Manual Focus

Getting Started: Manual Controls

Sometimes it pays to be a control freak

Automation is nice. Heat sensing microwaves that can tell how long to heat leftovers, say, are very convenient. But sometimes you need to override the automatic settings to cook things just the way you like them.

The same holds true for camcorders. While most camcorders automatically adjust the focus, audio levels, shutter speed and iris to ambient conditions, your videos might look better if you override some of your unit's features and take control of your shots.

But with everything set automatically, why bother? Well, you may encounter situations where your camcorder, for all its technological wizardry, just can't make heads or tails of what's going on. Or you may want to create a visual effect that goes against the grain of your camcorder's automatic sensibilities.

In any case, taking control of your camcorder's functions is simple enough.

Manual Focus

Generally speaking, your camcorder determines focus by finding a well-defined object in your frame--typically whatever is in the center of your shot--and using that as a reference point for deciding how to focus.

Regardless of how handy autofocus can be, there are situations when your camcorder finds it difficult to locate the subject of your shot. When there's not enough light, perhaps at night or in a dimly lit room, objects tend to blend into one gray mass as far as the camcorder can tell.

Your camcorder, desperately trying to locate the subject of the shot, goes in and out of focus rapidly. With manual control, you can use your eye, which is infinitely more sensitive to light than your camcorder, to focus the shot instead.

Manual focus allows you to add certain effects to your video. For example, there is a manual focus technique called rack focus that camera operators use to bring the foreground and background alternatively in and out of focus. Racking focus allows you to direct the viewers' attention within a given shot by focusing on different objects successively, each time blurring the other parts of the shot.

You've probably seen this technique in a movie or television program: a close-up shot of the telephone, sitting on the edge of the desk, ringing off the hook. The background is blurred just enough to obscure it. The camera operator then slowly shifts focus from the telephone to the background where a man sits in an easy chair. As the man comes into focus, the phone blurs.

You may want to blur your shot as a segue from one segment to another. You can create a unique transition from shot to shot by ending and beginning each shot out of focus. One gray blur looks pretty much like another; by blurring your shots this way, you can cut from shot to shot creating an interesting in-camera transition effect.

How do you switch from auto to manual focus? Most units have a button somewhere on the camcorder that will toggle autofocus on and off. You'll have to consult your manual for the specifics regarding your camcorder.

The convenient thing about autofocus is that when you turn it back on, your shot will automatically focus itself. This is useful if, as I described above, you want to begin your shot blurry and rapidly bring it back into focus. Use manual focus to blur your subject first, then after a few seconds of recording the blurred image, turn the autofocus back on again. Your subject will come into sharp focus as your camcorder takes over for you.