A couple of days ago I was watching a mother trying to photograph her child with a DSLR camera. Sadly, after a few frustrating minutes she looked to have given up. Noticing what the problem was, I gave her some useful advice that I will also share with you today. The advice was simple, Don’t Get Too Close!

Most DSLR cameras will not focus properly if you are positioned too close to the subject. When a photographer is too close to the subject, often the lens will swing back and forth trying to focus, making it near impossible to take the shot. Even if you could take it, you will see nothing more than a burred photo.

Take these two images below for example. The first shows an image that is very blurred. When I photographed that shot, I was standing too close to the subject for that particular lens to properly focus. So I repositioned myself physically further away from the subject and tried again. As you can see by the second example, this time the lens had ample room to focus.

Result of standing too close to the subject when taking the photograph

Standing further away from subject resulted in a sharper shot

If you haven’t already noticed, every lens has a minimum focusing distance. You can find this information on the user manual that came with the lens when you purchased it. If not, then you can usually find the information online by doing a quick search on Google. It’s handy to know your lens focusing distance.

Another useful tip for similar situations is to look on the side of your DLSR lens for a symbol something similar to: 1.8m – infinity or 6.5m – infinity. The distance isn’t important here as every lens is different. Furthermore, not all DSLR camera lens have the option to change the focusing distance. So if you can’t see it, don’t worry. However if you do see it, try setting the approximate distance you are to your subject and you’ll find your camera focuses much quicker than it normally would.

For example, last time I visited the zoo, I was trying to photograph a close up of a snake. I was shooting with a Canon EF 100-400mm lens, with it zoomed all the way out to 400mm. When looking through the viewfinder after each shot, I noticed they were all burry. The camera was also having trouble focusing and was constantly swimming in and out. It was then I noticed the focusing distance on the side of the lens was set to 6.5m-infinity. So I switched it to 1.8m and presto, the camera could more easily focus!