Why You Should Turn Auto-Focus Off

By now, you’ve learned that one of the big challenges of macro photography is getting things sharp and in focus. You’re about to come to one of the things that can be the most frustrating, and this is using auto-focus when you’re as close in on your subject as you are with macro shooting. If I can give you one tip that will lower your frustration level by a hundred, it’s to turn off the auto-focus on your camera’s lens and manually focus instead. I know, you hate to give up the auto-focus feature because, honestly, on today’s cameras it’s really amazingly accurate. That is, until you shoot macro. What will happen is your camera will try to find a focus point, and you’ll hear the whirring of the lens as it tries to snap onto something, anything to focus on, and while it’s getting frustrated—so are you. Just switch over to manual focus, and you’ll both be better off.