I remember a time when I barely knew how to work my first Canon Digital SLR camera.

Google became my bestest friend forever everyday, I re-read the manual like it was a riveting New York Times bestseller story, and I threw out questions left and right to veteran photographers in hopes that someone can puh-leeeease tell me what the button/dial/thinga-ma-jiggy on my camera was for, because really, I don't get it and I swear the On/Off button keeps hiding from me.

Just as much as I love taking photographs, I also love helping answer questions from random folks, friends, and family who just enjoy the art of photography and who, like me at one time, also wondered about that certain camera function or that thingy-ma-jiggy-button. The opportunity to geek out and have someone willingly tolerate my squealing excitement and long-winded explanations of how cool a camera function is, in my little ol' world, priceless. And if there's one thing I've learned from other professionals who have helped me along the way, it's the importance of contributing something back, big or small.

That being said, here goes the first installment of Techy Tuedsays and Tips. (And yes, I absolutely played on the whole T for Tuesdays because I sometimes think I'm cool like that. Glasses, pocket protector, and ear to ear smile to match.)

If you were anything like me when I was starting out with my digital SLR, I loved me some tack sharp photos, but always set the camera to have all the focal points light up like this:

When the focal points are all lit up like this, you camera will automatically select and lock focus on whatever it wants to focus on. And while this may seem helpful at first, it's actually not, especially when you want a certain portion of the photo to be absolutely tack sharp.

Instead of allowing your camera to select the focal point for you, try manually selecting the focal point yourself (as per below), and then aiming it at the portion of the photograph you want absolute sharp focus on. In the example below, the center focus point is selected among the myriad of focal points you can choose from.

Whenever I am shooting portraits of people, I always select just one focal point, move my camera to compose the photo, and lock that focal point on the subject's eye, to ensure the absolute best results.

Happy Tuesday!