Before I inform you of this tip I just wanted to tell you that on Tuesday night I entered a Natural History competition at our camera club in Launceston. I was allowed to enter 3 images in the Projected Digital Image section of this competition. At this club there are a lot of members who have got letters as long as my arm after their names, another words some really top photographers, so I was up against some very stiff competition. Therefore I was really pleased, NO, over the moon to have all my 3 images placed. Two of them were equal second and the other one was first.
I have also just found out that I have been given a Highly Commended in the Suffolk Wildlife Trust photographic competition for 2015 with a photo titled "Muntjac Reflection". If you wish to see this photo then please look at my photos page and it is in my DPAGB folder.
Enough about my week and time to move on to the tip.
As you know from you reading my past blogs and looking at my images on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/robin.stanbridge.1 I like teaching people. On my images on Facebook I include the camera settings and I also give you a rough idea of where the photo was taken. Therefore in my blog every once in a while I will inform you of photography tips that I have picked up or learnt. This week's tip is all about Back Button Focusing and it is a great aid to Wildlife Photographers.
In wildlife photography speed is of the essence. Everything might happen just as you get there or you might have been waiting hours, days or weeks for it to happen. Either way you have to be ready to photograph the action as soon as it presents its self. There are lots of things I do prior to getting into position for photography to speed up my reaction and two of them are setting up my camera for what I "hope" to photograph and checking it all works. Another action to increase speed is something I do, but a lot of photographers don't, I use back button focusing. When I say "a lot of photographers don't " it's because they either don't need to, they have given up trying or they have never heard of it. If you are not a wildlife or sport photographer then back button focusing brings no benefits to the party. They have given up because it is quite hard to learn at the beginning but perseverance will pay off and once you have learnt it you will find focusing on your subject so much easier. They have never heard of it because, as in the case of Canon camera manuals I don't know about others but they could well be the same, it is buried deep in the manual and, surprise surprise, a lot of people never read the manual. Please don't look in shock and horror you know it's true.
Most photographers focus with the shutter release button on the front of the camera. This button carries out a few actions as soon as you press it. It focuses, it sets the exposure and it releases the shutter. Back button focusing takes off one of these actions and does exactly what is says on the can. The button I use to focus is on the top right rear of the camera and on my Canon it is labelled AF-ON. I use my thumb on this button as I can reach it and it is comfortable for me to use but you can change it to one of the other buttons closer to the edge to make it more comfortable for you if your thumb is not as long as mine. You can change the settings in your camera to do this so please read your manual as I cannot give you the information for every camera going. Once this setting has been changed I then set the focusing on my Canon camera to AI Servo mode, Continuous-servo AF on a Nikon or AF-C on a Sony. (Sorry I can't list all the camera makes) I then keep it on this focusing mode all the time. This saves me so much time changing from one shot mode to servo mode it also allows me to adjust focus manually without having to switch the autofocus button to the off position.
An example to show how this works is: - (please picture the scene) A person using the shutter release button is walking along a country lane when all of a sudden they see an Owl on a post. The best focusing mode would be One shot as the subject is still or not moving. The person would focus on the owl by holding the shutter release button half way down, recompose the image and then continue to press the shutter release the rest of the way down and take the photo. But if the owl flew off then one shot mode would be inappropriate and they would have to go through the menu system and change the mode to AI Servo mode by which time the owl might have flown off and they would have missed the opportunity for a good photograph. For me to get one shot mode I would press the button on the back to focus on the owl, release it, recompose the image and take the photo by pressing the shutter release button. But when the owl flies off all I would have to do is press and hold down the button on the back of the camera to focus and then press the shutter release button to get the photo. Like I have said back button focusing takes a while to get used to as you have always used the shutter release button to focus but once mastered you'll find it so much quicker and easier you'll ask yourself why you have never done this before.
Word of warning, when learning to do this please practice it at home around the house and not when out photographing wildlife because if like me you get excited when wildlife presents its self in front of you, you will forget to press the button at the back and think there is something wrong with your camera.