Auto focus question and advise T3I

I have had my t3i for about a year now; I have been learning as I go, I always had the focus points set to automatic and the camera picked its focus points, Should I be manually picking my focus points or just use the center point? What situations would I want to use the automatic selection? if any>

Thanks

IMHO, you should always pick the auto-focus point. Letting the camera pick will often be fine, but sometimes it will focus on something you don't want. This can occur if there is something brighter or closer than the subject you wish to be in focus. All my cameras are set for the center point. I change it only when I need to, but never to automatic.

jasperk99 wrote in post #15434775
What situations would I want to use the automatic selection? if any>

Any situation where you think the camera knows better than you do what you want to be in focus.

I am somewhat new and my method is to use an all point auto focus when doing landscape with higher aperture. I use manual selection AF about 99%. On the 60D it is very fast to change to any of the 9 points.

Automatic AF point selection, and the "ICON" modes are like training wheels. Stop using them when you are confident you can get the bike... er, camera, to do what YOU want it to do. A buddy of mine shoots a 7D, and uses all the training wheels. He's happy with the results, and that is what counts.

Start by changing to center point and play with that for a while. Place your camera in AV mode or TV mode and play with what you can change to get a feel for what the setting differences do for you. get used to making quick changes with those different modes. After a short time you will be in manual mode letting your camera do auto ISO only and you telling it everything else. Eventually you may start telling the camera what ISO setting to use as well. The best practice is to just take photos of stuff you don't care about, just for the practice.

As for the speedlight, I found it much easier to use with the camera in manual. I adjust the flash and bounce angle for what I am shooting by taking plenty of test shots before. I also found that setting the ISO manually with the flash has helped some pics come out way better than they did before.