One of my tips on how to take better pictures of your kids is to “focus on the eyes.” But how exactly do you get your camera to focus on the subject’s eyes and not on their shirt or arm or a tree in the background?  Well, first things first.  If you own a DSLR camera and you aren’t yet ready to learn how to shoot in full manual mode, set your camera to APERTURE PRIORITY MODE [AV for Canon; A for Nikon].

Setting my camera to Aperture Priority mode was the biggest step in improving my photography.  My camera is set to AV mode 90% of the time.  It’s amazingly simple to use and still allows the photographer a lot of creative choice.  Aperture priority mode allows you to control the depth of field while the camera decides the shutter speed. Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken and is measured  in f-stops.  If you want your subject sharp and the background blurry, you want your f-stop number to be as low as possible.  Have no clue what f-stop means?  That’s okay!  I’m not here to go over the technical stuff.  I’ll just show you in pictures.

If you compare the picture of Curious George at a f/22 and f/1.4, you’ll notice how dramatically the f-stop can change a picture.  A large f-stop number (f/22) has a large depth of field – both the monkey and background are in focus.  A small f-stop number (f/1.4) has a shallow (or small) depth of field – only the monkey is in focus and the background is super blurry. In a nutshell, the lower the f-stop number the more blurry the background.

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Now let’s get back to focus.   You can control what is in focus by using the Auto Focus (AF) points which are those red dots you see through your viewfinder. To manually select the focus points, press the AF select button (for Canon – top right on the back of the camera) then use the dial on the right side of the top of your camera to move and choose your focus point  (you can also use the joystick arrows.)  Every camera is different so be sure to check your manual (I use a Canon Rebel XS).

There are two popular techniques of focusing.  The first is called “focus and recompose” where you use the center focus point and while you hold the shutter button halfway down, you recompose or adjust your camera so that your subject is not centered anymore.  The second method is called “toggling” where you move the focus point to the closest one to where your subject is within the frame.  While looking through your viewfinder, you move or “toggle” your focus points around to get your desired composition.

So for example, let’s say I want this composition where the subject is to the left within the frame.

If I wanted to use focus and recompose, I would select the center focus point,  move the camera so that the center point is on the area I want to focus, lock focus, and then recompose.  The general rule is to focus on the eye that is closest to you.

For this example, I would select the center focus point then move the camera over the subject’s face until the center point is on his forward eye (subject’s right eye).  I would depress the shutter halfway to lock focus and without lifting my finger, I would move the camera to the right to compose the image the way I wanted, and then press the shutter all the way down to take the picture.

The benefit of focus and recompose is that you always use the center point so you don’t have to worry about adjusting or messing around with the points.  Also, the center focus point is supposed to the be strongest and most accurate.  However, the problem with focus and recompose is when you are shooting at a very narrow depth of field, it can cause focus errors. Even a little shift to his eye and back can cause your focus to be off. Because I usually shoot at a narrow depth of field (between f/1.4 – f/2.5), I tend to toggle my focus points rather than use focus and recompose.  If you’re using your kit lens that came with your camera, you don’t need to worry about this problem because the lowest f-stop is usually f/4.   However, if you bought the universal first upgrade lens- the 50mm- you might run into this problem.  So what can you do?  Toggle!

If you want to toggle your focus points, first press the autofocus select button.  Then use the dial on the top of your camera to manually move your points around to get to the one closest to where you want to focus.

So in my example, I first composed my image the way I like – with my subject to the left within the frame.  Then I pressed the AF select button and used the dial to toggle my focus points until I reached my subject’s right eye.  I pressed the shutter down halfway to lock focus and then pressed the shutter all the way to take the picture.  The downside to this method is when you want to change your composition around a lot, it can take a bit of time to keep toggling these points.  Also, it can limit your scope of composing your image because depending upon your camera, there may be no point hovering over what you want in focus in the composition you want. Another downfall is that you’re often relying on those not quite as strong outer focus points.

Personally, I tend to prefer the toggling technique over focus and recompose.  It’s become second nature to me so I can quickly change my points around, plus my camera has only 7 focus points.  Some cameras have 61 points which can make toggling a bit more time consuming.  Also, I find it hard to focus and recompose with two very active toddlers.  If my kids move forward or back a little, my shot tends to be out of focus.

My method of focusing depends on the situation, but in a pinch, I toggle.

What technique do you use to focus on your subject?