BACK BUTTON FOCUS Explained! - Why you will NEVER go back - Bird Photography Secrets Revealed

[Music] [Music] [Music] most proceeded almost all other photographers are confused by it what am I talking about back button out of focusing how's it possible that a little button like that on the back of the camera cause it's so much confusion well let me solve the mystery for you today and show you it's actually great to use this button on the back of your camera to focus instead of finding focus with your shutter button when I first heard that you can use the Avon button or star button or rear button of your camera to find focus I thought what a lot of rubbish who would need that I'm just using my shutter button but then one day I was on a boat with a friend with photographing seagulls coming in to catch fish out of the water my friend constantly got really nice shots with my camera kept blocking onto the back end so I asked what are you doing differently and he's like well I'm using the star button on my camera to focus so I can keep my finger on the shutter button but use my thumb to focus at the right times when I want to focus on the Eagle so I'm like hmm sounds interesting I tried it out it was very confusing at the start but I got a hang of it and I've never looked back in since then I've been a big fan of it when it comes to our older focusing systems there's usually two molds available to us one static mode like this one shot on Canon ef-s on Nikon where the camera just focuses on one point the sharpness of focus stays on that one point until you refocus again so that allows you to for instance focus on the bird's head and then recompose the shot in your camera and take the shot that is great for static and non moving subjects however with action subjects it's not very feasible if your camera just focuses on one point while the subject is moving so there we have tracking out of focus or AI server where the camera as long as you press the button on the back or the front focuses on your subject and you can go with the subject and the focus stays on the subject tracking your subject so this is fantastic for moving subjects birds and flyed or a lot of action shots however it doesn't allow you to recompose your shots the moment a bird purchase or sits still again because while you're maintaining focus on the bird it stays sharp but if you're trying to recompose your shot your focus will instantly jump off the bird and will likely jump onto a background giving you an out-of-focus image and now you might say I could just simply take my finger off the shutter button so my camera stops focusing then recompose but that doesn't work because the moment you press the shutter button half again your camera will start focusing again and you lose focus on the bird so now we have two modes both are great for different situations but we all know that it's not easy in the field to change between modes all the time that will take way too long so wouldn't it be great if there was a way to have the best of both worlds in one mode so what do we do when it comes to the back button focusing it's simple we'd remove the focusing function from the front shutter button and assign it to one of these buttons at the back of the camera here personally I like to assign it to the star button because economically it's the nicest for my finger often cameras already have it assigned to the Avon button over here so you might not have to change it if you're happy with a or fun body the key feature is that we only assign the metering into taking the pictures to the front shutter button and remove the front shutter button functionality of actually focusing we want to only be able to focus on the back heel and in the front we just do the metering into taking the picture so by simply removing the focusing function from the front shutter button and assigning it to one of the rear buttons my continuous mode can now act as a continuous mode and as a single shot or one shot mode at the same time how is that possible well if we keep holding down that button our camera will continuously check our subject but when I let this button go the focus will now stay in the last point that are focused on because I removed the focusing function from the front shutter button if I press it now it will just take an image and not mess with my focus so now I'm continuous mode but I can use it like a one shuttle I put my continuous focus onto the bird's head let the rear button go recompose my image take the shot so now it acted just like a one shot model so I've found a way to get the best of both worlds in one neat little package and this is why I love it so much in this as well would never go back to just having all the functions on the one button and this is what I think that you should give it a go as well have you trotted yet yourself if so let me know in the comments so what other advantages does back button focusing have besides combining the one shot model single shot mode in continuous mode into one mode depending on how I press the button in the rear here first of all what I really like about it I never have to take my finger off the shutter button anymore because the shutter button only does the metering and takes the images I can basically now have it half pressed at all time so I'm always ready to fire so this allows me to take pictures faster and just be that little second quicker that sometimes matters using back button outer focusing also allows you to pre focus on a purge and then take the pictures the moment a bird lands this doesn't work with using the shutter button for focusing because if you pre focus on a purge and then press the button again to take your shot the camera will attempt to focus and often just misses the perch and goes on to the backup and you're missing a shot that cannot happen with using one of the rear buttons to focus because I focus I'll let go to focus will stay on the perch and they're using the front button to take my shots I'm getting some amazing shots of the birds just landing with the wings of shots that I would not be able to get if I was using the front button for focusing using back button focusing is also great for flight shots because what we want to do with fly shots we don't want to start chucking a bird when it's really far away in a distant no we want to keep checking the bird in the viewfinder but only focus from time to time so our camera kind of has focus on the bird but we don't want to focus at all time so we only really want to start focusing when the bird comes into your hot zone where we want to take our images that gives our camera less scope to just jump onto the background however I found with fly shots I was a lot more tempted to focus on a bird earlier when using the front shutter bun why is that simply because I wanted to be ready with my finger in the shooting position so when the bird was approaching the hot zone I started to put my finger halfway down because I wanted to be ready to shoot but then also my camera started focusing so often my camera would jump onto the background loose check of the bird just before it reached a hot zone so annoying and I missed out on so many shots so by signing the focusing to the rear button I'm now able to have my finger halfway down and in shooting position the whole time pumping the focus with the rear button and when the bird gets into the hot zone I simply press the button focus stays on the bird and I shoot my pictures with the front shutter button this might not work for everyone but it has certainly increased my keeper right dramatically for flight shots and even when you camera jumps onto background I found it a lot easier to pump the focus back with the rear button then trying to get it with the front shutter button there's two more great advantages of using back button focus that I haven't even mentioned first of all by separating out the focusing from the shutter button onto one of the rear buttons the camera now fires whenever you press the shutter button there's no delay anymore sometimes under standard settings your camera prioritizes acquiring focus over taking a picture so you might press the shutter button and there's a delay because the camera is still trying to acquire focus and only then takes a picture especially with fly shots that can be a great disadvantage because you might lose track of the bird secondly you can now use manual focus at all times I find it very helpful for instance if there's a bit of foliage in front of a bird and the outer focus always catches on to that so because we removed the focusing function from the front shutter button you can manually focus and when you press it it won't mess with what you've done in the manual mode allowing you to manually acquire focus and difficult situation and then take your shots whereas if you've signed to focus to the front shutter button you change something manually and then press it again it will jump off your manual setting again and not allowing you to use the manual focus effectively setting up back button outer focusing is very simple you just have to go to the custom functions of your camera go to good custom controls and then remove the outer focusing function from the front shutter button setting into metering only and then assign focusing to one of the rear buttons whichever you like if you like using the AF but it usually has to focusing assigned already to it so you don't even need to do anything what's really important that you remove the focusing from the front shut about in one of my next videos I want to answer some of the questions that you always wanted to know so if you have a question that you always wanted to ask me about bird photography or how I became a professional photographer put them down there in the comments and I will answer the best ones in one of my next videos I hope you enjoyed today's inside into back button outer focusing and that you might give it a crack yourself now in the beginning it will be a little bit confusing but I know it will be worth it in the long run and you will really love it so don't give up in the beginning when it gets confusing you don't know which button to press hang in there you will love it eventually if not let me know in the comments have you tried it are you gonna try it now how are you going with it let me know give me a thumbs up subscribe to my channel down there and I will see you in one of our next videos bye

Channel: Jan Wegener

Views: 44,843

Keywords: bird photography, australia, vogelfotografie, jan wegener, birding, photography, birds, tutorial, equipment, exposure, manual mode, aperture, depth of field, wildlife photography, nature photography, back button focus, auto focus, back-button focus, focus modes, focussing, canon, canon 600 L IS, peregrine falcon, 5D Mark IV, 5D Mark III, LensCoat, af-on button, af-on, AI-Servo, AF-S, One Shot, bird photography equipment

Id: g5fLwtT9vGg

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Sat May 30 2020