focusing on a gimbal even with autofocus there's always a few shots that are hard to pull off
especially if you're shooting alone in this video i'm going to explain the different techniques
i use to nail focus when shooting solo on a gimbal i'll be using sony camera settings as examples but
even if you're shooting with a different brand chances are great the modes work the same
autofocus is so good these days that solo operators can achieve complex gimbal movements
while staying sharp without any external help the trick is to know which modes to use when and how
i'll do a practical illustration as well as break down the settings and methods used in some of my
favorite gimbal shots seen here on the channel with autofocus on a gimbal i generally stick
to only two modes with the occasional third option wide zone and spot starting with the one i use the
most wide this mode can either work incredibly well or ruin a lot of your shots if not set up
correctly the challenge with wide mode is that the camera won't always know which area to prioritize
which usually means you end up with shots like this where the lens hunts between subjects
a terrible distraction when shooting a single subject facing the camera
focus is a no-brainer with eye autofocus enabled by default this means you can shoot wide open
and regardless of your distance achieve amazing focus because the camera will always hit
critical focus on one of the eyes unfortunately not all your shots will be this simple the two
biggest challenges you'll face in this mode is when there are more than one person in the frame
with eye autofocus jumping around without control or when the camera focuses on something in the
foreground like in this example if you lose the eye just for a second it's going to focus on the
objects in front destroying your shots to avoid random focus hunts your first option is to tweak
the subject sensitivity not to be confused with focus speed subject sensitivity is the
speed at which the camera decides to initiate focus to a new subject setting the sensitivity
to one will allow you to maintain focus on the eye regardless of how you move and a brief obstruction
won't throw the focus off because the camera is not sensitive to lock onto a new subject
i use this exact setting in a bmx film when tracking with the 70-200 here we've got a
bunch of foreground elements moving in front of the frame but because they pass quickly the
camera stays focused on the subject it locked on initially to get more organic looking focus pulls
first we have to adjust the focus transition speed this setting changes how fast the camera focuses
on an object once focus is initiated for ninety percent of the shots i do i use it on transition
down from seven to five but there are instances where it makes sense to choose the faster speed
for example when you shoot in slow motion filming at 100 fps at a slower setting will make the focus
pull feel too slow because the footage is slowed down in this case i usually set my speed to the
highest setting so that when the footage is being slowed down it feels more natural so basically the
default setting this model reveal was shot at 100 frames per second in wide mode with the transition
speed and subject sensitivity set to the highest anything less and it wouldn't have worked but what
if you don't have eyes in the frame and you deal with multiple objects that can throw the focus off
that's where the tracker comes in make sure touch operation is enabled and a little box will pop
up on the screen that looks like this the tracker does exactly what it says it locks onto a subject
of your choice and keeps it in focus regardless of how it moves in the frame there's two tricks here
to get the best tracking results first make sure you're in wide mode as it's proven to work best in
this mode second you want to select an area of contrast so in this case on the shoulder strap
rather than just on the dress which takes up a larger area than the actual tracker when the
model stands up the tracker will stay on her and ignore these obvious foreground elements or any
other subjects that it would hunt to if it was in normal white mode this enables you to stay on one
subject regardless of how many foreground elements or faces are introduced next we've got spot and
zone i'm putting them in the same category because they basically work the same these modes will keep
focus in the area where you move the spot with eye autofocus taking priority within the square
spot mode gives you the option to choose the size of your square which depends on the size of your
subject this works well if you know your subject's going to stay in one spot and you won't have an
eye for eye autofocus all of the time so in this case the spot is focusing on the subject without
the potential of hunting to the foreground on the sides in wide mode i only use zone if my subject
is a bit larger than the largest spot like in this example i disabled eye autofocus and set
my subject sensitivity to fast so that the camera focuses quickly to the new subject the moment the
square leaves our first subject when eye autofocus is enabled in wide mode it jumps onto the first
eye it detects ruining the shot and then some shots are simply not possible with autofocus
like this one with the bmx coming into the frame here your only option is to switch to manual and
pre-focus make sure you keep both the camera and your subject on the same focal plane i do this on
maybe five percent of the shots i shoot with the gimbal but playing around with different
modes will enable you to nail most of your shots without any external help this video is proudly
brought to you by the alpha universe a free learning platform with educational content from
a variety of photographers and filmmakers across all genres check out the link in the description
below and sign up for a free membership thanks so much for watching and i'll see you in the next one