Focus Modes and Focus Areas: Get Sharp Photos

This week, I'll be talking about the different focus modes and areas available on the Sony Alpha cameras, but honestly, every camera probably has something like this, unless it’s a camera from like the 1800s or something. Focus is one of the most critical aspects of capturing a great image, especially if you want the correct subject you chose in frame, clear and well in focus. Understanding the focus modes on your camera can help you get the perfect shot every time, ensuring you won’t have to struggle in the field with focus and potentially miss the shot. I’ll go over each of the focus modes/areas and explain why I may use a particular mode in a certain situation over another.

With focus modes, I mainly use only 3 modes: Single-Shot AF Mode, Continous AF Mode, and Manual Mode.

1. SINGLE-SHOT AF MODE: Starting off the focus mode portion of this video, the first focus mode we'll be discussing is Single-shot AF mode. This mode is perfect for when the subject is stationary and not moving. When you half-press the shutter button, the camera will focus on the subject and continue to lock the focus until you press the shutter button all the way down to take the shot. This essentially allows you to keep focus and recompose your shot if needed, as your focus is locked. You can move up or down, left and right, and the subject you chose will remain in focus. The camera won’t continue to hunt for focus. That is why this mode is great for stationary subjects. I find scenes where subjects are sitting and relaxing or chatting with each other in street photography, essentially when subjects aren’t moving, or landscape photos is where this focus mode really shines. However, the one aspect you have to be careful is going forwards or backwards when holding down your focus. Once you lock your focus and you half press the shutter, you are locking down focus on your subject. If you continue to hold that focus while moving closer or farther from your subject, you will see your scene or subject get out of focus. That is because the distance between the camera, you, and the subject is changing while the focus you set on your camera is not. It’s a very simple fix though. You just need to let go of the shutter and refocus on your subject and you are good to go!

2. CONTINUOUS AF MODE: The next focus mode is Continuous AF mode. This mode is perfect for capturing moving subjects or objects such as sports, wildlife, and moving people/cars. With Continuous AF mode, the camera will continually adjust focus on the subject as it moves around the frame, ensuring that the subject remains sharp and in focus. As long as your object is in frame, it will be in focus. For subjects that are moving across the street in street photography or when my subject is moving from pose to pose during portraits, I find using continous AF mode to be the most convinient. But of course like the Single-Shot AF Mode, there is one thing you should look out for. Because the camera will continue to hunt for focus as long as you hold down the shutter button, it will focus on anything that might move into frame or your focus point. This could result in your focus changing at the last second, ruining your shot, which is especially true when a subject is still then moves suddenly.

3. MANUAL FOCUS MODE: The third focus mode is Manual Focus mode. In this mode, you have complete control over the focus of the camera. You can adjust the focus by turning the focus ring on your lens until you achieve the desired focus. This mode is particularly useful in low light conditions where autofocus may struggle. This is my last resort focus mode, where autofocusing just won’t do the job correctly. It rarely happens, but I have had to manually focus on where because the point I wanted to focus on was too dark, the camera couldn’t pick it up. The newer Sony Alpha cameras are better at it as the Sony A7III was the only camera that I’ve had more than a few experiences, but it still does occur. There are also times where I want to focus on a subject behind an object such as this photo. I wanted to focus on the man, but this cover was in front and my camera had focused on it instead. I didn’t notice this until after the shoot, and by then it was too late. Manually focusing in this scene would’ve gotten the shot I had wanted to get.

Now that we have gone over the focus modes and why one mode may be better to use than another mode, there is another aspect of focusing we need to go over. That would be the focus area. Focus mode is choosing how you will focus whether that’s manual focus or auto focus, whereas focus area is selecting what section of your frame will be available for the autofocus to target and lock focus.

1. SINGLE-POINT FOCUS AREA: The first focus area we'll be discussing is the Single-point focus area. This is the most basic and straightforward focus area, where the camera only focuses on a single point in the frame. This is useful when you want precise control over where the camera focuses. With a lot of my compositions, I know what I want and where I want my subject to be at so I’ll use this focus setting and place the focus point in position, ready to take the photo. Once I have my subject in focus in the focus point, I hold down the shutter button and take the photo. It’s really just that. This is the focus area I use the most often, as it’s very straightforward and simple. If I mess up your focus, 99.999999999% of the time, it’s my fault, so there’s really no one to blame, but myself. The technology, the autofocus AI didn’t accidentally focus on something else, I did.

2. EXPANDED FLEXIBLE SPOT FOCUS AREA: This focus area is the Expanded Flexible Spot focus area. This area is basically the same as the Single-point focus area but provides more flexibility in terms of the size and position of the focus point. If the camera can’t find focus within the main focus spot, it expands the focus area around the spot as you can see with the little squares around the main square. I’ll sometimes use this, but I still mainly use the single point focus area.

3. ZONE FOCUS AREA: The next focus area is the Zone focus area. This area is particularly useful when you're shooting subjects that are moving around within the frame. With the Zone focus area, you can select a group of focus points, and the camera will automatically track the subject as it moves around within that zone. For situations when I’m walking around a city and I can’t stop to get a photo for whatever reason, I’ll opt to walk past my subject and take a couple of shots with this focus mode and have the camera help me with getting the subject in focus. This also helps when I don’t quite want to draw attention to myself. I can quickly get in a scene, get the shot, and leave all within a couple seconds, especially once I have the particular composition thought of already. It’s a lot less attention I’d get compared to being in a scene, holding the camera chest level or peeking through the view finder, then taking the photo. With this focus area, I use it maybe 15% of the time. If possible, I’d still prefer to use Single-Point Focus Area, as it’s more precise, but whenever I can let the camera help, as long as it doesn’t get in the way, I let it.

4. WIDE FOCUS AREA: The last focus area is the Wide focus area. Honestly, I never really use this mode. It’s pretty unreliable in a sense of, the camera can’t read your mind. This area automatically selects the focus point based on the scene and there is nothing limiting the camera. This is basically the equivalent of full auto, but for the focus area. Now there’s nothing wrong with that. If it works for you, then great, all the power to you. But I find for me, it gets more in the way than actually helping. You may want a certain spot to be where you want focus, but the camera will think something in the foreground is what you should be in focus. While you’re trying to get the camera to focus where you want, the scene might have already changed and just like that, you’ve lost your shot. I’ve certainly have had that happen even with Zone Focus Area, so adding more areas for the camera to focus is going to cause even more errors and mishaps.

So those are the modes and focus areas. There may be a couple of other modes or areas, but these are the ones that I use, or I found I should at least mention. Each mode and area has its own specific use case, and understanding them can really help take your photography to the next level. Knowing our camera is essential so the time in the field is spent doing what is the most important, taking photos, rather than wrestling with our camera settings and being frustrated. Remember to experiment with different focus modes and areas and see what works best for your shooting style.