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8.6: Critical Focus

  • Page ID
    124335
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    A Critical Focus is performed to ensure that the subject is in focus. Once you have executed a cricital focus, if the distance between the subject and the camera does not change, your focus should hold. You can zoom in and zoom out and your subject should remain in focus.

    A camera zooming in on man's face and focusing the image so it is clear on the man.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Performing a critical focus on the eyes. (CC BY-NC 4.0; Shelley Ho via San Francisco State University)

    Steps to Perform a Critical Focus

    1. Zoom all the way in on your subject. If the subject is human, focus on the eyes
    2. Use the focus ring to achieve focus
    3. Zoom back out and compose your shot

    You can see an example of a critical focus in figure 8.6.1.

    Focus Assist and Focus Peaking

    In chapter 7, we discussed Focus Assist and Focus Peaking, which is an overlay guide to show where things are in focus. You can turn that function on to assist with your critical focus.


    This page titled 8.6: Critical Focus is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Christopher Clemens (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .

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