The One Camera Setting You Need to Change!

[Music] after talking to several  professional photographers recently   I discovered they all share one simple yet  powerful camera adjustment that transforms   their shooting experience right from the  start. in today's video I'm deep diving   into this game changing technique and  how it can elevate your photography too [Music]   so welcome back to another video so I've got  some settings or camera techniques I want to   share with you today but I really want to di  Deep dive into the scenarios where you might   want to use these particular settings it's  something I always change on every camera   as soon as I pick it up the first time and I  know a lot of professional photographers use   this technique as well later on we're going  to be heading out to do some Astro landscape   photography as well which I'm super excited  about CU we meant to get a break in the sky   about midnight so really excited about that  and I'll show you how to use this technique   in the dark as well anyway lots to cover in  today's video so let's get stuck into it [Music] [Music] so the setting I want to focus on today no  pun intended is back button focusing but more   importantly I want to highlight the specific  scenarios where this technique truly shines   because I think it's an incredibly powerful  tool that can transform your photography when   used in the right situations if you're not  familiar with this basically what we do is   assign the focus acquisition to the rear  button on the back here instead of the   more traditional method by half pressing the  shutter button now in default camera settings   pressing the shutter button halfway focuses the  camera and pressing it fully takes the shot but   this can lead to issues such as accidentally  refocusing when you don't want to which is   obviously isn't very good but by separating the  focus function to a different button you gain way   more control so the shutter button only captures  the image while the back button handles the   focus in and this makes it much easier to maintain  Focus once you've got your focus locked into place so back button focusing is especially helpful for  shooting moving subjects like Wildlife because you   can continuously track a subject by holding down  the back button while the shutter button is free   to take shots whenever the moment is right you  know you're not worrying about losing focus so   this is great for anything that is fastpaced  because you know you can maintain focus on a   moving subject by keeping that back button pressed  but also shoot multiple images without having the   camera refocus each time you press the shutter  button so before we get on to the next point   which is super important I just want to touch  on what we'll be doing later on in the video   So the plan is to head out to the sea stacks  down the Southwest coast of pem Brookshire and   shoot the Milky Way because this time of the  year it's vertical around about midnight and   I think if my planning is correct we can get the  Milky Milky Way directly behind the stacks in a   vertical orientation and the forecast is to be  clear around about midnight so if all of this   planning comes together hopefully we'll get a  really good shot something I've been wanting   to do for a while so yeah tons of planning going  into this one so let's hope let's keep our fingers   crossed that it all works out but we will see  but before we get on to that let's move on to   the next point so another great reason for using  back butt and focus in is so you can easily switch   between continuous and single Focus modes without  having to change of settings for example you can   use continuous focus by holding down the back  button or you can achieve a single Focus lock   by just pressing and releasing the back button  allowing for quick adaptability now I use this   technique all of the time when I used to shoot  a lot of portraits so I would lock my focus on   the subject's eyes using the back button to focus  recompose the shot without refocusing and capture   multiple shots with the confidence that I'll  know you know that Focus will remain locked now   if myself or the subject is moving moving I could  just hold down the back button knowing my focus   would track the subject and for me this is one of  the biggest benefits to using back button focus in   I think remember though you'll need to have the  continuous autofocus enabled if you want to make   this work in this example I have my back button  pressed and as you can see it's maintaining Focus   as I move closer to the camera in this example  I pressed and released the back button and the   camera remains at a locked focal plane see how it  comes back into Focus as I return to my original position so for shooting Landscapes I leave  my focus mode in manual I then use the back   button to focus on an object now once I've locked  focus by pressing the back button the camera won't   refocus when I then press the shutter and it's  particularly useful when recomposing a shot after   focusing on a specific subject I can now take as  many shots as I want knowing my focus Point won't   change and this is how I focus for the majority of  my landscape images super simple but really really [Music] effective so it's time to fast forward  a few hours and please do join me at   the stacks where we'll hopefully capture  this amazing Astro photography shot that   I've been thinking about for some  time and then we'll come back and   share a few more points about back  button focusing and why it can be so important I think when it comes to  astrophotography it's crucial to know   the area well or at least to have scouted the  location during the day especially if you're   near the edge of cliffs like I was for tonight's  shoot one unexpected challenge though was that the   nearby oil refinery was gas flaring and lighting  up the low level clouds with a bright orange glow   and I was really concerned at this point that  it might ruin the entire shoot despite that I   set up my tripod attached my Fuji xh2 with a 13  mm VT TRX f1.4 and waited for about an hour for   the skies to clear in terms of settings I plan to  shoot the Milky Way at 13 seconds F2 and so 3200 I   found that stopping down from f1.4 to F2 really  helps to keep the Stars nice and sharp while 13   seconds is a sweet spot to avoid any Star trails  with this lens for this shot I'll be stitching a   series of images together which will explain in  just a moment but here's the final image [Music] so I was actually quite pleased with the final  result and as you can see you know there was   some cloud and Mist around on the horizon but I  think that does you know add I guess a certain   amount of atmosphere to the image and I think also  the bright lights from the oil refinery actually   help to shed some light on my foreground so this  image is a four shot vertical Panorama all shot at   f2 the Milky Way shots are 16 images stacked for  noise reduction and the foreground is two Focus   stacked images One focused on the stacks and one  on the immediate foreground so yeah in total this   is a combination of 50 light frames and a further  20 I think dark frames which helped to reduce the   noise even further and I think I'm super impressed  by the level of detail I was able to pull out of   the nebulosity in the Milky way especially  especially in the lower part so in terms of   focusing I put my camera into manual mode I took  the foreground images first I use my head torch   to light up the stacks and the foreground and use  my back button to focus on those objects which I   think is really helpful the stars are obviously  much more difficult this you've really got to   dial that focus in with the focus ring typically I  will focus to Infinity zoom in on my LCD and just   back off the focus a little bit until the Stars  reach their smallest the better your LCD screen   is the easier this is yeah a couple of different  focusing techniques there to uh try out next   time you're out and about in the dark and it's so  difficult isn't it working in the dark especially   when you're right next to the edge of a cliff but  thoroughly enjoyable anyway I do hope you enjoyed   this week's video if you did be sure to give it a  like and why not subscribe for more weekly videos   like this up here you'll find another video that  you might like and over here there is a link to my   ebook all about landscape photography composition  which you might find helpful and it's a great   way as well to help support the channel help us  reach new places anyway until next week take care