject to remain in focus. All you are doing is slightly moving the camera to the left or right.

Now that the subject is in the upper left area of convergence, depress the shutter all the way to make a photo.

Easy?

Practice this technique until you can do it quickly and accurately.

Being quick and confident at this will allow you to re-compose on the fly and make stronger images almost at will.

Ready? Focus.

Be inspired!

Here’s a portrait photography tip, get closer!

Getting closer is something that most photographers can do to better their images. Usually, most photographers want to include all of their subject in the frame.

Unfortunately, this keeps us from getting close-up and personal. It’s okay to crop off the top of your subject’s head. We all know it is there, so all lot of the time we don’t need to show it!

One more of our portrait photography tips, shoot your subject through something for visual complexity. It makes your photos a lot more interesting and it gives the viewer something to look at.

In the photo above, there were some beautiful wysteria plants that were blooming and I wanted to somehow include them in the frame. I asked my subject to stand behind them and voila, an interesting portrait is born.

Here’s the photographic composition thinking as I made the pic.

I placed her eyes near the top right area of convergence so the eyes of the viewer would be drawn to them and the blooms of the flowers are in different areas of focus to create visual complexity. Enjoy!