Beginner Unsure of Focusing Techniques **Please Help**

[j.weegee]

Hello,

I have been studying photography for about 9 months now and have found some genuine passion in my studies. I hope to one day be a professional. I know I have a long way to go from here, but am eager to learn more.

My question is regarding focusing. I have a Canon AE-1 and Canon Rebel T3i (which as I acquire a job I plan to outfit my kit with some L lenses and a flash unit or two and down the line in a few years I hope to upgrade to a 5d).

Anyways, a lot of my photography with my T3i has been done through the LCD screen. I know this sounds like a huge red flag for someone who aspires to be a professional, but please here me out.

I know, understand, and use all the information displayed on the bottom of the LCD screen (light meter, iso, f-stop, shutter speed, etc.) and I use the digital zoom to magnify my subject (for example on say a portrait I will zoom in on my subjects eyes and adjust focus for them, digitally zoom out and snap the photo) to get the sharpest focus.

I have gotten a lot of grief from other more experienced photographers I go to school with because they all believe that the viewfinder is the primary way to focus a picture. I understand where this grief comes from. But these same people give me grief for not using auto focus. This I don't understand. Simply because auto focus is not a full proof means of focusing.

I hear plenty of talk about back and front focusing and it sounds like enough to drive someone mad. Nothing upsets me more then when my intended subject is even slightly out of focus. I believe my technique is more full proof.

I shoot only on manual settings, use the LCD screen combined with digital zoom and manual focus. I believe this technique has produced and produces awesome pictures.

Regarding the viewfinder, I find that I just can't get what I want in focus with it. I have messed with the diopter many times and I simply find it very difficult to focus with. My question is are these people who give me grief right? If I want to become a professional photographer should I adopt more viewfinder and auto focus based techniques? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advanced for your time.

-J. Weegee

 

[jaomul]

Use whatever techniques suit you best. As they say the camera is a tool with many ways to use it. Live view is a very goodcway to manually focus. When you soon in 10x a lot more accuracy is achievable

 

[Jaemie]

Are you satisfied with the quality of your photographs? Are you comfortable with your method? I'm sure there are plenty of good arguments for using the viewfinder versus your method, but in the end it's the photos and business that count. Unless your technique is holding you back or otherwise causing your images to suffer, I think it's alright to continue doing it your way. The only caveat I can think to mention is to consider how your focus method will apply in the particular type of professional photography you wish to pursue. For example, it might be slow and cumbersome, versus using the viewfinder, in action, sports, paparazzi, or journalism work.

 

[TheFantasticG]

Sounds like they might be a little jealous they didn't think of it first (or don't know how to do it).

Haters gonna hate.

 

[j.weegee]

Thank you for your input. I am satisfied with my pictures I have gotten so far. I do however understand where you come from in regards to the speed of this method. There are times when this method takes up to 5 seconds for me which in journalism and sports photography those are precious seconds that can cost me a great shot. I personally aspire more towards studio photography, but there is no telling what job will be more readily available in a few years so I should probably tighten up methods fit for all potential work environments. Thanks again.

 

[Fred Berg]

If you can achieve what you set as your goals, it doesn't matter how you do this.

Just two quick points: a) using the viewfinder helps in certain light conditions b) by using the viewfinder you shut out the world around you with all its distractions.

 

[Overread19 7]

Are you using the LCD whilst on a tripod or whilst handholding? If you are hand holding the camera chances are you'll have a hard time getting sharp shots and framing (and taking full advantage of the precise focusing controls that the magnification on the LCD gives you). Further it encourages bad posture whilst shooting - that ups your shutter speed requirements and makes framing a lot harder (this grows as well since higher end camera bodies and lenses have considerably more weight).

If you are using a tripod then the LCD and magnified viewfinder images are certainly a very valid way to approach things and for a fairly static shot of a portrait of a person, or a landscape, or a macro or any other similarly immobile situation its certainly a very valid approach to shooting.


In the end a lot of photography processes toward shooting can get the elitist snob attached to them - my view is that it doesn't really matter how you shoot - so long as you learn a wide range of methods and thus have the choice to make at the time as to which will likely get you the best possible result that you want.

 

[Shutter Nutter]

Your method is fine while you're doing photography where
a) you are using a tripod and
b) your subjects are able to keep still.

I use the same kind of method if doing any kind of still-life or product photography.

For anything else though it either doesn't work or it's too slow for me. Even for portraits, unless I'm working with experienced models, I would find your method of focussing too slow and probably a little aggravating to most clients. I much prefer the camera in my hands to give the freedom to change position quickly, even if that's only a small change. To do that using a tripod and manually re-focussing is so much more cumbersome.

The auto-focus on all the cameras I've got is pretty damn good and the only time I may notice any front/back focussing is with extremely shallow depth of fields on certain body/lens combinations that I own. As soon as I stop the aperture down to give a reasonable dof, using auto focus certainly isn't an issue.

Personally I would open myself up and explore other methods rather than keeping to one or another. Why constrain yourself when you can do either method and choose what works best for different situations?

 

[KmH]

Todays cameras are not configured for manual focusing, because auto focus has been ubiquitous for about 25 years now.

A large part of the issue is that the cameras main mirror has to be only 50% reflective to accommodate the auto focus module, which is usually in the bottom of a DSLR/SLR camera that has auto focus.
Half the light from the lens goes up to the viewfinder, and half goes on through the main mirror to a secondary mirror that reflects the other 1/2 of the light down to the AF module. Consequently, DSLR/SLR viewfinders are not as bright as viewfinders in older SLR cameras that don't have auto focus.
With only 50% of the light being reflected to the viewfinder, viewfinders in auto focus cameras are not as bright as the viewfinders in manual focus only cameras.

Your T3i doesn't have a pentaprism viewfinder, it has a pentamirror viewfinder that only shows you 95% of the scene you are wanting to photograph. Plus it doesn't show the scene at 100% magnification, it's only 0.85%.

Your AE-1 likely has a manual focusing aid, a split screen prism, in the viewfinder. You can change the focusing screen in your T3i. Canon 550D 600D T2i T3i Focusing Screen - KatzEye Optics