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Setting and Using Back Button Focus

Lesson 18 from: Documentary Wedding Photography: Capturing Reality

Tyler Wirken

Setting and Using Back Button Focus

Lesson 18 from: Documentary Wedding Photography: Capturing Reality

Tyler Wirken

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Lesson Info

18. Setting and Using Back Button Focus

Next Lesson: Gaining Trust

Lesson Info

Setting and Using Back Button Focus

Menu settings for back when focuses back but I do understand why we're doing it now does it was was that was that on par on on track with what you guys you know what? What why you're doing it before okay good good good a lot people don't understand like what someone told me to do it and they don't realize why they're doing it you know and so the way it works is I don't know if I went over this the way it works is you literally just hit that button and it locks focus and you let go of it all right? I'm going to go through when you don't do that a little bit later but the white in theory you hit the button once and you let go of it and you shoot the only time you need to hit it again is if you need if you feel you need to grab focus again then you hit it again let go of it right makes sense and that was great that was a question from the chat rooms about do you have to hold it down which you don't you do you tap it and basically we're using back book back button focus you're locking your...

exposure down locking focus right not exported my back yes yes yeah but you do hold it down in some cases and I'm going to talk about that and a little bit and a little bit okay and does you're focusing mode matter whether you're in this is from denise burges servo or they'll focus it does and I'm goingto if she can wait right after this we're going to go right into that is that cool thank you alright alright I should ask her is that cool okay so so I want to go through the menu real quick because this is a question we always get that I can guarantee you people are going to like ask us asked me so this is kind of how to set it up on a canon camera you guys already know this I'm not to block you okay um but I want to block people watching so basically uh I'm trying to remember is this the five the mark to yes this's fighting marty okay so this is for the five d mark to cannon fire demark too it's a little bit harder on a candid five the mark too so you go to custom functions in your menu and custom functions is all kinds of things that you can actually program your camera to rearrange all these buttons to do what you want him to do right you can even if you're a nikon shooter and you start shooting cannon which is like you know a rare white wolf that nobody ever sees nobody ever does that it's always that way around I guess right people go to night gone then you can actually like adjust which way your shutter like left is like like like if you don't like left his light writers start you can change that I think you go write his light left his dark on there if you want to I don't understand why but so custom functions and then you goto operations others right? And then you go teo shutter button slash f on button which means shutter buttons a phone button means the first thing on in front of that slash is what's what's shown there and then the second thing after the slashes what thie f on button is the front thing is is the shutter the slash and then the on button so basically what you do is you go down to eighty lakhs last meeting all right? I'm sorry a lock slash metering plus a f start, right? And so I think this is what this is what you were talking about. Teresa um I don't know why this real confusing on the five year mark to and I hate it, I don't understand why, but basically what? What that's doing is now you're taking the f or the a lock metering is now on lee on the shutter and in the on is the f start auto focus start so now that's how you actually get that to do that the thing is is then you have to go to the next one which is a f on a lock button switch you have to disable that right? Isn't that what you found on your menu? Yeah, so you had to disable that and then what's gonna happen is I think it will then go to the big star button and then as your focus and then everything else will be on your on your shutter in terms of your meeting does that make sense? It's really confusing on fire demark too. And I looked this up on the internet to try and get his aziz good as I can to understand all this stuff but eventually it will get there if you just keep trying things you know but it's much easier on a five demark three five d mark three has this wonderful little cube button and a lot of other ones do you like that new camera's had this cuba like this the sixty d and all in seventy and all that kind of stuff you hit this cube button and on the q button you had this little window that has this with the camera and you click that and then all your buttons you can reassign stuff for right? You guys see that? And so basically what what you're doing is shutter button, half press media meeting start you want to change that to so basically, you just move this, move this menu around as you move the menu around, it moves where the button is you can you guys see that at home they get in tight on that, right? See that it changes where the button is assigned. So if you go to that one and you hit the menu, it would be on this out of the box which is majoring plus a auto focus. And then if you move it to the one in the middle, it just goes to media meeting start right? Okay, so that that's that's what I want. And then I go down to the star button for me, which is right here and you. And now and now that is meat oring plus a f which is fine. I don't care if the meeting starts there or not doesn't bother me, so I just put it on eight on me tearing start plus a f which is that right? The cool thing about this, too is I actually have my my, um where is it? Where's. A phone, a phone? I have a fun and my star button. Both do the same thing on this camera, right, so basically, my back button has set up on both of these and that's really cool because if something happens where I missed that big button I at least will hit something you know that I'm okay and I just you know at least I hit something right? So that's why I kind of kept that they're, um the other thing is one of the little trick which I love I'm giving away all my secrets but the ants was gonna have to come up with new things to teach what I teach people but this is the set button you guys on the back do you get do you have that set anything hit the set button right now does it is the same thing which set the big one in the middle of the big big I'm getting my menu yeah now it doesn't do anything right, so I have it set to my image review see that it's huge huge time saver because when you're shooting you have to take your hand off and hit that little tiny button. All you do is just do that and then you can look and then get back to shooting so I love that little secret came up with that I don't I hate that this camera doesn't have it, so I'm hoping I'm hoping that I get a new ones and it does have it so makes sense on how I had is everybody at home making sense on that awesome okay so nikon I'm going to just say what I found I mean I'm really bad with nikon stuff but apparently you go into you know customs said in many I have it written down in my notes here and I said teo so back nikon camera's pretty simple for some of the newer models with an a f dash on button you simply enter your auto focus menu scroll down to a f activation and select a f on only right so pretty simple boom boom boom boom right? I think it gets a little bit complicated on this next one so if you have an a f dash on button then you can go through this menu and your night cons to set it up and it'll be on the phone but this one is a little bit different onion trying come here and read it some of the older models and those without a dedication without a dedicated a f on button can still be set up but in a slightly different manner enter the customs setting menu right there uh scroll down to a f a n s l a f l I sort of understand why nikon has little pencils on their menus isn't making sense anyway on drenches okay so so then and then and then down to the on and then assigned the function to your e l slash f l button the autofocus the auto focus function will automatically be disengaged from the shutter so one interesting thing that notices a lot of students and we're trying to set this up on their night cons and I'm hoping that these menu items don't let this happen but often times night cons will have it where you can actually do both it's it's on the shutter and it's on the back button and that completely defeats the purpose there's no because if you back and focus when you hit the button it's goingto cancel out what you just did so you just got to make sure that that doesn't happen um cool thanks, sensei um all right, so another another example at a reception I did cut the bride's fingers off which is bad but you know it is what it is what it courtney say yesterday I love that quote she's like this this picture is perfect because of it because it's in perfect and didn't she say that yesterday uh perfection has awesome anyway kind of fun. Okay, so now using back button focused talking about focus modes here we go, jim we're going to answer those questions. Okay right um so aye aye servo is on so you guys all understand the focus modes on a canon camera which ones do you guys use? Serve you sir all the time, okay, one shot I don't have time depending upon the subject like if it is fast situation right if it is fast moving inside if it is not so I used one shot as well, right? And the on ly reason I use one shot is because when I put a flash on you know that when you put a flash on if you're in a servo it will not activate your focus is this beam on your flesh? Yeah so you get you get you gotta think about that right? So when you're in check out the flashes I use five fifty e x dinosaur love this flash the five eighties I thought I always felt put out too much light it's interesting anyway so this is the focus of this beam right on your on your on your flash well that, um that will not activate if you're in a servo it would it will not work it only works in one shot, right? Which is horrible. So that's why I don't put on a servo is yet again I don't want to remember that had to put that back to one shot when I put a flash on right? You know, so the good thing about using a I servo so for people at home they don't understand one shot means you hit the foot, you hit the front button or back button, you hit the focus button first here one time and it locks in and to make it change you have to take your hand off and hit it again or your finger off hit it against the it only focused once right eh I focus on camp on cannon I should tell you hey, I servo is basically you just hold the button down and it will track focus so say somebody's running at you were walking at you if you put it in a servo you just hold the button down but you have to make sure that their focus point is still on them right and I know just track okay a I focus is both of those combined which is silly to me in my opinion, right? So it's one shot but then if something starts moving it changes over time but I don't need anybody figure that stuff out for me I'll be in control, you know? So it's amazing technology I just would never use it s o and then on and on a nikon it's different I think it's continuous mode is the focus mode where it will is like a servo it would track things right um so if you're if so for me I'm always in one shot but in theory you're actually in a better place using servo right? Because what you khun do is aye aye servo is is it gets a little confusing aye aye servo with back button focus will act like one shot if you only hit the button once right that makes sense and then if you want to you can just hold it down right so what I do on this beautiful mark three is thiss button right here right I know you don't have this on just taunting you yeah you're gonna have to go buy one way on this button right here you can assign that button now which used to be the depth of field preview button you guys know the depth of field preview but nous yeah well a lot he will don't you funny death he'll preview but not a lot of cameras you hit that and it will show you what your picture is going to look like in the viewfinder for depth of field which is kind of cool I never use it but so I can like I assigned this button this button does it switches from one shot to a servo by just hitting that button right? So if I'm if I'm in a situation where I want a servo I just take my finger I hold this button down which I know defeats what I just said but at least at least then why would I let go of it? It goes back to one shot right? So let me see if I can show these people on the sea and I have you guys and zoom in on that we'll see how that seal that's changing you guys see that light right there, it's changing from one shot to a servo just by hitting this little button, which is really cool, really cool feature. So, like on professionals, if I just want that I would just now I hold this down, and then I could just jam the buttons just right, you know? So so so so that's that's kind of how those work, um, so in this situation, just drop this way in a while back, this is, you know, obviously walking down the aisle with dad, this is where all used a servo so expression on this camera, which is what I shot this with, I think I will put it on a servo for that. Andi, I'm just used to during the ceremony, I'm used to putting it back. S o so it hasn't been a problem with me, but, you know, you put the thing about a servo is you have to make sure that that focus point stays on the people, because as soon as if you're if you're jamming down a servo and you're focusing on them, coming down is tracking them coming at you if you move a little bit and that, and that focus point goes right here. It's going completely back focus right then you freak out and try it over again you know so that's so that's the key with getting that stuff and focus a lot of times I'm not getting great compositions on processional because I'm just trying to keep him in focus and then I'd have to go through you know, back in and kind of crop them a little bit here's the here's an example of where I did the the button is also like I caught her winking its eggs that's so hard to do um so you think this is kind of how that all works you know? So and then there's the portrait people fortune people are happy you know, it works awesome with portrait ce because I can just back button focus on them recompose and just shoot, shoot, shoot and let them kind of interact and I'm portrait they work it works really great, you know? And so this is kind of an example of the portrait so I tried to do for people at a wedding you know? Cool good down. All right, all right. So I said what I said before it's two cameras all the time right all the time all the time so it's funny when you watch me later on the video I am ditching a camera quite a bit so in theory I am breaking my own rule, right? But quite honestly, a lot of times why I'm ditching it is if it gets in my way sometimes. But more importantly, I, um, I had to have shoulder soldier surgery on this shoulder. At some point, I've got a rotator cuff issue, and having that camera on me really hurts me. Sometimes I'm kind of jumping a lot, you know, but that's, just me being a wimp.

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Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Tyler calls 'em like he sees'em. He gets it: capture the emotion, the expression, the feelings of a wedding without preoccupation with perfect posing, perfect lighting, perfect camera settings. An image of a father's expression seeing is daughter in her dress for the first time is far more important than trying to get it framed just right. Anticipate. Watch. Don't interrupt a moment. This is a great series to refocus on the true meaning of why we shoot weddings.

a Creativelive Student
 

Recommend but with one big caveat. This class is useful in terms of his approach and mindset. I found it really inspiring in that respect. It's worth watching if you want to broaden your mind and make your wedding photography more interesting. Don't bother with this class if you are looking to improve technically, Tyler isn't a great technician and most of the info he provides in that respect is garbage and outdated. He also comes across as very arrogant at times and he's not a great instructor.

Chethan Kumar
 

Tyler is not just an awesome wedding Photographer but a very good human being. Love the way he speaks, teaches and respect students and their work. I enjoyed each and every bit of this learning and learnt a lot. Thanks creative live and Tyler. Regards, Chethan Cks Photolab Melbourne|Australia

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