Which focus points to use?

Associate
Joined
5 Dec 2004
Posts
167
Location
south coast
I have a canon 7D after upgrading from a 400D.

I was just wondering if anyone could help me with which focusing modes are used for which style of photo I.e. Portrait, landscape, motorsport etc? I really don't want to keep using the auto 19 point and want to advance.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Oct 2008
Posts
12,466
Location
Designing Buildings
generally I use spot metering and manually choose the main focal point, typically in sport i use the centre spot (although centre weighted metering could be used instead), and its only when the subject isn't in the centre that I choose a specific point. :)
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
32,615
What if your taking a pic with a big crowd of people though?

Well, then you want to get the DoF right for your desired photograph and select the real focal point in the scene, then use the camera focus point closest to the point in the scene.

In this kind of scenario it is your choice as a photographer. Do you want the closest person in focus with the others out of focus with a shallow DoF. Or do you want the whole crowd sharp and in focus, in which case you will need to have a small aperture and choose a focal point in the scene which will maximize the DoF -read into hyper-focal focusing etc.
 

RaV

RaV

Associate
Joined
17 Dec 2007
Posts
686
Location
Ireland
I always manually select the focus point.
Or if Af point is not spot on where you want to focus, you can move the camera so your AF point focuses on the bit you want in focus and then recompose the image, all while having the shutter button half presses in, so it doesnt refocus once you recompose.
 
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