From the course: Video Foundations: Cameras and Shooting

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Knowing when to use auto focus

Knowing when to use auto focus

From the course: Video Foundations: Cameras and Shooting

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Knowing when to use auto focus

So let's talk about autofocus for a minute. If you're only used to shooting video with Consumer cameras or your iPhone, you may be used to relying on autofocus. It's a habit that I recommend you break as soon as possible if you want to shoot professional-looking video. The reason I recommend avoiding it most of the time is because autofocus is simply not reliable under many shooting situations. Specifically, autofocus is all but useless in low light situations. Also, if you have other people or objects that cross in the foreground of your subject or that are positioned as part of your shot, the camera's autofocus may choose to focus on those people or objects in the foreground, instead of the actual person or thing you want it to focus on. The autofocus may also hunt for different subjects to focus on as people in the frame shift slightly. Understand this, the people that made your camera are very smart. The camera itself, however, is as dumb as a brick. It only does what we tell it…

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