School tip Get in the zone
Zone focusing can speed up your reaction time for shooting from the hip for candid street photography
an alternative take on hyperfocal focusing, zone focusing is a technique that’s more suited to candid street photography than landscapes. The principle’s the same: switch to manual focusing and pre-focus the lens at a certain distance. Based on what you know about hyperfocal focusing, you’ll have an understanding for how large the depth of field ‘zone’ will be for your choice of focal length and aperture, and you can grab shots as the subject enters this zone and gets close to the preset distance – or when you manoeuvre the camera close enough to it. Using a prime lens, rather than a zoom, means that the depth of field is consistent for a given aperture, and you can shoot from the hip, without even looking through the viewfinder.