Nikon cameras are equipped with a variety of autofocus (AF) modes that are designed to handle any shooting situation. Whether you are shooting portraits, landscapes, or street photography, there’s an AF mode to help keep your subject in focus.

Single Point AF mode allows you to isolate your focus to the most important point in your composition. This is great when you are photographing a static subject. When using Single Point AF mode, you will be able to select the focus point manually.

To accurately track unpredictable and moving subjects, there are three AF modes that you can use:

• Dynamic-area AF mode allows you to select the focus area and will help track moving subjects inside the AF area. This mode is great for photographing sports, children, and events. You can set the size of the area by selecting the number of AF points you would like to use – 9, 11, 21, 39, or 51-point AF. If you would like to track unpredictable moving subjects with greater accuracy, select the 9-point option. When there is insufficient contrast for fast focus detection, choose 21- or 51-point. These two are ideal modes to use especially when photographing in continuous shooting mode
• Developed by Nikon, the Group-area AF mode focuses using a group of five focus points. The focus points can be moved according to your preference. This helps to reduce the risk of the camera focusing on the background instead of your subject. This mode is useful for photographing subjects that are moving erratically, such as wildlife or sport photography.
• If you are shooting portraits, Auto-area AF mode uses colour information and facial recognition to automatically focus on an individual’s face. This is an extremely helpful feature for when you do not have time to select a focus point or when you are using Live View mode at high or low angles.

Some Nikon DSLRs such as the Nikon D750 are equipped with a 3D-tracking mode, which uses a predictive system that utilises special algorithms to calculate the position of the subject. In this mode, the camera automatically moves the focus point to track the moving subject, ensuring that it is always in focus.

Explore using the different AF modes to achieve sharp and focused images of your subjects.