The 3-Step Method to Shoot Like A Pro
Focus. Frame. Shoot.
My family and I do a lot of traveling, and when I’m snapping photos of them at some scenic stop, it’s not uncommon for a kindly stranger to offer to take a photo of me and the fam using my camera.
I can usually tell within seconds when that person isn’t familiar with anything other than a smartphone camera. They’ll point my mirrorless camera at us like it’s a weapon, put our faces squarely in the “crosshairs” of the viewfinder, and press the shutter button like it’s a trigger.
Consequently, our faces get positioned right smack dab in the middle of the frame. That's fine for driver's license photos and mugshots, but not for much else. (I don’t mean to sound like such a photo-snob; I truly am grateful for the kind gesture.)
But do you know what I see when it’s an experienced DSLR or mirrorless user?
Focus. Frame. Shoot.
That's because they know that focusing one’s shot is a separate step from framing and shooting. Let me show you what I mean and try to better explain the problem to solve.
The Problem
A good camera will have multiple auto-focus points, but how is it supposed to know what you want to focus on?
Even if it could correctly focus on, say, a person like in the example above, 100% of the time, what if you actually wanted to focus on something else?
Don’t rely on your camera to guess at what you want to focus on because it will guess wrong at some point. Focusing is your job, not your camera’s.
Side note: Your camera can also struggle to guess exposure correctly. If you want to take control of that too, check out my course on shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
The Solution: Focus. Frame. Shoot.
Focus
First, you’ll need to make one setting change to your camera. Here’s the deal: every DSLR and mirrorless camera has several auto-focus points that it uses to focus an image, and you want to shut them all off except for the center one.
Here's what that looks like on my Sony mirrorless:
And this is what it looks like on my embattled Canon DSLR:
Find the menu item on your particular camera that allows you to disable all focus points except for the center one.
Oh, one more thing: I don’t know about other cameras, but both my Sony and Canon cameras will only honor my center focal point setting when I’m in one of the so-called "creative modes" (highlighted in green below). If I’m using anything resembling an automatic mode, my center focus point setting will be ignored.
With that setting in place, it’ll be just you and the lone center auto-focus point.
To focus, aim your camera's center focus point at your subject and hold the shutter button halfway down to lock in the focus on your subject. Keep holding! Now you’re ready to frame your shot. (TIP: when taking a photo of a face, lock the focus on one of the eyes. Not the nose. Not the mouth. An eye.)
Frame
While you're holding the shutter button halfway down to lock in the focus, move the camera to frame your shot.
It’s hard to talk about framing without getting into the principles of photo composition (how you position stuff in your photo). There’s a lot to discuss there, but for now let’s focus on the mechanics of snapping the photo. Just know that wherever you point the camera to get focus is hardly ever the right place for a nicely framed photo, which is why we approach focus and framing separately.
Shoot
Once you have good focus and have framed up a nice shot, simply finish pushing the shutter button the rest of the way down to capture your prize photo.
Here's a demonstration of the complete technique in action:
Hopefully this doesn’t sound like a lot to think about. With just a little practice, you’ll have the muscle memory down and it will be second nature.
But from now on, may a little voice whisper these words in your ear every time you snap a photo:
“Focus. Frame. Shoot.”