David Emery Online

About a year ago a young photographer came to me with a question I'd never heard before. What did I think about "face detect" autofocus?

Probably I sighed. Then said something about how modern cameras left us with so little to do that any half-competent photographer just might want to decide where to focus on his own.

There was one problem with this expert advice—I'd never used the feature, not for a single frame. Every photographic instinct told me I was right. But then ignorance is a splendid way of maintaining our pet prejudices. So I resolved to give face detection a fair shake.

You know those articles you read where it feels like a lightbulb has gone off above your head? This is one of those articles for me as a photographer.

Like most ‘photographers’ I’ve been pretty snooty about things like Face Detect autofocus, but that’s pretty ridiculous really considering I spend a lot of my time trying to make sure faces are in focus. In practice it may well not work well enough for what I want, but it’s just the fact that I haven’t even tried that’s the kicker.

In short: don’t forget what the goal is (taking good photos); it doesn’t matter what tools you use to get there.