Photo How To

There's nothing more frustrating than capturing a great scene and discovering that your photos lack critical focus. If this happens to you on a regular basis, pay close attention to the following tutorial from the E-Squared YouTube channel hosted by two twin sisters who post weekly videos with straightforward photography advice.

Emily is today's instructor and she reveals five common reasons for blurry images and solutions for getting things right when shooting with a mirrorless camera or DSLR. She covers a lot of ground in barely 10 minutes, discussing everything from focus-mode mistakes and incorrect aperture/shutter speeds settings, to choosing the wrong focus point for the task at hand

The first topic of conversation is selecting the best focus mode for a particular situation, and Emily describes the difference between AF-S (autofocus single) and AF-C (autofocus continuous), and she explains why she "always, always" uses the latter. Many photographers switch to AF-S when photographing static scenes, but Emily ignores conventional wisdom and consider AF-C a set-it-and-forget-it choice.

Mistake number two comes down to shutter speed, and how the wrong choice will invariably result in soft photos unless your camera is mounted atop a sturdy tripod. Emily recommends 1/250 or higher as a safe starting point. You'll also learn why she recommends shooting in Manual, and there's a link in the description beneath the video to an earlier episode devoted to this.

Image stabilization settings are also part of the equation. Aperture settings are next on the list, and you'll see why "too wide of apertures (like f/1.8) can cause out-of-focus and blurry images." The culprit here is insufficient depth of field, and Emily recommends the best f/stop to use for various situations and conditions.

The lesson concludes with a thoughtful discussion of autofocus points, and you'll see why focusing on the wrong spot within the frame is guaranteed to spoil an otherwise nice photograph. Once again, she describes various scenarios and how to get things nice and sharp by making an intelligent choice.

The E-Squared YouTube channel is a great resource for beginning photographers who want to quickly take their imagery to the next level.

And on a related topic, don't miss the earlier tutorial we posted that describes how to decide whether to use a camera's optical viewfinder, electronic viewfinder, or shoot in Live View mode, and the implications of each for attaining precise focus.