Shooting with apertures around 1.8 is my favorite thing EVER. It gives me that dreamy lighting, creamy backgrounds, and beautiful images I love!! However, it’s also a little tricky. It is something that takes some time to master… because you’re shooting at such a low aperture, your “plane” of what’s in focus becomes narrower, making it MUCH harder to get everything in focus.

However, I’ve found a few things that really helps me to nail my focus 95% of the time! :) Here are my best tips:

1. Use back button focus. If you don’t know what this is, google it… because it’s INCREDIBLE. As soon as I started using it, I didn’t turn back. This allows you to use one button to actually TAKE the photo, and a different button to actually FOCUS. So instead of having those two functions on your one button (typically your shutter button), it “splits” it up into two different buttons. Which means you have less lag time between the time you focus and take the photo, because you can focus WHILE taking photos. It’s pretty awesome. :)

2. Focus before every shot. This will only make sense if you use Back Button Focus. But the easiest way to do this is to shoot on continuous mode, so you can constantly be focusing with your camera! If you focus before EVERY photo, you’re much more likely to have it in focus.

3. Take more than one photo of everything.  I am always taking 2, 3, sometimes more photos of EVERY angle, pose, or shot that I’m taking, refocusing every time. If I do this, I will almost always have at least a couple where I nailed the focus! :)

4. Use continuous mode. Like I mentioned before, this helps a lot with being able to constantly focus, even when while a subject is moving. This means you are a lot more likely to lock your focus on your subject, especially if they are moving!

5. Lastly, practice, practice, practice!! This is the best way to shoot in low apertures and have a lot more in focus!

If you shoot at low apertures like I do, you will probably never have all of your photos… just being real!! I still have a lot of photos that are out of focus. However, with these tips, you can definitely have a lot MORE of your photos in focus if you use them! :)