Country Girl in Bloom

I am so glad my friends are always up for an impromptu photo session with me.  We decided to do a soft, spring, girly, country session the other day and I absolutely LOVE the way these came out!  Can not wait to do more sessions that look like this.

True Love

I have to say this was one of the most fun sessions I have had in a while.  We laughed so much and so loud we could be heard across the park we were at.  This couple is so in love and have a great sense of humor.  Cant wait to do their family portraits!

Lovey Dovey

So I decided I wanted to tweak my shooting style a little.  I want more emotion out of my session.  So of course I needed someone to help me practice and get what I wanted.  So I called up some friends of mine.  When I explained what I wanted and showed them my ideas I said bring your "lovey dovey" faces.  Well that caused lots of laughter and believe it or not I got those lovey dovey faces, even though they swore they didn't do lovey dovey faces.  Thanks again so much Meg and Ferg for letting me practice on you guys.  I loved how the images turned out!

Here are a few favs:

Jan 2015 Model/Casting Call

I have some pretty exciting news for all of you!  I am hosting a model/casting call for couples!

Think you are the hottest/cutest couple on the block and have what it takes?  KRP Photography couples will receive a special package and will be featured for the month of February and showcased on Facebook and our blog.

Email us at krpphotography@comcast.net for more details.  Session must be held in February 2015.  We will be giving away 5 sessions at the special rate.  There will be 2-3 locations to choose from for your session.  Submission will be accepted until 1/31/15 and you will receive an email by 2/5/15 if chosen.

 

 

What's included:

30-60 minute session

5 digital images

1 5x7 of each digital image

Print release for 5 digital images

(digital images, prints and print release are for 5 same images)

Model/Casting Call Price - $109

Regular Price - $299

That's 65% off!!!!!

Fall Mini Session

Be sure to book early as the spaces are limited!!!

How to Prepare for your Photo Session

So you found a photographer you like and have booked your session.  Now you have a few decisions to make.

1.  Choose your session style -
      A.  Formal - Usually done in a studio and everyone is dressed up

  
  B.  Casual - Can be done in a studio or at an outdoor location.  Everyone usually wears
            comfortable everyday clothes.

So as you can see the style of your session has a big impact on how your photos will look and the feel they will have when on display.

2.  The next choice you have to make is your location.  Usually you can choose between a studio or on location setting such as a park, your house, the beach, etc.

3.  Then you need to choose the clothing everyone will wear.  Everyone does not have to match in exact colors or patterns.  You want to coordinate with a pop of an accent color but not match.

                                                                        Formal sample:

 

Casual Sample:

4.  The last thing to think about is if you want a theme, like valentines, super hero, etc and what poses you would like to try.

Be sure to contact your photographer before you session to review all these item so everyone is on the same page and your session will go smoothly.  Its a great feeling when you get the photo of your family that you wanted!

 

How to Display your photos

Now that you have your CD and know where to print your photos, what size and how to hang them? 

The first thing you need to think about is where you want to display your photos.  Once you decide that you need to decide on your size.  Yes an 8x10 or 11x14 sounds big but in reality they are actually pretty small when you put them up on a wall.  See example below.

Now you have your location and an idea about size, now you need to decide if you want just one large photo or several photos to show off your entire photo session.  Here are a few layouts to consider.

Just remember to display your photos so you can enjoy them and do not print them too small.  Bigger is always better!

Feel free to share you wall displays with us or ask any questions you may have.  Enjoy!

Where should you print your photos?

So you had your session with your photographer and now you have a disc of images.  Where to get them printed?  You may be surprised in the difference depending on the location you use.

The places I recommend are:
Your Photographer's Professional lab
www.mpix.com
www.mypublisher.com

Why not use Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Target etc?  The answer is simple Quality.  You want those wonderful memories to print and look the way you remember them and how you previewed them with your photographer.  I am not saying that all those places I just listed are bad, but with those places the quality control and equipment maintenance are low.  They often do not clean and/or change the required chemicals to print photos as they should and this causes quality issues such as color cast, contrast issues, etc.

Of course my first recommendation is to order your prints from your photographer. They print their photos at a professional lab with tons of quality control.  Also your photographers equipment is calibrated to their print specification so what you see in your preview will match what you print from them.  This ist he way to get the best results.

If however you chose to get a CD of images and want to print on your own I recommend MPix and My Publisher.  They have the best quality for the price of the places I have tried.

As always before printing any images from your photographer please read the included Print Release.  What is the Print Release you ask, well it is the document from your photographer telling what you can and can not do with the images on your disc.  A Print Release is NOT a copyright release, you photographer still retains all rights to the photographs.  Usually print releases allow you to print images at a lab of your choice.  However with most you are not allowed to alter the images in anyway.  If at any time you have questions about if an item is ok to do with the images contact your photographer for clarity.

So you have your CD, Printed your photos for family and friends.  Now What???   I recommend that you make a backup of your images.  Keep your CD, but also store your images on another medium, ie thumb drive, external hard drive, another CD, etc.  This way if something happens you have another copy of the images.  I also recommend that if you do not scrapbook your photos that you try to print a year in review photo book from one of the above listed print houses.  This is a great way to highlight the events of the year and wonderful photos from your photographer.  This preserves your images and lets you share with people.  People love to look at photo album's.

Hope these tips have been helpful and if you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.  Thank you!

January 2014 Casting Call

In 2014 KRP Photography will be putting out monthly casting calls to fill needs for the creative shoots we will be planning.

 KRP Photography is currently seeking models for the following types of photo shoots.  These are very specific and all criteria must be met to quality.  The participant will receive digital files with a print release at no cost in exchange for participating.  Participants are required to sign a model release for the images so KRP Photography can use them for internet, media and print advertising.  Interested applicants should email KRP Photography at krpphotography@comcast.net with the wors "Casting Call Response" in the subject line.  Spaces are very limited and will be filled on first come first serve basis for those who meet all criteria.

January 2014 Casting Call:

This month I am looking for models for 2 sessions:

1.  A female model to wear a red dress in the snow.  I do have a red dress that will fit a size 6/8 or you can wear your own once approved for shoot.  Needs to be a semi-formal to formal long flowing gown.  Please send a photo and photo of dress if you have it to KRP Photography if interested.  Obviously the date of this will solely depend on the weather and may not happen if it does not snow in January 2014.

2.  A female model that LOVES books and book stores for a session to be held in a library or book store.  For this it will be casual wardrobe, but there are a couple shots I would like striped tights for.  If interested please email KRP Photography.

Thank you for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay tuned for next months session ideas!!!

Mid Year Client Survey.

I love to hear feedback from my clients.  I have set up a mid year client survey to get your opinion about a few things. In appreciation for you taking time to complete the survey, anyone who completes it will be entered into a drawing for a free photo session to be held this fall.

To complete the suvery please to go:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BL6VKJB

Please complete the survey, then leave a comment on this blog post to let me know it is completed. Share with your friends so they have a chance to win too!

Thank you.

Behind the Scenes

Who hasn't wondered what its like behind the scenes at a photo shoot.  At my most recent Dramatic/Glamour Shoot my hubby/assistant helped me out by taking a few behind the scenes photos.  These were from just a very small portion of the day as there were 3 girls.  Hope you enjoy them and if you have questions let me know.  I have the pull backs and final images below.

What to Wear - Winter Photo Shoot

You gotta love these color combos! Even though the colors are cool, there’s something warm and comfy about them.

What is great about these outfits is that no matter who is paired up in the photo, the looks will complement each other without looking too matchy-matchy. It looks like a group that should be together.

Another great thing about these outfits is that they each have something that’s visually interesting (whether it be a pattern or a texture) without being overpowering. There’s nothing bland about the looks, but they still let the family shine.

So remember not everyone has to have the same colors/outfits on.  Your photos will be more intersting with a little variety, but still match with coordinating colors/patterns/textures.  Have fun with your clothes and let your personalities shine thru.

300 Fan Give away!!!

GIVEAWAY CONTEST IS CLOSED!!!!

WOW!!! 300 fans, I am so excited and so grateful for all the support.

My fans are amazing and to show my appreciation I am giving away a FREE session to one lucky fan.  Keep reading for details.

Heres how to Enter:

1 - You must "Like" KRP Photography on FB (www.facebook.com/KRPPhotography) and feel free to leave a little love on my wall!

2 - Follow my blog.  You can do this by signing in in upper right, then on bottom right of blog there is a "subscribe by email" link to click on , click that and subscribe or scroll to bottom of post and enter email in the subscribe via email box. - Since some are having difficulties with this step it is optional

3 - Leave a comment on this blog post letting me know that you have completed steps 1-3 and be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you win!

Want an extra entry?
If so share the giveaway on FB, you can share the link I posted or tag me in your post.

Winner will be chose at random on Friday, January 25, 2013.

Again, Thank you for all your support!!!

What are all those settings on my camera???

1. Automatic

This is the default, all-purpose setting most people use 90% of the time. On simpler cameras, it may be the only mode, or one of the few available. It is generally indicated by the word AUTO, a green outlined box or an icon of a camera.

In this mode, you can just quickly grab your shots while the camera makes all the decisions for things like:

• What aperture to use
• What shutter speed to use
• The ISO sensitivity
• Whether or not to fire the flash
• White balance

The only things the photographer controls are where to point the camera, whether to hold it in portrait (tall) or landscape (wide) orientation and when to press the shutter button.

2. Program and Program-Shift

Usually indicated by the letter P or sometimes Ps. Some photographers disdain Program mode because they say it’s too much like Auto but think of program mode as “auto on steroids”. For users who are still primarily using Auto, Program mode is a relatively easy step-up toward exercising more control over your camera’s settings. For the record, there are some professional photographers who use Program mode on a regular basis.
Like Auto, Program will make all the exposure decisions for you. But there are a few important differences:

• Exposure is skewed based on the zoom or focal length of the lens in use. This is true both with built-in lenses that zoom and with interchangeable lenses. At shorter, wide-angle focal lengths the camera favors a small aperture for greater depth of field. At telephoto focal lengths the camera favors a fast shutter speed to reduce camera shake.
• The camera’s recommended settings can be quickly and easily overridden, usually by either a thumbwheel or a pair of arrow keys. Different brands and models may have different mechanisms but they all provide an easy way to tweak the settings. To use this feature of Program mode, press the shutter button halfway. This will cause the camera to make all its exposure decisions and display those in the viewfinder or LCD screen. Then you can decide to accept the camera’s recommended settings or adjust them.
• The settings are not permanent. When you use some of the other semi-manual modes such as aperture priority and shutter priority, the camera saves your settings and keeps using them until you change them. This can actually be a bad feature for occasional snapshooters. Let’s say you photograph your child’s birthday party indoors and set the camera up for that. Then you put the camera away until a week or so later when you take it to photograph the kids playing at the park. Then two weeks later you take it to your daughter’s ballet recital. Then two days go by and you are photographing your son’s soccer practice. If, during any one of those times, you forget to adjust your settings for the new lighting situation, you may end up with ruined pictures. Program mode does not remember settings. Each time you turn off the camera and turn it back on, it will recalculate the exposure based on the new conditions and then give you the opportunity to override it.

3. Aperture Priority

Indicated by a letter A or Av. In Aperture Priority mode, users set the aperture they want to use. The camera will adjust the shutter speed to get a proper exposure.
Aperture Priority is most useful when you want to control the depth of field, or zone of apparent sharp focus. For this reason, it’s the most popular mode among advanced amateurs.

When closed down to a very small opening (larger f-number), much more of the scene appears to be in focus.

When opened wide (smaller f-number) the zone of sharp focus can be very narrow. Portions of the image become progressively more blurry as they get farther away from the focal plane (plane of perfect focus). This works in both directions.

---

4. A-Dep

A-Dep is a specialized mode that is available only on certain Canon cameras. In a nutshell, this mode tries to calculate the nearest and farthest elements in a scene and then calculates the optimum aperture and point of focus to use to get them both in sharp focus in your picture. With some models, you may have to “tell” the camera which are the nearest and farthest points you care about.

---

5. Shutter Priority

Indicated by the letter S or Tv (time value). Users set the shutter speed they want to use. The camera will adjust the aperture for proper exposure.
Typical shutter speeds are: 60sec, 30sec, 15sec, 8sec, 4sec, 2sec, 1sec, 1/2sec, 1/4sec, 1/8sec, 1/15sec, 1/30sec, 1/60sec, 1/125sec, 1/250sec, 1/500sec, 1/1,000sec, 1/2,000sec, 1/4,000sec.
These are full stop increments. As with all other photographic measurements, each stop represents half as much time as the one before it and twice as much as the one that follows.
More advanced cameras may allow intermediate shutter speeds in 1/2 or 1/3 stop increments. When the camera controls the shutter speed, it does so in infinitely variable increments so EXIF data (see later in this tutorial) may show strange speeds like 1/128sec.
When using flash, maximum shutter speed is limited by the camera to the fastest speed at which both shutter curtains are completely open at the same time. On older film cameras where the only mode was shutter priority and the dial was used to select the shutter speed, the flash synch speed was highlighted on the dial with a different color.

6. Manual

Indicated by the letter M, this is full do-it-yourself mode. Users select all the settings manually. The camera’s light meter still works. The camera will provide guidance and may even warn you if it believes your settings will result in over or under exposure, but it will not interfere with whatever settings you choose.
There is a special shutter speed, Bulb, that is available only in Manual mode. (On older cameras, it sometimes had its own mode on the dial.) With Bulb, the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the button. Since the camera has no idea how long the exposure will be, metering will not be accurate when using it. Similar to, but less common than Bulb, is Time mode. With this you press the button once to open the shutter and again to close it. Holding the button is not necessary.

7. Preset Scene Modes

Preset scene modes are very convenient. Many people use them without truly understanding exactly what they do in terms of changing how your pictures are taken. Some scene modes have their own dial settings on some cameras while almost all cameras have at least some of them accessible only by menus. You get to the menu-selected scene modes by selecting “SCENE” or “SCN” on your camera dial. This will activate a menu, showing you all the modes available.

What all those preset scene modes really do is cluster groups of camera settings together. With one menu or dial selection you are instantly telling the camera how to adjust a dozen or more diffrerent things: white balance, focus range, metering, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, whether or not to use flash, whether or not to use noise reduction, and so on. Let’s look at some of the most common ones.

8. Portrait

Most often indicated by an icon that looks like a person’s head. Some camera models get sophisticated and try to make the little stick figure icon look stylish. This mode is really characterized by the number of subjects and how much of the frame they fill.
Generally speaking, there are just one or two main subjects that dominate most of the frame. If there is more than one subject, they are assumed to be about the same distance away. Focusing starts at the mid range; 6′-20′ or ~2m-7m away. (Some lenses have very long focus ranges so having a focus limiter to tell the camera how far away the subject likely is helps to make focusing faster, versus having to hunt through the entire range.)
The camera will also do its best to give you a fairly narrow depth of field so that the background is pleasingly out of focus, as in the example below. This may not always be possible but, to the extent that it’s able, that is the kind of effect the camera will try to create.

White balance and flash will both be set to automatic. ISO will generally be set to the camera’s baseline value, usually ISO100 or ISO200. Metering is usually matrix (see later in this tutorial.) If available, image stabilization (see later in this tutorial) will usually be turned on.
Don’t get too hung up on the idea of people; Portrait mode can be used for pets, zoo animals or furniture. It’s all about a single main subject at a moderate distance away and a background you want out of focus.

9. Landscape or Scenic

Generally indicated by an icon that looks like two mountain peaks. The defining characteristic of landscape mode is that no one object dominates the frame. It’s really an overall view.

As far as your camera knows, you may have a bush that’s 6′ (~1.8m) away and a mountain that’s 30 miles (~48.3km) away so focusing usually starts at infinity and the aperture is usually closed down to get maximum depth of field. Focus-free cameras are almost always stuck on landscape mode.
White balance will usually be set to direct sun. Flash will be turned off. ISO will generally be set to the camera’s baseline value, usually ISO100 or ISO200. Metering is usually matrix.

10. Sports, Action, Children or Pets

On the dial, this is usually indicated by a running stick figure or sometimes a golfer. This setting is best for fast moving subjects. Because it favors faster shutter speeds, this setting works best in bright light. Generally, the subject should be prominent in the frame.
The camera will turn on continuous autofocus (see later in this tutorial). White balance will be set to direct sun. Flash will be set to automatic. ISO will generally be set to automatic but will rarely go above ISO400. Metering is usually matrix. Sequential shooting mode, if available, will be turned on. (This will allow you to shoot a burst of several shots in rapid succession.)

11. Close-up or Macro

Most often indicated by a single flower. Macro mode may be its own setting or sometimes it can be a supplemental setting that can be used in conjunction with almost any other setting. When it’s a supplemental setting, it will have its own button, rather than being on the same dial as all the other preset scene modes.

Macro mode is really characterized by how close the subjects are and how much of the frame they fill. Generally speaking, there is only one subject (or a tight cluster of subjects) which fills most of the frame and is 0′-6′ (0m-2m) away. For that reason, focusing starts at the closest end of the lens’ focus range.
Cameras and lenses vary in their close focusing ability. Some can focus just inches away while others may not do well with subjects closer than two arm lengths. The latter is especially true with focus-free cameras.

White balance will be set to automatic. Flash will be turned off with many cameras, though some newer and more advanced ones may use flash with reduced intensity. This helps to freeze camera shake and subject movement, both big issues when shooting close-up. Flash can make backgrounds appear darker than they really are, even in daylight.
ISO will generally be set to the camera’s baseline value, usually ISO100 or ISO200. Metering is usually matrix.

12. Night, Night Portrait and Night Landscape or Night Scenic

Night is most often indicated by a crescent moon and a star; Night Portrait has a moon and star over the shoulder of a little stick figure; Night Landscape usually has a crescent moon and star over two mountain peaks or some kind of cityscape.
All of these settings keep the shutter open for a relatively long time; too long for hand-held shots. For that reason, image stabilization will be turned on if it is available. All of them will probably also turn on noise reduction, if it is available. Night Portrait adds flash. Night Landscape suppresses flash.
The real purpose of these settings is to capture the ambient light (which is presumed to be low, since it’s nighttime.) Night Portrait supplements the ambient light with flash to illuminate the main subject but otherwise is more or less the same as Portrait mode.
White balance may be set to automatic or tungsten. ISO will generally be set to ISO400 or higher. Metering is usually matrix. Aperture will almost always be the widest available on the lens being used.

The example I like to give for these modes is of a lit up city skyline in the distance. (Simulated here by candles inside glass lanterns.) If you use regular automatic mode or something like it, the camera will fire the flash but the distance makes it useless. Only by suppressing the flash and keeping the shutter open longer can the camera gather enough light to get a proper exposure.

Taking that same scene and putting a person or other subject about two arm lengths away, the camera will fire the flash. Be warned that it will almost always fire the flash more than once. First it will meter the flash and ambient light to calculate a proper exposure. When it fires, the flash will fire with reduced intensity. The camera will try to somewhat match the brightness of the background so that the foreground and background come out balanced in terms of brightness.

13. Fireworks

Equally useful for capturing either fireworks or flashes of lightning. The shutter will remain open for a very long time. Noise reduction will be turned on so, after exposure, the camera will commonly perform some exposure adjustments internally. This may cause the camera to be “busy” for a long time. Shooting the next exposure will not be possible while the camera is processing.

Let’s take a moment to look at how noise reduction works. With long digital exposures, you may get random blue and red dots scattered throughout your image. With noise reduction on, after you finish an exposure (let’s just say it was 15 seconds) your camera will make a second exposure of the same length (also 15 seconds, in this example.) This second exposure is taken with the shutter closed and is never saved. It is only used by the camera for processing.
Since the shutter was closed, your camera knows that this second exposure should be perfectly black. So it analyzes every pixel, looking for ones that are not perfectly black. When it finds one, it notes the location then goes back to the previous picture and finds the pixel in the same location. It will then recolor the offending pixel based on the pixels immediately surrounding it.

14. High Key, Beach, Snow or “Beach & Snow”

Cameras assume that all the light in a scene averages out to more or less an “average” level of brightness. This group of settings tell the camera that the scene is brighter than normal and that it should not overcompensate. This basically overexposes the image so that brightness comes out bright.

15. Low Key

The exact opposite of High Key. This setting tells the camera that the scene is relatively dark and to allow that character to come through by underexposing from what it thinks is the proper exposure.

16. Candle, Dawn, and Sunset

These aren’t really completely interchangeable settings but I’ve grouped them together for one simple reason: they all change the white balance of the image in similar ways. They capture and preserve more red, orange and yellow tones than would be normal, making colors in this range appear more vivid.

17. Exposure Compensation

More advanced cameras may have a function which allows fine-tuning the overall exposure. This may be found on a menu or by using a dedicated button like the one above.
Exposure compensation allows you to increase or decrease exposure from what the camera thinks is optimal in small, often 1/2 or 1/3 stop, increments. Exposure compensation forces the camera to overexpose or underexpose the image from what it considers normal. (High Key and Low Key are preset settings available on some cameras to perform the same function, though with less control over the degree of the effect.)

18. Metering Modes

Metering is the term for measuring the light used to record an image and determining settings to use for proper exposure. Some cameras may offer several different metering modes. Here are the most common:
Matrix (also called Pattern, Zone, Intelligent or ESP) Metering. The camera samples specific points from all over the image. Depending on the camera, anywhere from a handful to more than 50 points may be sampled. The light intensity at each of these points is fed into a complex algorithm which is used to set exposure.

Center-Weighted. This is the same as above except that an area in the very center of the image frame representing ~30% of the total area is given disproportionate weight in the calculations.

Spot.Only a tiny spot, representing from 1%-5% of the total image frame is used for metering. Spot metering is fairly specialized and should generally be used only when the light falling on your subject is vastly different from its surroundings. Examples might include a spotlit performer on stage in a darkened auditorium or a skier wearing dark clothing but surrounded by bright snow.
The basic goal of the camera is to come up with a correct exposure. To use an analogy, if the scene were converted to a black-and-white picture, the camera wants a scene where all of the tones mixed together come out to a nice medium grey.

19. White Balance Presets

All but the simplest of digital cameras have preset white balance settings. These are usually found on one of the menus and are often identified by pictograms. There may or may not be explanations or other information displayed when you select one of the pictograms.

Auto

The automatic setting is default and is found on all digital cameras. Those without selectable settings have only the automatic white balance. With this, the camera attempts to interpret the color cast of the dominant light source(s) in the scene and correct for them so that, if a white object were in the image, it would come out properly white.
Automatic white balance is generally pretty decent. The problem with it is that the camera must guess. It has no way of knowing for certain the kind of subject being photographed nor the kind of light shining on the scene.

Sunny

The sunny preset, sometimes called Direct Sun, Bright Sun or some other variation, tells the camera that the primary light source is unmodified sunlight.

Cloudy

This preset may also be called Overcast. It assumes a slightly blue tint to the light source and warms the color balance of the image to compensate.

Shade

If your camera has a Shade or Shadow setting, it tells the camera that the light is even more blue than with Cloudy. The camera warms the color balance even more.

Tungsten

This setting, also sometimes called Incandescent, is usually indicated by a lightbulb. An ordinary incandescent light bulb has a much warmer color tone than the photographic reference point of sunlight. With the camera set on this setting, it will compensate by making the color balance of the captured image much cooler (more blue) than “normal”.

Flourescent

Some cameras, especially more advanced models, may have multiple variations on the setting for fluorescent lights. Those that don’t will assume cool white fluorescents. There are also warm white fluorescents and daylight-balanced fluorescents.

Custom White Balance

Some cameras may have custom white balance settings in which you can specify the color temperature of the light source in degrees Kelvin or can “photograph” a white surface that is being lit by your primary light source. In that case, the camera would read the color of the light and figure out on its own what adjustments to make to bring back true color fidelity.
It’s very important to note that, in all cases, you are telling your camera what kind of light is falling on the subject you are photographing. If you are standing under the shade of a tree but photographing a subject in direct sun, set your white balance for Sunny because that’s where the subject is. Likewise, if you were inside your house under tungsten lights but shooting out the window to get a picture of a bird under overcast skies, set your white balance for Cloudy because that’s the kind of light falling on your subject.

20. Using Autofocus

Many cameras have two types of autofocus:

• Single autofocus (S-AF) focuses when the shutter button is pressed halfway. Once focus is achieved and locked, as long as the button is held halfway down, focus stays locked even if you recompose or the subject moves.
• Continuous autofocus (C-AF) begins focusing when the shutter button is pressed halfway and will continue adjusting focus until the picture is taken.
• Shooting with these two modes requires completely different techniques. With S-AF, it is highly desirable to press the shutter halfway then adjust your composition before making the exposure. With C-AF, pressing the shutter halfway will only waste battery life and lead to more out of focus shots by causing the camera to hunt for focus more. It’s better simply to take the picture.

One thing to note about subjects moving toward or away from you when using C-AF is camera-to-subject distance. Subjects that are physically farther away, even if you are zoomed in so that they appear close in the image frame, are easier to focus on. To understand this, let’s assume you are taking a picture of a runner coming directly toward you. With a short lens, let’s say the runner is 10′ (3m) away when you start to focus and moves 1′ (0.3m) closer while you are making the exposure. That is a 10% change in camera-to-subject distance.
Now let’s suppose you photograph the same runner with a longer telephoto or zoom lens. Say the runner is now 50′ (15.2m) away and still moves 1′ (0.3m) closer while you make the exposure. That movement represents only 2% of the camera-to-subject distance. Relatively speaking, your camera has to make a much smaller adjustment to compensate for the same amount of subject movement. (Note that zooming in on distant subjects introduces the potential issue of camera shake.)
Cameras which offer C-AF will also offer some type of focus priority feature. This prevents the exposure from being made unless the camera has gotten sharp focus. This feature can usually be turned on or off.
Autofocus cameras which do not offer a choice most often use S-AF. You may be able to ‘trick’ cameras by using the preset shooting modes; Action and Children modes will typically use C-AF while most other modes, especially Close-up, Portrait and Landscape will use S-AF.
There are also manual focus and focus-free cameras. Manual focus is self-explanatory. Focus-free uses such a great depth of field that the camera doesn’t bother with changing focus at all. These are very limited in the effects you can produce and are rarely good at focusing closely.

 

Thanks to:  http://photo.tutsplus.com for information used in this article.