Use zone focusing

Related to point 6 f/8 and be there if you have a lens with both f stop and focal measurements on the barrel, understanding how they relate to each other can help you take great spontaneous photos with a high degree of confidence.

In the image below we ve set our aperture to f/5.6, as indicated by the red line pointing to the 5.6 reading on the lower gauge. We ve then set the range on the yellow gauge to around 1.2 metres by positioning this at the top of the same line. We can now use the green scale to understand how far away from the camera our subjects need to be if they are to be accurately focused.By following the lines running from the two green entries for 5.6 on either side to their measurements on the yellow scale, we can see that so long as we re more than 1m away from our subjects they will be in focus (the green 5.6 on the left is linked to around 1m on the yellow scale, while the green 5.6 on the right is linked to the infinity symbol, which is like a number 8 on its side). Anything closer than that will be blurred.

This gives us a great deal of freedom to snap whatever we want without making any further adjustments, so long as it s no closer to us than 100cm. To create a more intimate effect, adjusting the distance ring so that 0.4 sat at the top of the red marker would mean that only those objects between around 36cm and 50cm would be kept in focus.Use zone focusing to understand which parts of your image will be in focus at any particular aperture setting.