You have a great composition. The scenery is beautiful as is the light. You know where to focus to get the sharpness that you require. The clouds move into the perfect position and you release the shutter. You are feeling great and you’ve captured a photograph that you are proud of!
Or at least that’s what you think … Have you ever arrived home eager to inspect your photograph on a larger screen only to find that your photograph isn’t as sharp as you’d like, or that the wrong part of your photograph is in focus? Unfortunately this can ruin what you thought would be a fantastic photograph.
When taking a photograph it is vital to ensure that your camera is correctly focused on your chosen spot within the landscape. Typically landscape photography offers us the luxury of allowing us enough time to check our focus before we press the shutter button, but sometimes we need to react very quickly to what is happening in front of us and we just need to take the shot as best we can. I’ve recently released a video on my YouTube channel covering these scenarios in detail and showing how I focus my camera in each case.
The video covers:
How I focus when I need to react quickly
How I focus when I have time to ensure perfect focus
I discuss how autofocus can fail and when/how I use manual focus
I give a number of other tips on assisting with and checking focus
A beautiful sky and dramatic waves. I didn’t want to miss this shot so I took the necessary time to ensure my camera was perfectly focused on my chosen spot using a technique covered in my YouTube video.
In the video I use a Fuji X-T4 to demonstrate my techniques and I also give some tips that are specific to that camera, however most of what I demonstrate and my techniques can be done on other cameras too. Be sure to check out my video here. I’m sure you will find it a worthwhile watch and you will have more confidence in how to focus for landscape photography.
TIP: I’d like to finish this article with an important tip. Always take a few moments to review your photographs as you take them while on location. Zoom in to 100% magnification and scroll around your photograph to ensure it is sharp in all the areas that you want it to be. It’s much better to notice any issues regarding focus (and sharpness) while on location rather than when you get back home!
