Noticed how professional sports and wildlife photographers always have their action shots in tack sharp focus? Before you go attributing it to better equipment or more experience, let us share a little secret that the professionals often use to getting those sharp action shots. It’s called pre-focusing and it can be done with any kind of lens, slow or fast, manual or autofocus.

What is it?

Pre-focusing sets aside the super abilities of modern cameras and equipment, and relies on the very human ability and sense of anticipation. It is a technique wherein focusing is done manually and focus is locked at any point in space which the photographer believes the subject will pass through. In other words, the photographer follows logic and his instincts to predict the path of his subject and locks focus at one of the points along that path, in readiness to get his shot at the opportune moment.

How it is done?

As discussed in the previous paragraph, the ability to pre-focus relies on the ability to anticipate the path of your subject in the action shots. The use of a tripod is recommended when pre-focusing so that focus once locked, does not get disturbed by camera shake or unintended movement. If shooting with an autofocus lens, switch to manual focus. Study your subject to predict the path of travel and focus manually somwehere along the path. For example, if shooting an athlete, focus at a point on the track; if shooting a bird, pre-focus at a point in the direction the bird is facing and further away from you rather than closer; and so on. Thereafter, simply keep your eye to the viewfinder and your finger on the shutter release. The moment your subject comes into the focus point will be your moment to take the shot!

Why is pre-focusing important?

Equipment Agnostic: One of the most important reasons to use the pre-focusing technique is that not everyone has high-end equipment. Professional sports and wildlife photographers often shoot with cameras capable of shooting at speeds of 10 frames per second and upwards and fast lenses with massive focal ranges. But not everyone who shoots sports and wildlife has access to this sort of equipment. Pre-focusing makes this kind of photography, equipment agnostic. So long as you have the ability to focus manually, you have the ability to capture some great action shots.

More speed: Pre-focusing also helps you take your shots faster, further reducing shutter lag. Since the lens optics do not need to re-align to focus for every shot the camera is able to shoot almost instantaneously when the shutter release is pressed. This fast response can make all the difference when shooting high speed action.

Better success ratio: A lot of photographers use a gun and run approach i.e. shoot an endless volley of shots in the hope that a few will be in sharp focus and perfect. While this usually does the job and gets them a few money shots, the technique suffers from a very poor success ratio. Pre-focusing allows you to get more usable and sharply focused shots and a better success ratio, so that lesser time is spent editing and sorting photos after the fact.

Photos by Anshum Mandore