Auto Focus Modes Pt. 1

To get control over your image sharpness, you need to understand how your camera sees things - and how to set up auto focus.

Clever as your DSLR is, it can't know which part of a picture you want to focus on and needs to be told what to do. Whatever your camera make or model, it'll have auto focus modes that are very accurate and will help you shoot sharp images - but it's you who has to control it.

To help you with this cameras have lots of auto focus modes which you can select and set according to the shot you want to take. A static image separated from the background will need a different mode set up to a moving object.

There are modes which tell the camera which area of the viewfinder you want to concentrate on and others which tell it whether you want the auto focus to lock onto it once and hold it - or to track it as it moves closer or further away from you.

Over the next three videos we'll explain how but have your manual ready just in case because auto focus mode names may vary between cameras.