Lesson Info
43. Focusing Q&A
Summary (Generated from Transcript)
In this lesson, John Greengo addresses various questions related to focusing in photography. He mentions that most cameras have group focus points and that they are often activated in the green auto box mode. He explains the difference between using auto focus continuous and a single point, stating that continuous focus is helpful when photographing moving subjects, while a single point is better for keeping a large target on a subject. He also advises on focusing techniques when using a self-timer or when shooting food photography. Greengo emphasizes the use of back button focusing and shares a story about a professional football photographer who uses this technique to quickly adjust focus while capturing action shots. He also discusses the limitations of recomposing after focusing and explains that cameras typically do not show the real focus point after recomposing. Finally, he clarifies the difference between back button focus and auto focus lock, stating that back button focus activates the focus, while auto focus lock holds the focus in place during continuous focusing.
Q&A:
- Do all cameras have group focus points?
- When should you use auto focus continuous and a single point?
- How can you ensure focus when using a self-timer or capturing shots with your hands in the frame?
- How does back button focusing work?
- Can the camera show the real focus point after recomposing?
- What is the difference between back button focus and auto focus lock?
Lessons
Class Introduction
23:32 2Photographic Characteristics
06:46 3Camera Types
03:03 4Viewing System
22:09 5Lens System
24:38 6Shutter System
12:56 7Shutter Speed Basics
10:16 8Shutter Speed Effects
31:57Camera & Lens Stabilization
11:06 10Quiz: Shutter Speeds
07:55 11Camera Settings Overview
16:12 12Drive Mode & Buffer
04:24 13Camera Settings - Details
10:21 14Sensor Size: Basics
18:26 15Sensor Sizes: Compared
24:52 16The Sensor - Pixels
22:49 17Sensor Size - ISO
26:59 18Focal Length
11:36 19Angle of View
31:29 20Practicing Angle of View
04:59 21Quiz: Focal Length
08:15 22Fisheye Lens
12:32 23Tilt & Shift Lens
20:37 24Subject Zone
13:16 25Lens Speed
09:03 26Aperture
08:25 27Depth of Field (DOF)
21:46 28Quiz: Apertures
08:22 29Lens Quality
07:06 30Light Meter Basics
09:04 31Histogram
11:48 32Quiz: Histogram
09:07 33Dynamic Range
07:25 34Exposure Modes
35:15 35Sunny 16 Rule
04:31 36Exposure Bracketing
08:08 37Exposure Values
20:01 38Quiz: Exposure
20:44 39Focusing Basics
13:08 40Auto Focus (AF)
24:39 41Focus Points
17:18 42Focus Tracking
19:26 43Focusing Q&A
06:40 44Manual Focus
07:14 45Digital Focus Assistance
07:35 46Shutter Speeds & Depth of Field (DOF)
05:18 47Quiz: Depth of Field
15:54 48DOF Preview & Focusing Screens
04:55 49Lens Sharpness
11:08 50Camera Movement
11:29 51Advanced Techniques
15:15 52Quiz: Hyperfocal Distance
07:14 53Auto Focus Calibration
05:15 54Focus Stacking
07:58 55Quiz: Focus Problems
18:54 56Camera Accessories
32:41 57Lens Accessories
29:24 58Lens Adaptors & Cleaning
13:14 59Macro
13:02 60Flash & Lighting
04:47 61Tripods
14:13 62Cases
06:07 63Being a Photographer
11:29 64Natural Light: Direct Sunlight
28:37 65Natural Light: Indirect Sunlight
15:57 66Natural Light: Mixed
04:20 67Twilight: Sunrise & Sunset Light
22:21 68Cloud & Color Pop: Sunrise & Sunset Light
06:40 69Silhouette & Starburst: Sunrise & Sunset Light
07:28 70Golden Hour: Sunrise & Sunset Light
07:52 71Quiz: Lighting
05:42 72Light Management
10:46 73Flash Fundamentals
12:06 74Speedlights
04:12 75Built-In & Add-On Flash
10:47 76Off-Camera Flash
25:48 77Off-Camera Flash For Portraits
15:36 78Advanced Flash Techniques
08:22 79Editing Assessments & Goals
08:57 80Editing Set-Up
06:59 81Importing Images
03:59 82Organizing Your Images
32:41 83Culling Images
13:57 84Categories of Development
30:59 85Adjusting Exposure
08:03 86Remove Distractions
04:02 87Cropping Your Images
09:53 88Composition Basics
26:36 89Point of View
28:56 90Angle of View
14:35 91Subject Placement
23:22 92Framing Your Shot
07:27 93Foreground & Background & Scale
03:51 94Rule of Odds
05:00 95Bad Composition
07:31 96Multi-Shot Techniques
19:08 97Pixel Shift, Time Lapse, Selective Cloning & Noise Reduction
12:24 98Human Vision vs The Camera
23:32 99Visual Perception
10:43 100Quiz: Visual Balance
14:05 101Visual Drama
16:45 102Elements of Design
09:24 103Texture & Negative Space
03:57 104Black & White & Color
10:33 105The Photographic Process
09:08 106Working the Shot
25:29 107What Makes a Great Photograph?
07:01Lesson Info
Focusing Q&A
Alright, John, I do have a number of questions that have come in. Let's address these. For this section, so thank you for pausing. Okay, the first one was from Amanda Ellis. Do all cameras have group focus points? I think all cameras that I have seen have a group focusing point. And when you put the camera in that green auto box mode, that's generally what's activated. But even if you're in a manual mode, you can use the full big box if you want. Great. So, there are some questions and conversations around using auto focus continuous, and a single point, and why would you not have that on all the time? Like, if your subject was maybe gonna be moving, and then stopped. Right, well, it is possible that you could leave your camera in continuous all the time. If I am focusing on a person, and I'm using continuous, what's gonna happen is you will hear the lens or the camera just constantly trying to get sharp focus. And what you want it to do, is just get it and stop. So, that the...
re's no other sort of movement. So, it might have some movements while the photograph is taking. Now, the other thing is if you want to get your subject off frame, the only way to do that with continuous is a focus lock button. So, you would have to lock focus, and move it off. And that just means you need to have good finger dexterity in order to do that. And that is a good option if you were going to be doing bird photography. The problem with what they were asking was they were talking about using a single point. I challenge you to use a single point on small bird flying. It's gonna be very hard to keep that single point on the bird flying. It's gonna be much larger to keep a big target on that bird. And then when it lands on the post over there, you press in the lock button, and then you can recompose and put that bird off to the left or the right hand side. And so that can work very well for certain types of photography. So, a quick question about focusing when you're using like a soft timer button or option. I mostly shoot food, so usually my subject isn't moving. But sometimes I wanna set up my tripod and have my hands in a shot. Or take a picture of me holding something. And I have a really hard time getting the focus that I want. So, if you're using a self-timer, I'm guessing the camera is on a tripod, right? Yeah. Yes. You should probably be manually focusing. Or you could back button, focus ahead of time. And that way when you press down on the shutter release, the camera's not gonna try to refocus on you. And so you could focus on your subject, recompose to the way that you want it to, lock the tripod in, set the self-timer, press the shutter release, and now it's not gonna focus because it's in back button focusing. Alright, we've got a lotta people having aha moments about back button focusing. We're really excited to get out there and try it. So, some of these might just be clarifications for you. So, from blind baby, if you're using back button focus, do you have to keep the back button pressed in for continuous focus? Yes, you do. And so this, for normal standard single focus, you would press it for as long as it takes to get that focus in. For continuous, you would leave it pressed the entire time. Let me share a quick story with you. The Seahawks photographer is a professional football photographer. He uses the top of the line gear, and he knows exactly what he's doing. And he talked about his focusing technique. He uses back button focusing. And he's got the running back coming towards him, but he can see out of the corner of his frame, when a referee or player is gonna cross in front. What he does is he's focusing, he's shooting photos, he will lift off of the focus so that it stops trying to refocus on the player or the ref that's interfering. He keeps taking photos. When the player has cleared the frame, he continues pressing down on the focus, so that it reengages, and he does this all in a (snapping) bit of time. And so that's when I talk about the skill levels of focusing. When you get involved with the subjects that you know, and you get to know the equipment that you work with, that's how he figured out the best technique. And I'm like, wow, that's good. From Keri March, okay so, when recomposing after focusing, so focus and recompose, and then checking the focus point on your LCD screen, is there a way to show the real focus point as opposed to where you focused and recomposed? If you focus and recompose, let's say you used the center point for focusing. You focus on a subject, and you recompose, you use the center point for focusing, so that is the real focusing point. So, you're not gonna be able, the camera will not know what you were choosing to be the primary subject. So, no. There are a number of cameras, I believe, Canon and Nikon and there may be some others, that will show you as an option in the playback. When you play back an image, there's a lot of different information options. It'll show you an overlay of the focus points that either you or the camera chose to focus on. And I don't recommend using those, just 'cause it kind of clutters up the frame. But for people who are new to photography, or new to a particular camera, and you're learning how that camera works, you could choose all the focusing points, focus on a bunch of stuff, and go, oh, I see what the camera picked up on. And you start learning on how the camera works. And so it's good for a learning process on that, but yeah, that would be tricky where the camera just doesn't know. 'Cause you might have been focusing on something where there is no focusing points. Great, thank you. And so, this is for Dem Bartiz, who says, okay, I'm confused about the difference between back button focus and auto focus lock. Alright, so back button focus activates the focus. And auto focus lock holds it wherever it happens to be. And so, if you are focusing. And the back button lock would typically only really be used in continuous focusing. So if you're continuously focusing on a subject, and you occasionally want to pause it, you can press the AF lock button. And just, while I think about it, just options, when you get some of the bigger lenses, they have programmable buttons out on the lens, and you can program that as your focus lock button. Out there. Or your activation button. But the back button focusing can be used for single or continuous. The lock is typically only used for locking the continuous focusing.
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Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Love love all John Greengo classes! Wish to have had him decades ago with this info, but no internet then!! John is the greatest photography teacher I have seen out there, and I watch a lot of Creative Live classes and folks on YouTube too. John is so detailed and there are a ton of ah ha moments for me and I know lots of others. I think I own 4 John Greengo classes so far and want to add this one and Travel Photography!! I just drop everything to watch John on Creative Live. I wish sometime soon he would teach a Lightroom class and his knowledge on photography post editing.!!! That would probably take a LOT OF TIME but I know John would explain it soooooo good, like he does all his Photography classes!! Thank you Creative Live for having such a wonderful instructor with John Greengo!! Make more classes John, for just love them and soak it up! There is soooo much to learn and sometimes just so overwhelming. Is there anyway you might do a Motivation class!!?? Like do this button for this day, and try this technique for a week, or post this subject for this week, etc. Motivation and inspiration, and playing around with what you teach, needed so much and would be so fun.!! Just saying??? Awaiting gadgets class now, while waiting for lunch break to be over. All the filters and gadgets, oh my. Thank you thank you for all you teach John, You are truly a wonderful wonderful instructor and I would highly recommend folks listening and buying your classes.
Eve
I don't think that adjectives like beautiful, fantastic or excellent can describe the course and classes with John Greengo well enough. I've just bought my first camera and I am a total amateur but I fell in love with photography while watching the classes with John. It is fun, clear, understandable, entertaining, informative and and and. He is not only a fabulous photographer but a great teacher as well. Easy to follow, clear explanations and fantastic visuals. The only disadvantage I can list here that he is sooooo good that keeps me from going out to shoot as I am just glued to the screen. :-) Don't miss it and well worth the money invested! Thank you John!
JUAN SOL
Dear John, thanks for this outstanding classes. You are not only a great photographer and instructor, but your classes are pleasant, they are not boring, with a good sense of humor, they go straight to the point and have a good time listening to you. Please, keep teaching what you like most, and I will continue to look for your classes. And thanks for using a plain English, that it's important for people who has another language as native language. Thanks again, Juan