Getting that focus sharp every single time can be challenging for any new
photographer with any camera or fresh owners of Canon EOS M50. I've done a lot
of research and testing so here are hands-on focus techniques explained to
the greatest detail and my bonus tips.
And if we haven't met yet, my name is Zdenka Darula, I work as a photographer
for many many many years, I am a former model and few are the things. I make
tutorials and fun vlogs so you might want to hit that
subscribe button.
Having a bad day when it comes to focus? Well, we all
wished it was just all about that dirty lens. Unfortunately it's not. Every single
camera is different, every single lens is different, every single photographer is
different. Where am I getting with this? Let me start all over ....
Any camera is different but if you nail that focus technique and you understand what it can
do for you and memorize it, you are good to go pretty much on any camera. Here is
my camera Canon EOS M50 which I got for video and it's beautiful autofocus.
Now let's jump right into it. Pay attention, grab your camera and feel free
to freeze me....
such a torture... every single time you need to catch up.
If you want to be in control what will be in the focus, your best friend is
single point autofocus. It looks like this. Little square. You can move it with
tapping on the screen and if you want to quickly center it
just press and hold AF point selection button. As you can see the single point
autofocus will move to the center. Now if you want the square to be smaller or
bigger, press the AF point selection button shortly and you will see small
menu at the bottom. When you press menu button, the square will get smaller or
bigger. If you want to zoom in and check that the focus is where you want it, use
dial here on the top to zoom in...5x, 10x or return to normal view.
To get out of it, press AF point selection button again.
Now I know it feels like it might be a lots of buttons. At the beginning just
pick an object and keep practicing. Get that to your fingers and to your head.
Once it feels automatic and natural and you don't even have to think about it
you got it. When is the best to use single point
autofocus? On a stationary object, when there is no movement, no tracking
and in low-light situations.
Whenever you walk, talk, move or have a sit-down interview, you want to use face
tracking. It's not only for faces, it's also for objects. I have here single
point focus which is the square. Now when I move I am no longer sharp. I'm no
longer in focus because the square is only focused in that little spot. Now if
I select face tracking and I move or I move the camera, it is following my face
or it will follow the object it will stay in focus. If I am shooting close-up
of a face and I want eyes in focus and you know when it comes to photography
you always want to have your eyes in focus when it comes to portraits
go to menu, find shooting settings, page 6. Find eye detection AF and select enable.
Face tracking works very nicely. I'm using it lots when I'm talking to you
like right now. But if you run into trouble like if you're wearing
sunglasses and the Canon M50 says nope I don't like that face or if
you're shooting an object or person against the Sun like this, then you might
want to select single point autofocus or you just might have to focus manually.
If you want to shoot a wider area such as landscape or b-roll for your videos
and you want majority of your footage to stay sharp
then select zone autofocus. It's the big box when you press halfway your
shutter you will see small squares inside of it. In this mode you can also
tap on a screen and select the area you want to focus. If you press and hold AF
point selection button the square will move to the center. If you press shortly
AF point selection button you can again zoom in and see what is in focus by
moving your dial and if you want the focus to jump in the middle here press
info button. This magnify option works only in single point autofocus and zone
autofocus. Are you still with me who are you completely lost? Don't worry you
can always watch this video over over again you can pause any catch up.
If you're somewhere on a vacation and you want to take photo of a fast-moving
boat or kite surfer or windsurfer, when was it the last time I did windsurfing?
Maybe this summer, who knows. Or simply a car driving by pretty much you want to
follow a fast-moving object and take shot of it. Press Q and instead of one
shot select servo. When you see the car going by, half press button follow the
car the camera will follow it to make sure the car is sharp as long as you
keep pressing the button halfway and take the shot. For non-moving objects just
use one shot so don't forget to switch it back once you're done.
And you know there might be a situation when you simply cannot use autofocus.
It can happen if you are using a lens like Ryan did in this video he was using
a Nikon lens and it was a fully manual lens. The video is in the video
description below so you can watch it later.
Simply Canon M50 didn't recognize the lens and said nope I am NOT doing the
job for you buddy. You are on your own from now on. Or you might be shooting a
low dark situation, maybe taking photos of the stars on the sky, or you are
taking photos of an object with which is fully backlit or you just want to play
around and you want to do manual focusing on your own. How to select
manual focus? Press this button here to switch from AF to MF.
Here you can just turn the ring on the lens to change the focus. If you press AF
point selection then little square appears and when you tap on a screen you can
choose a focusing area but you still need to turn the ring on the lens to
focus properly. It is more for you to see where you want to focus. You can zoom in
here as well by simply turning the dial button. When you hit the info button the
square will jump in the middle. To me it's not really necessary, all the work
is really done with the ring on the lens. I like the zoom however because you can
check where you want the focus to be. There is one super cool feature Canon
M50 has and to be honest, you don't even have to use zoom. It's called manual
focus peaking. Go to menu, shooting settings, find page 7 and here you can
see MF peaking settings. Press that. Press peaking on and you can choose if you
want to see high color or low and mainly what color. Now if I'm shooting snow I'll
select red if I'm shooting something dark I'll select yellow. You can also
choose blue if you like. Basically when I'm using MF and focusing which is
manual focus whatever is in focus will turn the color. I am loving that feature.
So these are all focusing options Canon EOS M50 offers. Now it is not all about
what focus option you will select. Here are my bonus tips which I do always and
they work for me as well. First of all when I shoot I just don't stand like
this I always lock in elbows or if I'm low I'm using my knee or something to
get solid and obviously hold the breath when I shoot. Number 2. Don't use slow
shutter speed when you are shooting without a tripod. When I used to work as a second
shooter for weddings and whenever my settings were a little bit lower than
one sixtieth the main photographer used to get mad at me because he said people
cannot hold camera steadily anything lower than one sixtieth. So your shutter
speed needs to go up it needs to be faster. Now it also depends on what kind
of situation you're shooting and also what kind of lens you are using because
each lens handles shutter speed differently and that can be another long
discussion so maybe in one of the future videos. Number three. We all love to shoot
free but if you can use tripod or monopod. Number four. If you can use prime
lenses. They are generally faster and sharper because they have lower f-stop
Now I have I prefer zoom lenses so that really doesn't apply to me.
Number five. If you're shooting on shallow depth-of-field which it will be
the small f-stop don't just rely on one photo. Take two or three shots. The last
one number six is what I was doing at the beginning of
this video simply clean your lens. If you have a problem, start there.
Well my Canon M50 and YouTube friends, that's it for today's video. I hope you
liked it I tried my best. Give it thumbs up if you liked it and don't forget to
subscribe for our future videos about Canon EOS M50 also not just about
that also other photography and videography
videos. Hit that bell notification button so you know when my next video is up if
you have any questions or comments or simply want to say hello please write
that in the video comment section below I'm looking forward to hear from you and
I'll see you next time. Cau.... Ahoj.....
Oh No... I said it 24x and I know better. I know seriously better not Focus but
focus, autofocus, bonus yeah well you know what in Czech we have this
one word "foukat" and means blow, So foukat, focus. Similar and I know better
and I say focus again focus focus I made a note. Here it is. Focus made a
note of it.
Got to focus on that autofocus.... see you