T3i - Manual Focus

J

ja_swaer

Member
Hello.

I have a question regarding manual focus. First a little history. I used to be a very avid hobby photographer 20-25 years ago. Pre-digital days, in fact pre-auto focus days. Well back then focusing was pretty easy. The center of the viewfinder had an enlargement with a 45 degree line splitting the enlargement into 2, all you did was cross a straight line (tree, pole, wall, etc. ) and line the two up. It was a snap.

Fast forward 20 odd years and I purchased a T3i. While auto focus has it's place there are many times when it focuses on the wrong object. On a recent trip to Africa I shot a lot of wildlife shots and some, to my disappointment, are out of focus. The focus would be on a rock in front of the main object, etc. Some turned out perfect. The one shot I took was of a lion through tall grass, luckily I took 20+ shots and kept moving the camera when auto-focusing to try to get it to focus on the lion, but many of the shots are focused on the blades of tall grass. Luckily there are a handful that are perfect.

Is there a trick to manual focus to make it easier ? I know you can zoom in and set it perfect, but all that takes time. In a snap I find manual focus to be tedious and it is more of an over correct one way, then over correct the other way, then find the sweet spot. I don't always have 3-5 seconds to fiddle with focus to get the best shot.

Thoughts ?
 
This is an old trick (back focus) taught to me many years ago by a newspaper guy in the film days.
He only had one chance to get shots right and they had to be in focus. I've used it for 20+ years as my only way to shoot stage, portraits, weddings, etc.

While looking in the viewfinder on your T3i, push the AF button (upper right corner looks like a cross). The little red focus lights will all illuminate in the viewfinder.
Press the set button. That will select only the center focus point. From now on only use the center dot to focus on what needs to be in focus then move the camera to compose the subject in frame to taste.

Next we need to setup the back focus. You need to stop using the shutter button to focus by moving focus to it's own button, the * button.
To do that you need to change a custom setting. Menu button, arrow over to wrench next to the star. Arrow to Custom Settings and push the set button to select.
Arrow to CF 9 and push the Set button. Arrow down to Option one and push Set button to select. Push Menu button twice to exit.
These instructions are on Pg 85 and 256 of your manual.

It will take a bit of getting use to focusing with the * and exposing/taking the shot with the shutter button. But you will learn quickly and come to love it.
I know of few pros who don't use this method. I never miss focus and have poor eyesight.
Any issues, drop me a line.
 
Just put it in manual focus and eye ball it on the LCD. Practice makes perfect.

Also while zooming in to focus then back out again works on many video cameras, it does not work with DSLR's. I have yet to see a lens where the focus point stays the same throughout the zoom range.
 
And there is one more way to master manual focus. Turn the ring until the subject looks sharp and go just ever so slightly past that point. Then without hesitation turn the focus ring back the other way slightly until you come back to the point of focus and....

STOP.

The more you practice this, the better and more sure you get at it until going just past the point of focus, coming right back and STOP becomes second nature.

If you try to go back and forth, back and forth, your eye begins to adapt to varying degrees of unsharp. We call that way of trying to focus...

...Fiddle focusing...

Good luck.
 
Will Turner said:
Just put it in manual focus and eye ball it on the LCD. Practice makes perfect.

Also while zooming in to focus then back out again works on many video cameras, it does not work with DSLR's. I have yet to see a lens where the focus point stays the same throughout the zoom range.
Click to expand...

It will work if you have better lens that are par focal.
 
ja_swaer said:
While auto focus has it's place there are many times when it focuses on the wrong object. On a recent trip to Africa I shot a lot of wildlife shots and some, to my disappointment, are out of focus. The focus would be on a rock in front of the main object, etc. Some turned out perfect. The one shot I took was of a lion through tall grass, luckily I took 20+ shots and kept moving the camera when auto-focusing to try to get it to focus on the lion, but many of the shots are focused on the blades of tall grass. Luckily there are a handful that are perfect.
Click to expand...
Forget about multiple focus points. Just set the one AF point in the centre & use that. You can hit focus & then keeping the shutter button half pressed move the camera to reframe the shot while knowing that your subject will be in focus. Used in this way AF is 100% reliable & much faster than one can focus manually.
 
nigelbb said:
Forget about multiple focus points. Just set the one AF point in the centre & use that. You can hit focus & then keeping the shutter button half pressed move the camera to reframe the shot while knowing that your subject will be in focus. Used in this way AF is 100% reliable & much faster than one can focus manually.
Click to expand...

I rely on the movable focus point on Nikon bodies. I don't even think about it anymore - my thumb is on the 4-way switch all the time now. Works great.
 
nigelbb said:
Forget about multiple focus points. Just set the one AF point in the centre & use that. You can hit focus & then keeping the shutter button half pressed move the camera to reframe the shot while knowing that your subject will be in focus. Used in this way AF is 100% reliable & much faster than one can focus manually.
Click to expand...

Focus and recompose works fine if you have a decent depth of field to work with, but can fail you otherwise.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/the-problem-with-the-focus-recompose-method
 
I move the focus square all the time on my T3i to keep focus on subjects just out of the center. From there the best thing you can do for manual focus is to turn on focus peaking with Magic Lantern. If you don't have a monitor, a LCDVF loupe or such it is orders of magnitude easier to hit critical focus.

Cheers,
Pete
 
Will Turner said:
Also while zooming in to focus then back out again works on many video cameras, it does not work with DSLR's. I have yet to see a lens where the focus point stays the same throughout the zoom range.
Click to expand...

Don't use the lens' zoom, use the camera's magnification feature. Before recording, press the button on the top right of the camera with the magnifying glass under it. That'll give you either a 5x or 10x zoom that really helps with getting solid focus.
 
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