If you are an avid photographer you may already realize that photographs that catch your eye typically don’t have the subject in the center of the frame.

Unfortunately many of us rely on point and shoot cameras; however, with point and shoot the sensor brings into focus whatever is in the center of the frame.

To put your subject off-center and still retain focus on them you want to center your subject in the frame and then press the shutter release halfway down, now you can move the camera until you like the composition and press fully on the shutter release button to take your photo.

Almost all point and shoot cameras work this way, however since not everyone is willing to read the owner’s manual not everyone knows how to fix the problem.

You might notice, when using the above tip, that one side-effect of using pre-focusing is that most point and shoot cameras also tend to preset the exposure as well. If you are using a reflected light meter ideal exposure is achieved when the reflectance is 18% gray.

If you are uneasy about messing with the exposure compensation menus you can try to pre-focus on something that is the correct distance from the camera and is also a reasonable mid-tone. The goal is to avoid focusing on something that is pure white or black.