My FAVORITE two buttons! Video Lecture | Capture like a Pro: Digital Photography Tutorial - Professional Skills

I'm Tony Northup and for my book
stunning digital photography I'd like to
tell you about back button focus a
technique that changed my photography
and sped everything up in a nutshell it
separates focusing from the shutter
button normally when you take a picture
you push the shutter halfway down it
focuses and then you push it all the way
and you take the shot that's not always
what you want though because that means
every time you take a picture the camera
has to automatically refocus and if you
don't want that you have to go on the
lens and switch it to manual and that's
kind of a slow process and back button
focus allows you to focus by pushing the
AF on button or another button on the
back of the camera and when you push the
shutter button it never focuses so every
time you shoot you decide whether you
want to focus or not let me show you one
of the benefits when you're shooting
portraits I'm going to turn around and
take a picture of Chelsea I wanted to
compose the picture with Chelsea's eyes
outside where the focusing points on
this camera are I wanted them up near
the top of the frame that required me to
use a technique called focus and
recompose where I put the focusing point
on our eye focus and then recompose for
the shot I want with back button focus
that was no problem I could put the
focusing point on her I press the AF on
button and then shoot as many times as
they want until one of us moved and then
I would need to refocus without back
button focus every time I let my finger
up off the shutter button I would have
had to repeat the focus and recompose
process therefore back button focus for
the sake of portraits many things move
along much faster by allowing me to
shoot many times without needing to
refocus she's wiggling check the
description for instructions on how to
set up back button focus on your
specific camera model pixel went off to
chase another dog but I'll say that
focus recompose is even more important
for group portraits imagine if I'm
shooting three rows of people normally I
want to focus on the second row of
people and then take a whole bunch of
shots to make sure that I have one shot
where everybody's smiling and their eyes
are open but focus is linked to the
shutter button as it is by default every
time I go to take a picture it's gonna
refocus and it might miss focus or it
might focus on the wrong person the back
button focus I just pushed that once
lock in focus and then I can't
as many pictures they want until the
people move or I move my camera for
weddings and events I can keep my camera
in continuous focus all the time for
times when I just need to lock focus
like single focus I can just push the
button until it focuses and then let go
four times when somebody's moving like a
bride walking up the aisle I just hold
the a FN button down and it will
continuously track them so it gives you
the best of both worlds between
continuous and still focusing on
mirrorless cameras with I detect
autofocus like Sony and Fuji cameras I
programmed the AF on button to be
regular autofocus and then I programmed
the AEL button or the button on the lens
to do I detect autofocus this allows me
to instantly choose between focusing on
a single point or focusing on a human
eye so Chelsea and the puppy here I can
either choose to focus on Chelsea's eye
or on the puppy focus on Chelsea's eye
or press the AF on button to focus on
the puppy during a portrait shoot this
gives me the ability to instantly adapt
to changing situations if the model's
facing me and her eyes are clear AEE l
will focus on the eyes instantly if they
turn away or if they're closing their
eyes or I detect doesn't work for some
reason I can always switch back to AF on
and do traditional focusing instantly
sports are an awesome time to use back
button focus when somebody's running
I'll be using continuous focus and
continuous shutter and I'll hold the
back button down that would behave
exactly like you weren't using back
button focus let's try that first and
then you'll really realize the benefit
realize the benefit a back button focus
is when you don't need to use it like
when a subject isn't moving or they're
moving parallel to the sensor in this
case I'm gonna have Madeline try to make
a goal on the goalie and by letting off
a back button focus I'll stop my camera
from focusing while I'm shooting what
that does is actually speed the camera
up you don't know it but if you're in
continuous shooting the cameras taking
pictures as fast as it can but it has to
pause between shots to refocus when you
let go of back button focus it doesn't
have to pause and it will shoot faster
and faster let's give it a shot
nice so how much of a difference that
make on the Sony a nine it will shoot
about 12 13 14 frames a second when I
have the back button focus pulled down
and when I let off it'll shoot up to 20
frames a second so when extra 30% frames
that can make the difference between the
perfect moment and almost the perfect
moment and that can make a real
difference in the ultimate photos that
you produce and that way back button
focus gives you better photos
I love having back button autofocus when
I'm shooting wildlife because I like the
features of decoupling you're focusing
we just shutter button it leaves me free
to hold down the back button focus while
I'm shooting and it can just refocus as
I'm tracking an animal if you have a
newer camera and it supports using
multiple buttons to program back button
autofocus you can use one button and
program it for a single point autofocus
and the other one for all point auto
focusing you might want to use a single
autofocus point if there's a cluttered
background and you want to lock into
that one point of the picture if you
have a clear background like when a
bird's flying through the sky you can
use all focusing points and I find that
much easier in wildlife photography
before I discovered back button focus I
was always switching between AFS single
AF for things like perched birds waiting
to to focus and recompose and then
continuous autofocus for tracking moving
Birds and so I'd be shooting a bird that
was perched in a tree and then suddenly
it would take off and in that split
second I would try to go in and switch
mode so that I could track autofocus and
it just didn't work at all but with back
button focus I can keep the camera in
continuous autofocus all the time when a
bird is closed and it's perched and I
want to autofocus on it I just hold down
AF on until it locks in focus and then I
can recompose and keep shooting without
worrying about refocusing when I push
the shutter button and then as soon as
it takes off I just hold down AF on and
it tracks it the whole time night
photography is one of the most useful
times to have back button focus here's
why it's really hard to focus at night
and every time you take a picture
without back button focus you're gonna
push the shutter and that's gonna cause
the camera to refocus that's incredibly
frustrating because often your camera
won't be able to focus properly so you
try to pick take a picture and I'll be
hunting in and out and then failing
frequently I'll use manual focus for at
night photography the back button focus
I don't have to fumble to find the
manual focus switch on my camera in the
dark because with back button focus I
can manually focus at any point and not
that focus when I go to take a picture
if I have a friend who's shining a
flashlight on a building or something
that I want to focus on they will fly on
that flashlight for a moment I'll focus
on it by pushing the back button and
then I can take repeated pictures I can
recompose my shot use different
compositions and I know my focus is
going to be locked in if I don't use
back button focus and every time I touch
the shutter button the camera is going
to try to refocus it's going to hunt and
possibly ruin it especially for
astrophotography you can do manual focus
sure both back button focus sometimes
some cameras can actually auto focus on
bright stars and that's so much more
accurate than trying to manual focus so
again back button focus gives you best
of manual focus the best of single auto
focus and the best of continuous auto
focus setting up back button focus is a
little bit different on every camera
fortunately we've made free tutorials
for more than 50 popular cameras just
head to STP dot io / tutorial and find
the tutorial for the camera that most
closely matches your camera model then
look in the description for the link
that takes you to the part of the
tutorial about back button focus I hope
this helped I'd love to hear your
experiences in the comments down below
check out my book a stunning digital
photography which has 14 hours of video
training in it and of course a whole
book hands-on practices access to a
private Facebook group with peer support
quizzes at the end of chapters where you
can use to to test your own knowledge
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