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Lesson Info

Autofocus Controls

So we're gonna be talking about two main concepts when it comes to auto focusing the lens. One is gonna be the focusing mode. And we have the option of doing single focus where we focus on a subject, it stops, and then we're locked in. The other option is a continuous focusing and that would be a for a subject that's moving forward and backwards away from you. So that's the focusing mode. The other aspect to focusing is focusing points. Whereabouts in that frame are you gonna choose to focus? The center, the left, all the points? And we're gonna have lots of little choices that we'll get into. A third area is the buttons that we press. There's a number of options that we can press in order to focus versus taking the pictures. And there's ways that we can customize our cameras so that they work a little differently and a little bit more easily for the type of work that we might be doing, depending on what we do. And so there's the shutter release button. There's also some auto focus loc...

k buttons. And we will be talking about back button focusing in this class. So let's do one at a time. First up is the focusing mode. All cameras that I know of have the option for at least two focusing modes. The first and most popular focusing mode is called single auto focus. And this is where the camera looks to focus on the first solid subject and once it achieves that subject, it stops focusing. Looks for the right answer and then it stops. So Canon calls this One Shot. Nikon calls is AF-S. Most companies call if AF-S. That's kind of the common name for this. So in single auto focus, we have our subject and we're gonna simply things right now. We're just gonna use the single focusing point in the middle. Our subject is out of focus. We're gonna press down halfway on the shutter release and our camera's gonna focus on that middle focusing point. And we have some good detail in which to focus here. We don't want to focus on the sky. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But we've got some good detail to focus. And we can take that picture, it's a very simple, easy picture to take. Now if we want to get our subject off to the side and we said I want to be a little artistic. I want to have these guys off to the side of the photo. How do we take that picture? Well, if we press down right now, that focusing point in the middle is just on blank blue sky and there's no detail. There's no horizontal lines or vertical lines or contrasts for it to pick up on. And so if we press halfway down, the camera is gonna try to focus, but it's not gonna be able to do anything. And if the camera can't achieve focus, it won't shoot a photo, all right. And you can try to press the button, but it's just not going to shoot. And that's because cameras for the most part are in a special mode, sometimes you can change, sometimes you can't. But on the middle to higher end cameras you can go in and change this. It's got a single auto focus, that's the mode we're in, focus priority. Which means the priority is is that the picture has to be in focus to take a photo. Which means it will not allow you to shoot this type of photo. And that is why, this is probably the most common problem with people who are not familiar with their cameras. They pick their camera up and camera's not working, it just won't take a picture. I mean, next to maybe a dead battery, or the camera being turned off, pressing the button and not getting it to take a picture is a problem because they're not pointing their focusing bracket at something that can achieve focus. They're not pointing their camera correctly. So if you want to be a little bit more creative and get your subjects away from one of the focusing points, which is something I highly encourage, what you need to do is you need to press halfway down to focus. And hopefully you realize that you can press down on your shutter release a little bit to focus and all the way to take the picture. So you have to be very comfortable with that halfway position. 'Cause it wakes your camera up, it allows you to focus. So now, we're focused on our three guys. And as long as we leave our finger halfway down on the shutter release, focus remains locked. Now we can recompose the camera however we want, leaving our finger halfway down, and then we can press all the way down to take the photo that we want. That way we can choose exactly what we want to focus on and we can choose exactly what the composition is. We are in total control there. And so in this case I want to focus on the tree that's a little bit off to the right hand side. I'm gonna move off to the right hand side, I'll press halfway down to focus, leaving my finger halfway down. I will recompose as I like, and then I will shoot the photo. In this case I need to focus off to the left hand side. So I'm gonna pan over to the left, using the center bracket, 'cause that's just what I'm using for this example. Focus on my subject and then reposition and time my shot to get the photo. And so this is a system that all photographers should have mastered forwards and backwards. You should be able to do this extremely easily, all right. 'Cause you want to focus where you want. You want to compose how you want. You're not gonna let the camera dictate these things to you. So that is called single auto focus. And that is how I keep my camera probably 90% of the time. Most of the time. Depends on what I'm shooting. Different people shoot different things. You're gonna have different percentages. So the other type of focusing that I use is continuous focusing. This is for action photography. This is where subjects are moving towards you and away from you. And so this is called AI Servo from Canon which I think is an oddball name. But that's their name. And with Nikon they call it AF-C. That's a fairly common name in the industry. Sometimes you'll just hear it called continuous or the C setting, something like that. And so this is where the camera continues to focus all the time. And this is so that you can get multiple photos in focus in a burst. So as I said I like to shoot a lot of running and cross country running. So as the runners are coming in to the finish line, I'm gonna press halfway down to start focusing on them as they're kind of out, a little bit far away. And as they get closer, I'm gonna press all the way down and the camera is gonna be continually focusing. And every one of these photos is in focus. And I also have the motor drive turned on. And so that's kind of an extra thing that you can have turned on as well so that you can get a series of photos. Now if I had the camera in single focus, I would end up with just as many photos probably, but just the first one would be in focus because the subject is moving between every one of those images. And so you have to be in continuous. When I go out to shoot sports, this is the first thing that I change in my camera. 'Cause it is the most important thing to me is making sure that I am tracking the focusing of that subject. Now I said just a moment ago all of these are in perfect focus. There is a little bit of a matter of opinion on that, okay. Most people can come up here and they would say it's all in focus. But if we were to magnify these things 20 feet tall, and look at the sharpness on his eye. The focus might be on his nose. Or on his ear. It's pretty close. It may not be 100% perfect. And so cameras, knowing that it's unlikely to be 100% perfect in this case, when you are in the continuous auto focus mode, your camera is put into what's called a Release Priority mode. Which means it is more important that you can press the shutter and take a photo, than having it perfectly in focus. You can just imagine if your camera had two people inside trying to make decisions. And one of 'em said it has to be in perfect focus and someone else said I gotta take the photo. And one person says, all right, take the photo now. And the other one says, it's not perfectly focused. It's not done, we gotta... No we need the photo now. And sports photographers found that they don't want their cameras to be too overly picky when it comes to how perfect the focus is. The fact of the matter is is that modern cameras are fantastic at this. And you can take a loop and these are all very worthy of enlargement. But as I said if you wanted to pixel peep, you could say well the grass a little in the back of his foot is more in focus than below the ball of his foot. And so that's the type of hypercritical area where it's not perfect. But by all practical means, these are very well in focus. And so a good continuous focusing system will be able to track this. Now there are different levels of camera. Nikon and Canon have cameras that sell for $ and they have cameras that sell for $5,000. They both have continuous auto focus systems. Would you like to place any bets as to which one of those cameras is better? They do have better systems in the higher end cameras. And so there are some cameras, yeah it's got continuous auto focusing. But how good is it? And so I have found a difference between the different levels of cameras as to how many shots you can get per second as well as how fast that focusing works and how well it works. But it's absolutely critical if you want to try to get a shot like this. The way that we used to do it before auto focusing. We had two systems. One, we had to get just perfectly smooth and be able to follow focus with our hand and be in perfect sync with our subject and our lens as we're focusing that lens. And there is a number of sports photographers who just did amazing work through the 70s and 80s. And in the late 80s when auto focus came around, auto focusing saved a lot of sports photographers careers. Because now they could let their cameras focus it. The other way that you could do this is you could just focus on a particular place on the ground. Just leave your camera manually focused and do one click. So this would be a really easy technique if you were gonna shoot the Olympic 100 meter sprint. You know for a fact they're gonna cross that finish line. And that's a really important place to be. You just focus on the finish line and you shoot that one shot. But now, with auto focusing, they're shooting 10, 12, 14 frames a second as they are a meter back, a half meter back, going across, raising their hands in victory, and so they get many more opportunities. So the auto focus allows us to do a lot more because we can shoot so many more photos, capturing different perfect little moments. And so subjects that are moving slightly towards you, slightly away from you, great opportunities for continuous auto focusing. There is a third option. I don't recommend it. But let's talk about it. Auto auto focus. This is where the camera will decide whether it will go into single focus or go into continuous focus. Canon calls this AI Focus. Nikon calls this AF-A. And I don't like this for the simple fact that you're not in control. The camera is deciding what it thinks is happening. And this might be kind of nice if you knew nothing about photography and you said I want the camera to do everything. But here's the problem. Let's think about the sport of basketball. Do basketball players move? Yes, they move very quickly. But do they ever stand still? Sometimes they do when they're guarding somebody and they're not sure which direction to go. They're gonna stay right there. So in that particular case, the camera would go to single auto focus, but then as soon as they move, the camera is in the wrong spot. And so I think it's a pretty easy call. Are you shooting action in sports or not? If you are shooting action in sports, it's the continuous auto focus mode. And if you're not getting good sports shots, that's probably the first mistake that I make, that you might make as well is you forgot to put it in the continuous focusing mode.