Photographer's Guide to Focus and the Sharper Image

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Photographer’s Guide to Focus and the Sharper Image

In this day and age, anyone with a digital camera can take good photos, right? Absolutely not. Most people can take good photos some of the time and, once in a while, they might well shoot what could be termed a “great” photograph, but they can’t do it consistently, and they can’t do it to order. There are at least three key ingredients that must be present in any great photograph: good composition, perfect exposure and… the image must be properly focused.

Of all photographic techniques, focus is, arguably, the most difficult to understand. It’s a technical subject and not easy to explain. This short Photographer’s Field Guide to Focus and the Sharper Image will do so. This is a guide for beginning to intermediate photographers, not professionals.

I’m sure you’ve seen snapshots, even published photos, that include items in the foreground that are fuzzy, out of focus; it’s very distractive.

Focus, and its correct application, is not an easy subject to master. Yes, it can be complicated but, throughout this book, I have tried to keep things as simple as possible, and in doing so I have purposely avoided going into too much technical detail.

Some of the most complicated focusing techniques I have tried to reduce to the simplest possible terms while at the same time trying not to “dumb it down.” I have endeavored to keep it simple so that the techniques can easily be understood and quickly learned by “mere mortals.”

Many an expert will say I have left out too much, and to some extent I might agree with them, but I did it so as not to bore my readers, or blind them with science. They may also argue with the way I have interpreted some of the techniques included in the book, and that's fine too; it's not intended to be the definitive work on the science of photography, just an honest-to-goodness attempt to share the techniques that have worked so well for me for so many years. And to do it in terms that will allow you to quickly understand them, and put them to work.

Here’s What’s Included:

Understanding Depth of Field
The Zone of Acceptable Focus
Camera and Lens Focus Settings
Hyper Focal Focusing
The Art of Selective Focus

About the Author
Blair Howard is a professional photographer, travel writer and the author of more than 40 books, specializing in vacation travel, golf travel, and stock and golf course photography. His travels take me throughout the United States, Europe and the Caribbean playing golf, writing about his experiences, and photographing the golf courses he visits. Blair has been a photojournalist for more than 30 years.