How to Focus YOUR PHOTOS!
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- čas přidán 31. 08. 2019
- #Focus #Photography #Aperture
I get asked a lot how I focus my camera for my photos. In this video I explain my process, along with some of the mistakes I see beginners make with choosing apertures and making sure your photos are sharp.
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I agree with you, we, as a community have been pushed more and more towards numbers, have you got enough pixels in your camera? (20Mp? Is that ALL??) Is your DOF small enough (even when theres none to speak of! "M43 just cannot DO dof!") Is your dynamic range big enough? Have we got enough stabilisation in your camera ("only 3 stops? I dont get out of bed for less than 5 stops" ) how big is your iso range? ("Does your camera go up to 256,000 iso? No?? Oh you poor thing!") it just goes on and on, it's getting silly, all it is is just a device for selling more and more units! It wasnt long ago that the Canon 5D mkiii was THE benchmark for pro photographers, with a few more than 20Mp it would be laughed at these days!
We have, as an industry lost the artistry in our field, it has become black and white, if your background isn't pristine then you must be an amateur! We MUST MUST MUST move back towards theart of the photo, David Bailey, an icon in the field, in my experience was very rarely what the 'influencers' (God I hate that term!describe as technically correct, but oh my God did he turn out some iconic photos! We must relearn that
Diffraction - light trips up when it goes through a small hole a bit like a drunk in a doorway.
Love that! haha
Yep, it was me
Makes perfect sense
When I'm not sure and even sometimes when I'm sure what aperture works for the landscape shot, I take a few photos with different aperture values.
For example of that tree, you can just shoot f4, f5, f8, f11, f13, f22, etc. The tree won't run away and you can just delete the photos you don't like later. Or leave them and maybe you'll change your mind after some time. Digital storage these days is so cheap...
Sounds bulletproof sir :)
"...I could see the tree growing!"...ya made me laugh out loud. 🙃
As for diffraction: the usual ray tracing diagrams you're used to seeing -- of lenses bringing rays of light down to a focus -- assume that they do so perfectly, so that every point in the scene is mapped to exactly one point in the image plane. That would be ideal, but in reality, light is an electromagnetic wave, which means that it doesn't exactly always propagate in perfectly straight lines the way the ray-tracing diagram suggests. Instead what happens is that light bends around barriers, the way water waves do when passing through an opening. Rays that were initially straight and parallel are instead now spreading out slightly. The upshot of this is that, because of the finite size of the circular aperture, instead of the lens focusing rays from a single point in a scene perfectly down to a single point on the sensor, it focuses them into a circular _area_ on the sensor. I.e. every point in your scene gets smeared out into a circular disc of non-zero size in your focal plane (called an Airy disc). The relationship between the amount of smearing (diffraction) and the size of the aperture is inverse: smaller apertures smear light out into a larger Airy disc**, while larger apertures smear light out into a smaller disc. That's why diffraction is more noticeable at high F-numbers: you've stopped the aperture down to a smaller physical size. Diffraction obviously degrades your resolution -- if every illuminated point in your scene is now a larger disc in your image, obviously these discs will all be overlapping each other, making it more difficult to distinguish two points (e.g. distant objects) as being separate from each other. But diffraction only degrades things noticably if the size of the Airy disc is larger than the size of your pixels. If the Airy disc is smaller than the pixel scale, then obviously the smearing due to diffraction does not matter, because the finite pixel scale is what's limiting the resolution in that case.
So I don't worry about focus and eat a delicious cake instead. Thank you!
ceaabe That’s what I took from it, too.
Nailed it! :)
Love looking back at some of your older pics and learning new things about them!
I must say james, i LOVE your content! The fact that you put your true self and proccess out there instead of portraying to be another perfect landscape photographer is awesome and very relatable. Much love and blessings from New York City!!!
Thank you mate :)
I love your vids, they're mint!! The fact that you go into "ramble mode" all the time is one of the reasons. You come across as someone trying to explain to friend what's what. The info becomes more memorable...to me anyway. Some of the others (as good & helpful as they are) just feels like a teacher/student scenario. So thanks for all the advice in your videos so far, you've been a big help. Looking forward to more in the future
That's so great to hear, thank you :)
I'm a teacher, and I wish I was half as entertaining as you when I don't know what I'm talking about.
Always enjoy your videos, thanks David
Love your videos, humor, and knowledge. Keep em comin!
Thanks mate :)
Hello David, I can not believe you got distracted, you covered the wet feet, the cobwebs, the ill parking of your car, I think you were right on focus point. We even covered baking. Love it when you show your photographs as a point of reference. Thanks for another great video.
haha, thanks Roberto :)
Thank you for confirming the need for cakes in my life, especially imperfect cakes.
haha, not all hero's wear capes...
Thanks for focus on focusing. Very practical video for me still working on a style for me you’re thoughts help immensely
Thanks Robert :)
My day gets better every damn time you upload a video. Good stuff as usual
Great to hear, thanks for watching :)
Another great video. A sensible approach we all need to take. Well done, and thanks, James.
Thanks David :)
Thanks, James - taking photos of things in landscapes is an important distinction than being a landscape photographer - never really thought about that before, but that's exactly what I do and despite doing it for years, I'd never made that intellectual leap. I thank you.
Cheers mate :)
One of the first images that I took when I got my first dslr, nothing is properly focused and the camera shake is horrible, but it still today gets people saying "I love that one". Now, every time I see it I love that one too..because it tells a story. It took me more than a year before I understood it
love the tips. thanks James
just been going through your videos, they are bloody brilliant. I much appreciate them!
Excellent advice as always 👍💯 so true, so true
Another great video. Keep well
Enjoyed the video, as always James. I have very similar viewpoints to you on almost everything ... photography, cakes, spiders, etc. With regard to focus, of course the subject should be in focus. As for everything else, I think that depends on the scene and the subject ... but as a sweeping generalisation I try to achieve "as close to being in focus as possible without distracting from the subject". Thanks again.
Thanks James another highly entertaining informative vid
James Popsys, god I love your humor and smarts about photography. Keep making great images, great content, and great laughs. #inspired
Thanks so much :)
Good analogy with the cake. Great video
I’ve learned such a lot of useful things from you Mate , thanks a lot
I think that was one of your most delicious analogies! Thanks for that
After watching this video I know three things for sure:
1. Your photos are getting more and more amazing
2. Cake, just because.
3. You are not Spider-Man ;)))
haha, thank you! Spider man I am not...
this makes me even more interested in the video before watching
I am so glad I know what kind of photography I do now :D, I take pictures of things in landscapes!
So much better than all of those videos that talk about getting things "tack sharp" and bang on about focus stacking.
Thanks :)
I try to focus on the thing that caught my interest in the first place!
6:50 - I see that you're going for the surfer, but I love how the rock and the mountain behind it are basically the same shape.
Thank you! Subscribed.
It's much easier to learn photography when you've got a funny and cute person to learn it from. Great video James!
Yeah, gotta share this with my photo group!
I have used FF and M43 and it’s nicer to have more things in focus at a lower aperture, than it is the tip of the nose in focus only. And you get more light in
Good video. I learned to simply take a bunch of pictures of the subject at different focal lengths and apertures. Especially if the subject isn't moving or alive and won't get pissed at you for taking so long. Just take a bunch of photos and you will be surprised at which photo you will actually like out of the bunch.
I'm so glad I subscribed to yout channel. I love it! :)
Thank you :)
Great drone footage of the inversion.
Thanks Wendy :)
The honestly is perfect! Finally somebody who said it
Cheers Erik :)
This guy is awesome fr
Great video James. Would love to see a behind the scenes video of you taking a few photos and showing how you compose and set the camera up for each one and then the final edit of each photo
Got it Jonny :)
Story and composition is everything... or taste in the cake example. 😁
First time I visited England I went to a small village, by train... there are cobwebs everywhere in the countryside. Especially around trainstations... I have only visited London since.
horrible things! :)
I love your facial expressions. Prime 👌🏾 Also really appreciate your videos!
Cheers Drew!
Totally your best ramble yet James 👍😁 Did you know there was a spider sitting on your hat the whole time during this vid?!🕸️🕷️
The cake analogy works perfectly! Thank you!
I am guilty of being obsessed with the settings, but I am trying to get out of it...
Great to hear Adhish :)
+1 sub. Your photos are wonderful, and I learn something new and interesting. Thanks you 🙏
Thanks so much :)
One of my personal favourite series' of photos is 1/2 out of focus. It's of my puppy and consists of 4 images: In the first, she's looking down at her leash; in the second, she looks at the camera; the third, she's already closed half the distance, ears flopping in the air, out of focus; in the fourth and final image, the frame is 2/3 her face (mostly nose and one eye), completely out of focus. She ran too fast for my autofocus to track.
Yeah, they're technically flawed, but the story is adorable. I have yet to have someone comment "Oh, but they're out of focus", but get a lot of "oh my gosh, that's so adorable". I am thus far the only person to have criticized the focus.
Oftentimes, flaws are a key part of the story.
I truly enjoy your videos. I’m at a point where I want my images to be more minimal & moody. I really appreciate your approach on focus, which is the opposite of the in vogue focus stacking.
Thanks :)
It's all about the composition and some good post
True Pablo! :)
Brilliant!
Cheers Jack :)
Good sound advice with a sense of humour 😁👍
Thanks Dave :)
I just arrived at my hotel in Prague and am pausing video long enough to check for spiders! Ok, I’m back and in focus. This was loaded with information. Back to America on Wednesday to check out the tips.
haha! Have fun :)
Nice one James. Spiders, you're funny!
Love that analogy. People usually get even more lost when I use analogies. But to their defence, it usually ends up something like... "If a dog... Said to an egg who just came home from the office..."
Awesome video as always, man! I really liked the take home message that photos that need to be 100% sharp across the entire frame in order to succeed, probably aren't that interesting in the first place. Also, since I don't tend to shoot sports, or fast action, like you I might try single-shot autofocus rather than continuous. Although, I use back-button autofocus anyway, so it doesn't servo unless I'm pressing the button, which seems like it makes continuous mode able to be used as single-shot mode fairly easily, does it not?
Oh yes. All really good points there James. Lost count of the number of times landscape photographers ask me "where to focus"? And when told "on the subject" they look blank and scratch their heads. Kind of forces them to consider if the image actually even HAS a subject, or if it's just a "general scene" - in which case there better be something compelling about it: like light or contrast or mood or why bother!! 😊👍
Thanks mate, agreed :)
THAT SURFING SHOT IS AN ABSOLUTE BANGERRRR
Thank you! :)
Plot twist: James gets assassinated by a spider at home 😜
I'm on borrowed time...
Nice drone shots
Thanks :)
Why am I only finding this guy now! Hilarious and informative
You should have focused more on the things that are important? ;)
What James is talking about when he mentions focusing in on a predictable point or area of focus beforehand is the technique people generally use with full manual focus. I know when I started actually learning (I started with 35 mm film but didn't really dive into it until I got a few medium format Mamiyas) it took me a bit to realize it's often much easier/smarter to focus on the ground to visually see stretch of the depth of field and position the subject within. If I was doing street photography or in other situations where that trick wouldn't work I just relied on the hyper-focal distance scale bit on the lenses mixed with zone focusing.
That said, I still use tricks like that today because I still use those Mamiya cameras. Even on my digital cameras I use mostly vintage glass that's all manual. To be honest using manual lenses on mirrorless with solid peaking is beyond easy. It's important to use peaking as a reference point to start from if possible though. Nothing against autofocus, I use it loads on my Nikon Z5 with the FtoZ adapter and my F lenses that have autofocus.
Great video, great points. One thing... doesn't diffraction kick in sooner in the aperture range in case of smaller sensor cameras?
Thanks for the tips. Mega thanks for the many laughs especially the last 2 minutes hilarious. Are you also a comedian?
2 big fans here inTaylor Tx. the trees changing colors and leaves falling - haha ha your right just take the dam picture. wedding cake - lol
That tree was amazing
I was waiting for “where should you focus? On the story”
well said
These photos were flamas mate🔥
Thanks mate :)
James,
I like mashed-up, runny pie!
Thank-You,
Mike
haha!
Thanks James . “We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That's what connects us--that we're all broken, all beautifully imperfect.”
Cheers David! I know I am :)
it was very hard for me to focus on a single one-liner for this this very concise and fluid explanation about proper focus in photography...
haha!
One of my favourite photos I've taken in the last month was overexposed, not fully in focus, and pretty noisy.
My best photos have always occurred by being somewhere you don't need to be at the wrong time with an opportunistic shot that just 'lines up'.
I'm not a whizz and I constantly chase knowledge in terms of camera skill, it's just about connecting the dots in-between and seeing the world in a different way.
I've taken some photographs I'm proud of and I've consistently screwed up more times then I can count but I always manage to provide results, even if few.
Well said :)
Love your content, your dad Gerard Butler's stuff is pretty good too!
haha, I'll take that :)
good to listen to how other photographers work it : )
Thanks mate :)
An interesting video and a point well taken about focus point. As you take photos of things in landscapes as opposed to the landscape itself, your approach makes perfect sense. In fact, Heaton has demonstrated that focusing to the distance will actually get almost the whole scene "acceptably" focused. There is a place for focus stacking, etc. But I agree, even a pure landscape needs a point of interest and that's the thing that needs to be in focus. What irks me is de-focused elements that shouldn't even be in the photo and lend nothing but distraction.
On other issues: I never had you marked as an arachnophobe; well, no one's perfect. Re the DOF difference from M43 to FF: isn't F/4 to F/8 two stops? If the crop factor is 2x, that's just one stop, so the respective DOF should be equivalent to F/5.6. Or am I wrong? Thanks & keep the content coming!
Cheers John! Agreed :) For the DOF differences, consult mmcalc.com :)
I also like it simple, just single point focus on the main subject and then setting the aperture to something that looks good. Experimenting a lot with shooting at f1.8 lately, you don‘t always need everything in focus!
PS.: If you ever make your way to Vienna, I‘d be happy to explain you the physics behind diffraction 😅
Thanks mate, hopefully one day :)
In photography, there are no rules of anything, its just all guides....if people like it, then they like it
Some people are obsessed and have no idea about photography. Composition was created to provide some kind of guideline as presentation and how something might look better; however like any artist you choose and express yourself. Who cares what other think. It's all about yourself and what you're looking for on that image. You either have a choice to take the photo as you like it.
Lol I can see the tree growing: brilliant
you don't need to have everything in focus, just your subject
I just can't stop thinking of all the disappointed photogenic Spiders. Perhaps a video on getting images of spiders should be a future project. Therapeutic too!
I always find your takes on conventional techniques (and/or breaking them) refreshing and oddly reassuring.....not sure if that's the right word for that, maybe I'm rambling as well. Love your channel. I've learned a ton from you and have been entertained while doing so. Keep up the good work
Thanks Gregory :)
Hey James to me your chocolate, when I need sweet treat to keep me going your my man, just enough info delivered in your videos to make me want more. Thanks
Glad to hear it! :)
All good!
Thanks!
Can you do more of these tutorials please as their brilliant
James : and literally i can see the tree growing lol
Lovely views from the Peak District at the beginning. Did you film this on your own with a camera drone?
yeah that was some really nice stuff...
Yep, the drone :)
It would be interesting if you and Nigel Danson make a video discussing this subject (including the use of tripod). 😆
Spot on. As a beginner for me it’s all about composition first. Give me interesting and imperfect any day over bog standard and technically flawless.
Cheers John, me too :)
Hellllloooooo from NYC
Hi! :)
Great video, off the wall as ever. Not sure what you are on, but if there is any spare.....
Haha! My body is very sensitive to caffeine...
He said " Literally see the tree growing!" Priceless
Love to get some imperfect cake🎂🎂
As a beginner I did here something that was quiet useful. I do have a crop sensor camera, so if I shoot a landscape at f5.6 the d.o.f will be the same as a full frame f11?
Depends what crop it is my friend. APS-C is different to M43 for example. Plenty online that explains it in detail though :)
@@JamesPopsysPhoto I do have a aps-c camera, never heard this before. I will have a look at it!!!!
I am with you on every level when it comes to spiders. I were in OZ this summer and shook my jeans every morning before putting them on just to be sure. :-)
Good plan, could save a trip to the hospital! :)
Very good vid. So tired of seeing vids on fstops & Sspeeds. I tell newbies to concentrate on composition #1. Then worry about fstps & DOF. Sspeeds come next or thinking about movement & such. Take your cam out & set it on auto mode for a day. Concentrate on the compo!
P.s. I cannot accept all of your advice. I am diabetic. &,,,, the cake would never reach its destination!
haha! I do apologise mate :)
I will also leave immediately when there are cobwebs. Home I go.... Spiders are my only fear. Love your videos. Heide
What peak design strap do you use? I am considering the Lite or Leash for my 80D