Samsung Galaxy S5 Guide

Galaxy S5 Selective Focus

Update 1: the following 3 sections added:  1). How to use  and enable Galaxy S5 Selective Focus? 2). How to change focus for photos taken with Galaxy S5 Selective Focus? and 3). Why did I fail to use Galaxy S5 selective focus successfully?

What is Galaxy S5 Selective Focus?

Galaxy S5 Selective Focus allows you to focus on what’s important by blurring the background and accentuating the main subject in defined detail.

Essentially, Galaxy S5 selective focus lets you choose to focus on the foreground, background, or focus evenly across the image.

That’s it. And it is pretty cool.

For example, check the photo below. In the past, you have to rely on DSLR cameras or photoshop to get the similar photo. With  selective focus, Galaxy S5 can easy take such pictures.

galaxy_s5_selective_focus

Galaxy S5 Selective Focus allows you to change your mind after the photo is taken

Once the photo is taken with Galaxy S5 selective focus, it is saved in your Galaxy S5 and you can view it as normal photos.

But you can do more with photos taken using selective focus: you can change the focus as you want in the gallery and save it as a new photo.

In other words, Galaxy S5 selective focus allows you to change your mind by changing the focus on the original photo. You have 3 options for the focus: near focus, far focus, and pan focus as showing below.

galaxy-s5-selective-focus-change-focus

Please note, you can only change focus in Galaxy S5. If you transfer the photo to other devices, it is a normal photo with the focus you last selected. There is no option to change focus.

Does Galaxy S5 Selective Focus work with video?

The selective focus in Galaxy S5 is really interesting and useful.

You may wonder whether this feature works for video. For example, you want the focus always to be on a person or an object.

Unfortunately, Galaxy S5 selective focus works with photos only. You cannot use this feature for taking videos.

The main reason is selective focus does not track the motion of the object. Also, the additional processing efforts needed make it impractical to use this feature for videos.

What are the side effects of Galaxy S5 selective focus?

Everything comes with a price.

The price you have to pay for Galaxy S5 selective focus is the additional processing time.

In other words, after taking the photo, it will take considerable time to process the photo (so that later you can change focus).

When taking a selective focus photo, you need hold S5 still for noticeably longer time than that for normal photos. It is even not as fast as HDR in Galaxy S5. But it should be close or slightly faster than taking HDR photo with other smartphones (e.g., Galaxy Note 3).

galaxy_s5-selective-focus-processing

How to use  and enable Galaxy S5 Selective Focus?

By default, Galaxy S5 Camera app has two shortcuts added in the left side. The first one is selective focus. The other one is HDR.

You can tap the shortcut to enable Galaxy S5 selective focus immediately. The selective focus mode will be indicated on the display as shown below.

how_to_use_galaxy_s5_selective_focus_enabled

 

Because HDR (rich tone) does not work with selective focus, HDR icon will be grayed out once Galaxy S5 selective focus mode is enabled.

There are some features that does not work with selective focus. These include:

  • burst shots
  • HDR (rich tone)
  • picture stabilization
  • face detection
  • manual ISO
  • photo effects
  • manual white balance
  • remote  viewfinder
  • front camera
  • flash

If, for any reason, the shortcuts in your camera app are not the default two. You can manually add selective focus to the shortcut.  This means you can also add any shortcuts to replace selective focus if you are not happy with selective focus.

In the camera app, tap setting icon (the gear button). Then in the settings window, you can tap and hold any items, then drag it to the shortcut location. This will essentially add a shortcut for this item.

how_to_use_galaxy_s5_selective_focus_add_shortcut

How to change focus for photos taken with Galaxy S5 Selective Focus?

Once a photo is taken successfully with Galaxy S5 selective focus, you can change the focus when editing it in Gallery app.

The edit icon for such photos are slightly different from other photos as shown below.

how_to_use_galaxy_s5_selective_focus_edit_photo

Tap the edit icon, you can change focus of the photo. There are three options currently:

  1. near focus
  2. far focus
  3. pan focus

You may find the differences of these 3 focus modes easily as shown below.

how_to_use_galaxy_s5_selective_focus_near_focus

how_to_use_galaxy_s5_selective_focus_far_focus

how_to_use_galaxy_s5_selective_focus_pan_focus

Why did I fail to use Galaxy S5 selective focus successfully?

It is not so easy to make Galaxy S5 selective focus work as expected. A lot of Galaxy S5 owners often get the message of selective focus not applied. This means you will only get the normal picture.

Some basic requirements for Galaxy S5 selective focus include:

  • the front object should be about 10-60 cm away from the camera;
  • the background object should be at least twice of the distance mentioned above;
  • the background should be some objects, NOT plain walls;
  • the objects are not moving;
  • your luck (sometimes, it simply refuses to work).

Do you have any questions on using Galaxy S5 Selective Focus? Please let us know them in the comment box below.

To know more about Galaxy S5, please check our Samsung Galaxy S5 features explained page.

More how-to guides , tips and tricks for using Samsung Galaxy S5 are available at Samsung Galaxy S5 how-to guides page.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. Emmanuel says

    I had the same problem of the selective focus and settings icon not appearing on the screen. If you go to settings \ personalisation \ easy mode and then change it to standard mode, the selective focus should now appear on your camera.

    Reply

  7. Rachel says

    There are no words showing up on the screen giving options as I’ve seen in several videos. The options let you choose fore or aft ground to be unfocused and other things. Where is this feature?

    Reply

  8. Rachel says

    Mt reply was edited. Im talking abt instructions visualized on screen for selective focus. Not on my phone
    Why not?

    Reply

  9. Sami Balchion says

    I’m having trouble with changing the Selective focus after I have taken the image. I got the phone so I was trying the new camera features. I was taking a picture of a doll with Selective focus. I selected the doll to focus on, after that the doll was clearly visible and the background was blurred as it should be. Then I toke the picture with the doll still focused but the Processing dialog sometimes appear and sometimes it doesn’t. In both cases a dialog appear after the picture is taken saying: “Picture saved, but unable to apply Focus contrast effect. Select area to focus on and try again.” And when I open the picture in the gallery, the Selective focus do not appear. And also the green circle that appear when I tap to select the focus, sometimes appear red. What is the problem ?

    Reply

  11. ali says

    I take a perfect photo of selective focus but guys how can u see the option of pan focus, near focus and far focus plzz help me

    Reply

  12. mark says

    Selective focus never finds the object. Hasnt in weeks at least since the update. When i first got the phone I could use on pretty much anything near or far. Now it wont focus on something 10 inches to three feet away. I know it is not your job but obviously you are someone to samsung. This thing needs an update asap.

    Reply

  14. sanju vijay says

    in my S5 camera don’t have settings option and selective focus option. pls give replay as soon as possible.

    Reply

  15. sanju vijay says

    in my s5 camera have 3 mode option that is Auto, Beauty Face, Panorama. only these 3. plzz help

    Reply

  17. veronica says

    When I take a picture it automatically goes to view that picture. I would like to take picture after picture without having to go back to take another picture.

    Reply

  18. Dennis says

    Why does selective focus keep greying out and making it unable to use? It was greyed out, then I resented my camera settings and closed the app and it came back. But I just went to take another picture about 30 minutes later and it’s greyed out again. Anyone know why?

    Reply

  19. karwan says

    what is my prb with selective focus ? when i take a pic after the processing it says unable to apply selective focus because the subject not detected .. could someone help me please thank you

    Reply

  20. Dhrubo says

    My problem is same as karwans. …it says subject not detected….then I tried it in a mug, headphone, pen, apple..no use…I tried it even taking the camera closer but nothing happened they said subject not detected. ..please give me a solution I’m tired of trying but no work

    Reply

  21. sanju says

    i am facing some problems, simon please help me, in my S5 cant send text msgs to some numbers example my country tollfree numbers,

    Reply

  23. sanju says

    and my another problem was when i try to download from play store some error was showing something 504 error… please help simon,

    Reply

  24. Fanny says

    Guys I can’t find the setting to change the camera modes! The cam doesn’t have the round setting wheel?

    Reply

  25. Fatema says

    The selective focus in the S5 camera is great, but most of the time I get this message “subject not detected!”
    Although the subject is so close to the camera…
    So I need to know how to detect the subject exactly? And what is the difference between the red circle and the green circle that appear when I am taking photos?

    Reply

  26. Mr. Uong says

    Problem with my pictures for my Samsung Galaxy S5 Camera, when I took the picture, the picture looks great very clear with all the sharpness and everything, it looks great as same as it shown on the camera phone. However, when I closed out the camera and then go right back and look at the picture which I just took, and it was not look the same. No sharpness. Not clear at all. Please advise as how to correct it. Because, when I first bought the phone the picture looks great. Appreciated for your assistance.

    Reply

  27. sanju says

    My music player was not auto updating, when i download or added some songs, then i have to restart the device, then only those tracks will add to my player?

    Reply

  28. edith says

    I take a picture and i am not able to take another one right after, it takes me right to view the picture i just took, PLEASE HELP.I Missed some great pictures today of my kids feeding a giraffe for this reason. 🙁

    Reply

  29. Bassel says

    Is there any software that I can open these pictures on PC?, and still able to choose near, far, or pan focus.

    Reply

  31. Orsi says

    hello again:) i have some probleme with my phone the problem is with the download booster,in the notification panel appears a small circle that is crossed,not the little 4g.why??what is the problem and when i turned on..nothing changes..:((not faster,such as those with or without:( now i dont have sim card in the phon,maybe this is the problem??:((what can i do to work??help me please:(

    Reply

  32. Orsi says

    It was an option in the setting , that: Developments,and i have activated,and then sometimes the phone freezes and stutters why?,and when i restart the phone and I disabled this option it worked…why??

    Reply

  34. shiva says

    I don’t want to fool any one … I have Samsung s5 mobile .. I faced that problem still .. If you have solve this problem. . help me oknow

    Reply

  35. Anders says

    Selective focus have just stopped working on my phone. It works just normal when taking the photo, no error messages or anything, but when editing the photo afterwards you can only choose long or short focus, the focus all option is just greyed out and doesn’t work…

    Reply

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