What should be in focus in my landscape photos? The easiest way to answer this question for me is with another question: What story do you want to tell in the photo?
WHAT SHOULD BE IN FOCUS
This depends on the scenario. Is there a puppy running full-tilt towards you in the snow? Or is there a rushing river that leads to a beautiful waterfall in the distance?
If there’s a puppy running towards you, hopefully you won’t fumble your camera like me and drop it in the snow – I’m not so great in high pressure situations yet. The camera is okay though incase you’re wondering!
Actually though, if there’s a puppy running towards you, it’s great to just have the puppy in focus and the background a bit blurred. This way, it calls attention to that sweet little furball galloping your way.
If your scene is composed of a river that leads to a beautiful waterfall, then it’s ideal to have everything in focus. The main point here is that the entire scene tells the whole story and leading the eye through the photo from the river in the foreground to the beautiful waterfall in the background shares the whole story.
So there we have it, in order to figure out what should be in focus, it’s important to answer the question, what story do I want to tell in this photo?
Now that we know what to focus on, here comes the next question! Where should I set my focus to in my landscape photos?
WHERE TO SET THE FOCUS
Let’s cover the puppy first because it’s easy! Set the focus on the puppy. I’ll cover focus modes below to help with focussing on moving subjects because when those furballs are galloping, they’re speedy!
TIP: If you want to blur the background a bit, try using a longer focal length with an Aperture like f/5.6. I go into some detail on Focal Lengths and some of their features here in case your curious as to why I’m suggesting a longer focal length.
Now for the river/waterfall photo, set the focus about a third of the way into the scene. The reason for doing this is because a sharp foreground will help lead the eye into the background. It just starts things off on the right foot!
TIP: A wide-angle lens and small Aperture (like f/16) will help ensure the majority of the scene is in focus but focussing a third of the way in will help to ensure the foreground will be tack sharp!
Got it? Good! Let’s move on to the next part – Focus Modes! In my camera, I have four different focus modes, but how do you choose the right one for the shot?
CHOOSING THE RIGHT FOCUS MODE
For my Canon 70D, there are three autofocus modes and a manual mode. First, let’s cover the three Autofocus (AF) Modes.
- One-Shot AF
- AI Servo AF
- AI Focus AF
1. ONE-SHOT AF
One-Shot AF locks the focus when the shutter is pressed half-way. This is great for shooting landscapes where the subject is still.
In this mode, when you press the shutter half-way, you’ll hear the typical ‘beep’ and see a green rectangle on your LCD screen once it’s focussed. If the camera can’t find focus, you won’t hear the ‘beep’ and you’ll see a red rectangle on the LCD screen.
This focus mode is my go-to for when I’ve got my tripod set up and I’m taking shots of waterfalls or other landscapes where the entire scene is in focus.
TIP: The key here is that both you and the subject have to be still. Once you’ve pressed that button half-way, you’re committed! If you move in-between pressing the shutter half-way and actually taking the shot, your scene could be out of focus.
2. AI SERVO AF
AI-Servo AF stands for Artificial Intelligence Servo Auto Focus and it’s a game changer now that I know how to use it! AI-Servo will track the focus on a moving subject so when that subject moves closer or further from you, the camera instantly refocuses to keep that subject (aka galloping furball) as sharp as possible!
This is what I used to take pictures of my puppy flying through the snow.
TIP: When using AI-Servo, set your camera to High Speed Continuous Shooting to make sure you capture at least a few good poses… Sometimes my puppy was leaping so high in the snow, I lost him in the shot!
3. AI FOCUS AF
AI Focus AF is a combination of One-Shot AF and AI Servo AF.
At first, it acts like One-Shot by focussing when you press the shutter half-way and then giving you that little beep so you know you can take the photo because your subject is in focus.
But wait, it’s not done!
If before you take the shot, your distance to the subject changes, then it will behave like AI Servo and try to refocus to make sure your subject is still sharp.
Honestly, I never use it, but maybe I should… Like when I was attempting to capture this little mushroom:
I had the focus mode on One Shot because I thought I wasn’t moving, but in reality, I was holding the camera close to the ground while I was crouched down in a precarious position… I’m sure I wasn’t holding still at all. Perhaps, this photo would have turned out even more sharp if I had tried AI Focus. I’ll give it a try next time!
And there we have it! The three autofocus modes! Just remember:
One-Shot = you and subject are still
AI-Servo = your subject is moving
AI-Focus = your subject is pretty still but you or your subject might slightly move after pressing the shutter half-way
Moving on to Manual Focus!
MANUAL FOCUS
I really love using my Rokinon Lens for this because I can twist the focus ring all the way to infinity and it stops at infinity. Plus, the focus at infinity is bang on!
With some of my other lenses, I’ll twist the ring to infinity but then I’ll have to dial it back a few degrees because when looking through the viewfinder, the scene is not sharp.
Or the lenses don’t even show the infinity symbol on the focus ring, nor do they stop at infinity when I’m twisting the ring.
That’s okay though because I really only use Manual Focus when I’m out shooting the stars, at least for now.
The last thing I wanted to mention on this topic are autofocus points.
AUTOFOCUS POINTS
Autofocus points are what the cameras use to focus on a subject. They show up as little rectangles when pressing the shutter button half-way.
In my Canon 70D I have 19 autofocus points that can be controlled by three different modes.
- Manual Selection – 1 point AF
- Manual Selection – Zone AF
- Automatic Selection – 19 point AF
1. MANUAL SELECTION – 1 POINT AF
Manual Selection – 1 point AF lets you select one autofocus point out the 19. When using this, the camera tries to find a subject to focus on in that one single rectangle.
To be honest, I use 1 Point AF most of the time. It’s great when you know exactly where you want the camera to focus, like on your puppy’s eye for example:
2. MANUAL SELECTION – ZONE AF
In this mode, there are five focus zones that allow the camera to select focus points from. The five focus zones are top, bottom, left, right and center.
I don’t use this very often but when I do, it’s usually for some form of subject that may decide to move, like a sea lion! Still getting used to hearing sea lions at night instead of coyotes by the way.
3. AUTOMATIC SELECTION: 19 POINT AF
Automatic selection gives the camera the reins and lets it decide what should be focussed on when set to One-Shot. In this mode, the camera will automatically select one or more of the 19 focus points to focus on. In AI Servo AF, I can manually select the focus point in Automatic selection mode.
Automatic selection is great when focussing on moving subjects. This is the autofocus point mode I used when taking photos of the galloping puppy.
Alright guys, we made it! Phewf, this was a long one! If you stuck through it, here’s a virtual high-five and a great big thank you! I’m so excited to keep moving forward with this journey and I hope this inspires you to do the same.
SUMMARY
In summary here’s what we’ve covered:
WHAT SHOULD BE IN FOCUS
What story do you want to tell in the photo?
WHERE TO SET THE FOCUS
On the subject or about a third of the way into the landscape scene
CHOOSING THE RIGHT FOCUS MODE
One-Shot = you and subject are still
AI-Servo = your subject is moving
AI-Focus = your subject is pretty still but you or your subject might slightly move after pressing the shutter half-way
AUTOFOCUS POINTS
Manual Selection – 1 point AF = great for when the subject is still
Manual Selection – Zone AF = good to use when the subject may move
Automatic Selection – 19 point AF = great for fast moving subjects, like galloping puppies
PHEW! We covered a lot of ground there! Here’s one more shot I took (in AI Servo) for inspiration!
GEAR USED TO GET THESE PHOTOS:
Some other great references on this topic are Canon’s Photo Glossary and Digital Photography School’s article on One-Shot vs. AI-Servo in case you’d like to check them out as well.