Comments on: How to Use Focal Lock

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:41:32 +0000

Julia,

Yes. It works great. In fact, to the point of the article, that is really the way to do it. The AF Lock being on the back of the camera (usually the * button, set by a custom function on Canon DSLR) will not change autofocus when the shutter is pressed. Therefore, you, as the photographer, can properly compose and meter the shot and then even take a test shot of the group. Then, hand the camera off to the surrogate to take the real picture with you in it. They stand in the exact same place that you are (and use an aperture with a wide enough depth of field to accommodate the camera not being in the exact same position).

This way, you no longer have to even brief them on “click the shutter button halfway to focus,” which many people just can’t seem to grasp.

By: Julia Shinkle

Julia Shinkle — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:22:15 +0000

Does anyone know if this will work the same way if I have my AF button set to the back of Canon 40D. Would I just do the same technique but only use the back button instead?

By: Colin

Colin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:10:11 +0000

hi great tip on focal lock ill try it on a few things !

Clkd you please advise me on a marco lenes im looking to buy a cannon 100mm f2.8 is that a good marco lenes ? or wld you advise on another if so what ? im into insects flowers etc

Thanks Colin

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:59:34 +0000

I have found that using focus lock with my DSLR can still lead to _slightly_ out of focus images. Recomposing your image with the focus locked will shift the focal plane, however slight it may be. If you stop down to f/8 or f/11, you can usually eliminate this problem.

By: Jerry Matchett

Jerry Matchett — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:56:12 +0000

Composition is the “grammer” of photography. It would be best when writing about it to use correct English grammer. Your sentence “At a recent wedding I handed my camera over to a friend to take a shot of my little family and I.” is grammatically incorrect. It should read “…. of my little family and me.” Object of a preposition “of” requires the objective case.

By: David

David — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:46:48 +0000

Great article – Thanks!

By: noBrains

noBrains — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:59:04 +0000

Think the technique works perfectly with Point & Shoot camera’s. With the SLR (atleast canon) you need to set the focus mode to single (AI or AI Servo doesn’t work) think that is the reason canon says use Manual focus. This is a good technique but guess its better to use manual you know exactly what you are focusing on.. you are pro now.. using SLR’s ;)

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:07:21 +0000

Thanks, dazzazm.
Thanks to a comment in a flickr group, I did play around with the single shots and voila it works.
I lock the focus and it stays locked.

Thanks for your help! It’s great to find people on the web that give tips without judging the person on the other end :)!

By: dazzam

dazzam — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:34:02 +0000

@nicole:
There are three focal options: no focusing, focus and lock(allowing the camera to then fire when you press shoot), continours focus but not lock(camera is capable of firing as soon as you press shoot, regardless of whether subject is completely in focus)
I think you will find that you have your camera set on continuous focus. The camera will continue to try and keep the focal point in focus right up till you take the photo. In fact you will be able to take the photo even if the camera hasn’t determined the optimum focus.

By: nicole

nicole — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:43:51 +0000

This worked all fine with my P&S, but I seem not to be able to convince my DSLR (Nikon D300) to do this for me.
I checked the setting, set it the way this “should” work and yet, every time I lock the focus and try to frame the pic the way I want it, the focus moves with the camera and searches for another object.
This is driving me insane ;)

Any ideas?Pretty please :)