Original subtitles

One question I've been asked a lot is

when to use autofocus and when to use manual focus.

Be honest, there's no right or

wrong or definitive answer to this question.

Personally, I prefer to use manual as

often as possible because it gives me full control.

However, there are times in

certain scenarios where autofocus

has proven to be the better option.

Let's take a look at some of these examples.

When doing close-ups. I never use autofocus.

Because as this example shows,

the autofocus acts as though it's confused.

That's because when filming close-ups,

our depth of field is smaller.

The slightest change in

distance between the camera and the subject,

or between two different subjects makes a big difference.

And our camera can't decide what

should be in focus and what should not be.

But if we switch to manual focus,

our camera no longer has to

guess what should be in focus,

and instead, we'll focus on

whatever we decide should be in focus.

In this example, we can maintain

focus on just the neck of the guitar and

not worry about the focus changing to

the hand as the hand moves up and down the guitar.

As we pan left, we do lose focus for a split second.

But because we have full control,

it's easy enough to adjust and

we're able to do so in a very smooth way.

Maintaining a nice clean close-up.

When I'm following a subject,

also known as a tracking shot.

I usually have the cameras setup to autofocus.

And that's because the distance between the subject and

the camera is going to be constantly shifting.

If I were to choose manual focus,

then I would have to split my attention between focus,

framing and where I'm walking,

which can be a lot to coordinate,

especially when there's little or no time to rehearse.

For example, weddings and concerts.

If we keep a consistent distance

between the camera and the subject,

the camera's autofocus is great at making

the small adjustments that are needed to maintain focus.

And if we're filming with a wider lens,

then it's even easier for the autofocus because

a wider lens gives us a larger depth of field.

In this shot, it's easy to see how

the focus constantly shifts between

the foreground and the background

as the wrestlers move in and out of the frame.

In this particular situation,

I don't mind the focus shifting because

the shifts are smooth and focusing on different subjects.

However, if we want the focus

to remain on one pair of wrestlers,

maybe because they're the main characters.

Then we need to switch to manual focus.

In this shot, we've set our focus

to the wrestlers in the background.

So even when other wrestlers crossed the foreground,

they remain out-of-focus, which

also has a very pleasing look.

Shot like this can work in

both autofocus and manual focus.

It just depends on the look that we want,

the story elements involved.

I hope those examples provide

clarity to some advantages and

disadvantages to both manual and

autofocus and what works and what doesn't work.