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Back-button focus for Birds
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Jun 25, 2019 11:55:57   #
John Gerlach Loc: Island Park, Idaho
 
I continually switch between a back-button focus method and having autofocus on the shutter button. It all depends on the situation. For all action photos where you need continuous focus all the time, I find it is simpler to keep the autofocus on the shutter button as then I don't have to fuss with the back-button AF-On button or the button to the right of it as I typically assign that to back button too. I do not have any problem with half-pressing the shutter button to force autofocus and then pressing it all the way down to shoot images.

But, for the harlequin ducks and the sandhill crane in Yellowstone during May, I selected back-button. The harlequins mostly swam and dove, but movement was nothing like flying birds. At times they held still while perched on rocks in the Le Hardy Rapids. For swimming birds, I held the back-button down while keeping the active AF point on its head as best I could - not easy when they move erratically and then dive out of sight. With a duck holding still, I put the active AF point on its head, push the AF-On button down, the lens focuses on the head, let up on the AF-on button to lock focus, recompose and shoot keeping the focus on the bird's head.

When I do have the autofocus assigned to the shutter button, I find using my right thumb to move the active AF point around is effective, but often there is no active AF point where the head of the bird is near the edge of the frame like the sandhill crane. Then back-button works well as the active AF point does not need to be on the target when back-button is used properly. Sometimes I also assign the AF-ON button to stop continuous autofocus when it is held down. I am doing that more and more when using my floating blind from Mr. JanGear. There are numerous other angles to back-button, so perhaps it is time for me to write another article on the topic for Nature Photographer - the magazine I have written a column in for more than 20 years. By the way, I also like to use the Touch screen autofocus in live view with my Canon 5D Mark IV and it does not work unless I have autofocus assigned to the shutter button. And it is convenient to assign back-button to two buttons on the rear of the camera that have a different autofocus point array. Then I can select a single AF point or a small cluster of active AF points just by the back-button option I decide to use. www.gerlachnaturephoto.com

Love is in the creek!
Love is in the creek!...
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Splish-splash taking a b.......
Splish-splash taking a b..........
(Download)

Harlequin duck
Harlequin duck...
(Download)

Harlequin duck - back button is wonderful here
Harlequin duck - back button is wonderful here...
(Download)

Harlequin duck pair at least for awhile
Harlequin duck pair at least for awhile...
(Download)

Sandhill crane - no AF point where the head is
Sandhill crane - no AF point where the head is...
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This rufous is all action, and quick too. Back-button is a waste of effort to me in this situation.
This rufous is all action, and quick too.  Back-bu...
(Download)

I used autofocus on the shutter button for this green-wing teal, but the action is slow enough where back-button certainly works fine
I used autofocus on the shutter button for this gr...
(Download)

When photographing hummers with natural light that are perched sometimes, and hovering sometimes, then back-button is the best choice for me. When only photographing hovering hummers, then I keep AF on the shutter button.
When photographing hummers with natural light that...
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I never use autofocus for macro, manual focus with live view is far better.
I never use autofocus for macro, manual focus with...
(Download)

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Jun 25, 2019 12:27:57   #
bleirer
 
Nice shots. Because of the quirks of my particular model, Canon RP. I like that last option you mentioned the best. I keep it at default -half press activates meter and AF, on servo all area eye detect, but set the af-on button to actually do AF off. When I press this I get focus lock if I need it but also get manual focus and focus peaking. This way I get focus peaking in servo, which is otherwise impossible on this camera.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:28:42   #
Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona
 
When I was still shooting Canon I got away from BBF. There are so many variables when shooting that I figured why not eliminate one. What initiated by consideration of simply staying with shutter button focus was the fact that when viewing images in DPP4, occasionally I was not able to see an active AF point in image. What that meant was that AF was not active. I attributed that fact to operator error (I was not depressing the back button sufficiently to activate the focus. When using shutter button AF, as you depress the button, AF has to become active. Its impossible for it not to if you have AF assigned to the button. So, I took out a variable. One of the limitations of Canon cameras is the relatively small array of focus points you can select, hence you comment about the need to use BBF when there is not a focus point avail in your final composition. I don't have that problem with Sony because of the larger number of possible AF points (across the entire screen). That by itself is a huge advantage not only for composition, but also the AF tracking can go anywhere in your screen.

Thanks for the post, very informative.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:30:32   #
dhroberts Loc: Boston, MA, USA
 
I agree completely that for BIF having the shutter button initiate focus is the right strategy.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:31:51   #
John Gerlach Loc: Island Park, Idaho
 
It is too bad Canon does not put AF point along the margin of the image where the head of my subject sometimes is.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:38:55   #
imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida
 
dhroberts wrote:
I agree completely that for BIF having the shutter button initiate focus is the right strategy.


mainly because, it is less challenging (faster) for my older mind than BBF. I do use BB for focus lock tho .....
.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:41:35   #
John Gerlach Loc: Island Park, Idaho
 
dhroberts wrote:
I agree completely that for BIF having the shutter button initiate focus is the right strategy.


Much of this is personal choice, but why you would want to do one more thing like hold the back-button down to initiate autofocus when only photographing action during a time when there is little chance of a still subject is a mystery to me. I do action as often as I can - just love it - and I don't have any trouble with it at all. I think tracking action and getting it sharp has a lot to do with the photographer's skills, more than equipment. Decades ago in my late teens and early twenties, I was a competitive skeet shooter. While I no longer harass "clay pigeons," the physical skills I developed then help me enormously when photographing action.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:43:17   #
Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona
 
My wife has done a lot of bird hunting and skeet shooting over the years. She is better at tracking birds with a camera than I am.

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Jun 25, 2019 12:43:59   #
bleirer
 
John Gerlach wrote:
It is too bad Canon does not put AF point along the margin of the image where the head of my subject sometimes is.


Mirrorless! Every pixel is a focus point, and down to f11.

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Jun 25, 2019 13:33:54   #
DaveO Loc: Northeast CT
 
Got some nice sunshine for a change where you are!

BTW, Blacktail Plateau Drive opened yesterday!

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Jun 25, 2019 13:53:29   #
imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida
 
imagemeister wrote:
mainly because, it is less challenging (faster) for my older mind than BBF. I do use BB for focus lock tho .....
.


I am pretty sure Arthur Morris has come to the same conclusion .....
.

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Jun 25, 2019 14:40:31   #
speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho
 
John Gerlach wrote:
I continually switch between a back-button focus method and having autofocus on the shutter button. It all depends on the situation. For all action photos where you need continuous focus all the time, I find it is simpler to keep the autofocus on the shutter button as then I don't have to fuss with the back-button AF-On button or the button to the right of it as I typically assign that to back button too. I do not have any problem with half-pressing the shutter button to force autofocus and then pressing it all the way down to shoot images.

But, for the harlequin ducks and the sandhill crane in Yellowstone during May, I selected back-button. The harlequins mostly swam and dove, but movement was nothing like flying birds. At times they held still while perched on rocks in the Le Hardy Rapids. For swimming birds, I held the back-button down while keeping the active AF point on its head as best I could - not easy when they move erratically and then dive out of sight. With a duck holding still, I put the active AF point on its head, push the AF-On button down, the lens focuses on the head, let up on the AF-on button to lock focus, recompose and shoot keeping the focus on the bird's head.

When I do have the autofocus assigned to the shutter button, I find using my right thumb to move the active AF point around is effective, but often there is no active AF point where the head of the bird is near the edge of the frame like the sandhill crane. Then back-button works well as the active AF point does not need to be on the target when back-button is used properly. Sometimes I also assign the AF-ON button to stop continuous autofocus when it is held down. I am doing that more and more when using my floating blind from Mr. JanGear. There are numerous other angles to back-button, so perhaps it is time for me to write another article on the topic for Nature Photographer - the magazine I have written a column in for more than 20 years. By the way, I also like to use the Touch screen autofocus in live view with my Canon 5D Mark IV and it does not work unless I have autofocus assigned to the shutter button. And it is convenient to assign back-button to two buttons on the rear of the camera that have a different autofocus point array. Then I can select a single AF point or a small cluster of active AF points just by the back-button option I decide to use. www.gerlachnaturephoto.com
I continually switch between a back-button focus m... (show quote)


I haven't used the shutter button in probably 20 years, I only use BBF and I use it for everything, I never switch anything around, but that's just me

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Jun 25, 2019 15:03:02   #
joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois
 
John Gerlach wrote:
I continually switch between a back-button focus method and having autofocus on the shutter button. It all depends on the situation. For all action photos where you need continuous focus all the time, I find it is simpler to keep the autofocus on the shutter button as then I don't have to fuss with the back-button AF-On button or the button to the right of it as I typically assign that to back button too. I do not have any problem with half-pressing the shutter button to force autofocus and then pressing it all the way down to shoot images.

But, for the harlequin ducks and the sandhill crane in Yellowstone during May, I selected back-button. The harlequins mostly swam and dove, but movement was nothing like flying birds. At times they held still while perched on rocks in the Le Hardy Rapids. For swimming birds, I held the back-button down while keeping the active AF point on its head as best I could - not easy when they move erratically and then dive out of sight. With a duck holding still, I put the active AF point on its head, push the AF-On button down, the lens focuses on the head, let up on the AF-on button to lock focus, recompose and shoot keeping the focus on the bird's head.

When I do have the autofocus assigned to the shutter button, I find using my right thumb to move the active AF point around is effective, but often there is no active AF point where the head of the bird is near the edge of the frame like the sandhill crane. Then back-button works well as the active AF point does not need to be on the target when back-button is used properly. Sometimes I also assign the AF-ON button to stop continuous autofocus when it is held down. I am doing that more and more when using my floating blind from Mr. JanGear. There are numerous other angles to back-button, so perhaps it is time for me to write another article on the topic for Nature Photographer - the magazine I have written a column in for more than 20 years. By the way, I also like to use the Touch screen autofocus in live view with my Canon 5D Mark IV and it does not work unless I have autofocus assigned to the shutter button. And it is convenient to assign back-button to two buttons on the rear of the camera that have a different autofocus point array. Then I can select a single AF point or a small cluster of active AF points just by the back-button option I decide to use. www.gerlachnaturephoto.com
I continually switch between a back-button focus m... (show quote)


Nice hummers BTW.

Tried BBF and thought it made no sense at all. Use two buttons when one will do.

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Jun 25, 2019 20:25:30   #
John Gerlach Loc: Island Park, Idaho
 
Canon was the world’s first camera maker to incorporate back-button autofocus in 1989 with the EOS 630 (35mm film SLR). I know I was using it by the early nineties, it isn't best for everything by any means, but some things it is exceptional for and that is when I use it. For example, on my Kenya safaris (I have led 40 safaris over the decades) back-button focus is the AF mode I use most often because there are lots of animals, some moving and some still. By setting the camera to continuous AF and back-button, it is so easy to perfectly handle still, and then moments later, a moving subject.

For those who don't see the advantages of back-button focus, I would be interested in hearing what method you use when switching between action and then still that are only moments apart. You have to have continuous AF for action, but if you have a still subject and put the AF point on its face, press the AF button to autofocus the lens, let up on the button to recompose and shoot, the AF point focus on something else since you moved the AF point to another area. If you use one-shot focus for a still object, and then a hyena lopes through, you don't have time to switch to Continuous AF, so you have to be on continuous all the time on safari in Kenya as that happens a lot.

One thing I do is move my AF points around to coincide with the exact spot where I want sharp autofocus, but that takes some time, and gives your thumb a workout. I suppose you could just bulls-eye every composition and point the active AF point to the critters face, and not bother to recompose for a better composition, and perhaps recompose when you process and crop the image. And on many cameras you can set the back-button to lock focus, and leave continuous AF on the shutter button. Moving AF points around does work better with today's cameras as they probably have more AF points than our cameras did around 1990 - can't quite remember them exactly now. There are a number of ways to deal with action and then still objects, so just wondering how everyone handles that one if not back-button focus.

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Jun 25, 2019 21:01:20   #
bleirer
 
John Gerlach wrote:
Canon was the world’s first camera maker to incorporate back-button autofocus in 1989 with the EOS 630 (35mm film SLR). I know I was using it by the early nineties, it isn't best for everything by any means, but some things it is exceptional for and that is when I use it. For example, on my Kenya safaris (I have led 40 safaris over the decades) back-button focus is the AF mode I use most often because there are lots of animals, some moving and some still. By setting the camera to continuous AF and back-button, it is so easy to perfectly handle still, and then moments later, a moving subject.

For those who don't see the advantages of back-button focus, I would be interested in hearing what method you use when switching between action and then still that are only moments apart. You have to have continuous AF for action, but if you have a still subject and put the AF point on its face, press the AF button to autofocus the lens, let up on the button to recompose and shoot, the AF point focus on something else since you moved the AF point to another area. If you use one-shot focus for a still object, and then a hyena lopes through, you don't have time to switch to Continuous AF, so you have to be on continuous all the time on safari in Kenya as that happens a lot.

One thing I do is move my AF points around to coincide with the exact spot where I want sharp autofocus, but that takes some time, and gives your thumb a workout. I suppose you could just bulls-eye every composition and point the active AF point to the critters face, and not bother to recompose for a better composition, and perhaps recompose when you process and crop the image. And on many cameras you can set the back-button to lock focus, and leave continuous AF on the shutter button. Moving AF points around does work better with today's cameras as they probably have more AF points than our cameras did around 1990 - can't quite remember them exactly now. There are a number of ways to deal with action and then still objects, so just wondering how everyone handles that one if not back-button focus.
Canon was the world’s first camera maker to incorp... (show quote)


Focus lock is also possible in servo mode by re-assigning a button to disable AF (AF-ON ironically is the best choice). You keep the shutter on the usual half press in servo mode but when it is time to recompose press the af-on and it acts as focus lock, keep it pressed while you take the shot, release it and you are back to servo mode.

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