Have you heard of a technique called back button focus? In this free video, world renowned outdoor photographer Ian Plant takes you on a wildlife safari in Kenya for tips on back button focus. When you are doing wildlife photography, you should use your camera’s predictive autofocus mode because this allows you to track the animal as it moves. But what if the subject doesn’t fall on one of your autofocus points? Ian solves this problem by disabling the front shutter button focus, then enabling the back button focus. Using his own camera, he shows you how this button works. Whenever you press the button, the camera will find the focus point. When you release the button, the camera will lock focus, resulting in the sharp image you were aiming to achieve.
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10:23The six images have been captured, and now it’s time for processing Al Capone’s cell. Post production instructor, Tony Sweet, drags the HDR-processed RAW file into Photomatix, his favorite HDR software. When he runs into a problem with an overexposed skylight, he corrects with tone mapping and the white point point tool. He discusses saturation,
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20:06You’ve watched pro photographer, Tony Sweet, shoot the cell block. Now it’s time to create a single HDR photograph from the multiple images. Tony will show you how to create an HDR master folder. How to align your source images. How to adjust for white balance and reduce chromatic aberrations. You will also learn tone
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4:04How do you capture a scene bathed in mostly dark, natural light? In this Capturing Window Light video, professional photographer and instructor, Tony Sweet, takes you to a shadowy prison cell and uses a long set of exposures for his HDR photograph. The average, aperture priority setting calls for 15 seconds at 400 ISO. Tony
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7:52The problem in photographing the hall of mirrors was the wide dynamic range of light. In this editing video, post production instructor, Tony Sweet, shows you how to solve that problem in HDR processing. After combining the seven source images, Tony works his HDR image through tone mapping in the Photomatix default setting. He experiments
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Do I keep my thumb on the back button all the time when photographing birds in flight?
You should keep on focusing whenever you are tracking moving subjects.
Since starting to use BBF some time ago, and getting used to it, I find it difficult to come up with a reason NOT to use it. Is there one?
The photo of the tree and big cat was not taken with the lense he is holding in his hand.
Will simply using back button focus bring me excellent results he demonstrates in this video…?
Of course not…
It’s seems a bit deceptive… (sigh)
Until that time. . .
Hi Earl, the lens is irrelevant to back button focus, as it is a feature of the camera. All of the photos shown in the video were taken using back button focus. And of course simply using back button focus won’t ensure that you get great photos. It is a technical feature that allows you to more effectively track moving subjects and recompose without losing focus when using predictive autofocus – which is exactly what I say in the video. There’s nothing “deceptive” about it.