Digital Photography Tips - How to Focus a Point and Shoot Camera

Point and shoot cameras can provide really sharp images if you use them correctly. But for many digital images taken with a point and shoot, main subject sharpness -- or lack thereof -- is a real issue.

Most all point and shoot cameras have an auto-focus feature, which is really awesome... most of the time. The lack of sharpness problems arise during certain conditions, one of which is when trying to shoot your subject a little bit off-center. Shooting off-center is a widely-used practice that can add style, interest, and professionalism to an otherwise ordinary image. In blunt terms, shooting off-center can be A Very Good Thing.

A loose example of this is when your subject, your best friend for instance, is standing off to either side in front of a waterfall, or an old covered wagon. You'd like to capture both your friend and the background but when your photo is finished, your friend is out of focus. That happened because the point and shoot camera's viewfinder was not placed on the most important part of your composition, which in this case was your best friend, but was instead placed on the background where it automatically focused.

Fortunately, there's a really simple work around to this problem that anyone who can hold a camera can pull off. Point and shoot cameras feature the ability to lock, or pre-lock, the focus at any point during the process of composing a photograph.

Basically, pre-locking focus means that you force your camera to focus on a specific object in the composition and remain locked on that distance until you actually snap the picture.
To pre-lock, simply place the viewfinder's focus point on the desired object -- in the example above it would be your best friend -- and press the shutter halfway down. At that point you should see a green glow in the viewfinder's eyepiece that signals your focus is locked (if it glows steadily, that means your focus is locked; it if winks off and on or doesn't light at all, you need to try again).

Now, keeping the shutter pressed halfway, move your camera until the exact composition you want appears in your viewfinder -- in the example above it would be when your best friend is positioned on one side or the other of the image and the waterfall or covered wagon is roughly in the center.

Next, hold your camera very steady and press the shutter the rest of the way to actually capture the shot.

No matter what composition you're going for, it's always important to be mindful of where your focus point is. Taking a moment to do so can save a good many of your photographs.

Final tip: Once your focus is locked and you're keeping the shutter pressed halfway, the focus won't change at all. If your subject moves or if you take a step forwards or backwards, your subject will not be in focus any longer and you'll need to do the whole process again.

Source: http://goarticles.com/article/Digital-Photography-Tips-How-to-Focus-a-Point-and-Shoot-Camera/915460

Compare latest camera deals and buy digital cameras under £30 and cameras under £100