No photo...quick question

[sheila3]

Hi anyone who can help. Little confused about focus. It was pointed out that the focus on one of my pictures fell behind the head. I also noticed on another members critique that their focus fell elsewhere. So my question is how do you tell where focus will fall. I have read about depth of field and feel I understand it. Is the main focus where the green brackets on the camera are? Thanx for helping.

[natek313]

From what you've said, I assume you are using a point-and-shoot digital camera. DSLR cameras do not use "green brackets" as indications of focus; at least I've never seen one that does.

From my understanding, yes, the green brackets indicate where the camera is focusing. The quirk with them, though, is that you have no control over where the camera focuses like you do with a DSLR. The camera is just basically guessing what you want to focus on. They usually do a pretty good job, though, especially with the face recognition technology that's been available.

[dcclark]

Many cameras -- SLR and pocketcam -- have a mode that lets you choose which of the focus points ("green brackets") will be used for focus. I don't know what camera you have, but either ask (or check the manual), and I bet there's a way to let you manually select where to focus. This is what I almost always do, since I don't like the camera guessing for me.

[sheila3]

Yes I use a canon powershot. Thanx for the help. So so much to learn but enjoying every bit of it!