Sometimes, due to the hectic schedules that I have, there were times where I have completely forgotten that the EF lens in use was not set to its AF mode could have disastrous results, as can be seen in this series of pictures of HK celebrities, Shannon Lee and Anita Yuen. The first was okay, since I remembered to focus it manually and bounced flash was used. For the next three shots, with direct TTL flash illumination, I simply triggered off the shutter button without realizing that the lens/camera combination was off autofocus in the first place. When I used the AE Lock button to activate AF via C. Fn 4-1 of the EOS-1N, little did I realize that the lens did not focus at all when the rear button was pressed. In all the confusion, the extra depth-of-field made it quite complicated to really ensure whether the image was correctly focused or otherwise. Blurred pictures were the result. And here they are: Anita Yuen (left) and Shannon Lee Out-of-focus I     Out-of-focus II Out-of-focus III Three of Kuala Lumpur's icons - the KL Tower, Petronas Twin Towers and the Maybank headquarters - are among the widely-photographed subjects. Recently I came across a new angle that depicted the three icons by using the National Mosque as the framing method. The horizontal picture shown below does not represent a good angle as it has too many distractions as far as I am concerned. It also added a fourth (or fifth for the mosque) icon to the scene, the Dayabumi building (extreme left), which was the former headquarters of Petronas, long before the Twin Towers existed. The solution? Switch over to the vertical format and leave out Dayabumi, and use the roof of the National Mosque to frame the three more popular icons in this angle instead. Five of KL's icons Three (or four) of KL's icons     One subject in focus Model on left is center attention Ever notice how catwalk fashion parades only show individual models (or two) at best against an out-of-focus background? This is mostly due to the shallow depth-of-field whenever a telephoto lens is used. If the photographer wanted to have adequate depth for three, four or five models at the same frame, it would most likely have been those horizontal format shots where the models were walking towards the camera, rather than the vertical format shown above, where only one of the models (top, lower left) was in sharp focus. If you can't get enough depth to cover the whole range, always make sure the main model attracts the attention of the viewer, like the one in blue, of the other picture. << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 .