Focus Points

[stsinner]

So I'm a new photographer, and I'm using my camera, and before I know it, it decides to focus on what it wants to focus on, not what I have it pointed at.. So I start reading, and I find that the default setting for the 5 different focus points in AUTO is CLOSEST SUBJECT. Now, I can see how someone who is an experienced photographer can use this effectively while utilizing the rule of thirds, etc, but myself, generally I'm pointing my camera at the thing that I want to take a picture of. Is there any practical reason why I won't want to set my camera's focus point selection to the center rectangle and leave it there? I don't like pointing my camera at a lake and having it focus on a tree branch three feet from me and off to the right... I get to thinking-if I wanted a picture of that branch, I would have pointed the camera at it.. Does anyone else use the center bracket only?

Thanks for the info.

 

[ragdoll]

Center focus is most popular for the majority of shots you take. But you'll want to focus off-center for more creative shots... or for moving objects(You'll want to right/left focus so you can get the car along with where it's going, as an example)

 

[Overread]

It will also depend on your camera - a starter DSLR will only have one decent focusing point (the middle one) the others will be much weaker at acquiring and holding a lock on the focus - so when like this I tend to revert to manual focusing for creativity.
The middle and top line cameras have more of the powerful kind of focusing elements and so the off centre ones are more usable than on the lower end cameras

 

[stsinner]

Could I achieve the same effect by pointing my camera at the subject, depressing the shutter halfway to lock the focus and then moving off of it, instead of going through the menu to choose focus point selection every time?

 

[Overread]

yes, but its dependant - remember when you move the camera you are moving the plane of focus as well - if you were close and shooting with a fine depth of field (small f number) then you might notice the sharp point miss the target.