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Photography vocabulary · Lenses & Focus

Focus

Meaning in photography, with examples

/ˈfoʊkəs/nounCore term

In photography, focus means: The point or area of a photo that is sharp. Something is in focus when it looks sharp and out of focus when it looks blurred.

In Turkish: netlik, odak, netleme

How it is used

Also a verb: focus on the eyes. Common phrases are manual focus, focus point, missed focus, nail focus (get it perfectly right) and focus and recompose. In Turkish, flu is the everyday word for out of focus.

Example sentences

  1. In portraits, always put the focus on the nearest eye.

  2. The background is in focus but the bride is soft. I missed focus.

Common collocations

  • in focus
  • out of focus
  • manual focus
  • focus point
  • nail focus
  • autofocusA camera system that adjusts the lens by itself so that the subject becomes sharp, usually when you half-press the shutter button.
  • sharpClear and detailed, with crisp edges and no blur. Used about photos, parts of a photo and lenses.
  • depth of fieldThe area in front of and behind the point of focus that still looks acceptably sharp. It can be shallow, with a blurry background, or deep, with almost everything sharp.
  • bokehThe look and quality of the out-of-focus areas in a photo, especially a soft background and round, blurry points of light.

More terms: Lenses & Focus

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