Thousands of focus points on our
cameras.
Why would you use each one of them and
how does it work?
Hey everybody...
welcome back to
Ask David Bergman.
I'm David Bergman here answering your
photography questions...
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to ask your own questions,
and of course I will pick the best ones
and answer them right here on a future show.
Today I've got one from Don K and
he asked how do you use the different
focus points when you just want to focus
on the eyes in a portrait.
Focus points ...
boy let me tell you,
you could really do a deep dive when
you start talking about autofocus settings
on cameras.
I actually did one in an earlier David
Bergman go back, I'll put a link below
to that video if you want to see how I shoot action,
sports, photography, and all the different
settings when you're doing a portrait.
Like for example... today I'm here with
Erica in Central Park, it's a beautiful
day.... she looks lovely, when we're gonna
make some portraits of her now,
let me tell you what I'm shooting with.
I'm using the EOS RCanon mirrorless.
I have the battery grip on it, it's got
extra batteries in it I like that, and
I'm also using the 24 -105mm RF lens.
that's made for the the new one, for the
mirrorless, and on top here this is the
Atomos Ninja 2 it's an external monitor.
The only reason I'm using that is so you
guys can see what I'm shooting through
the actual camera, at the same time as
I'm shooting it.
Let's talk about focus points.
Now when you're shooting a
portrait for example of Erica here right?
You can see that middle focus point,
that's where my autofocus is going to look.
Now there are a lot of different
ways you can set that.
Right now I'm using the middle little
center focus point.
Let me show you on the menu where
that is.
That is right here, so that is
one point AF...
and by far that is the most
accurate way to shoot,
because that tiny little focus point only
has a small area to look at,
and it's gonna be really fast
and really accurate.
The challenge with that is,
because it's so small... if I move
off of her face even, just a little bit
you can see it's gonna zip out to that
background, really quickly, so it's really...
you have to be really careful to make
sure it's right where you want.
You don't want it at the front of her nose,
you don't want it I want it right at her eye
in this case.
So now why would I use
those thousands of different focus
points?
Well with a camera like this..
this actually has 5655 individual
autofocus points... which is crazy
the 1DX Mark II for example, which is only
a few years old has 61 right?
So every time they come out with a new generation
they add more focus points, and what that
allows you to do is you can actually
move that focus point anywhere you want
in the frame.
Why would you move it from
one to the other?
Honestly I always have it either right in
the middle or right about there,
because when I'm shooting a
portrait you can see that is gonna be
right about where I have her eye in the frame.
Her eyes are always gonna be above
the middle of the frame.
So I like to put my focus points generally
above center,
because it gives me the best composition
for that kind of a picture right?
So now like I said before,
I'm using the, currently using the one, the
tiny little center point,
but what I can do is... I can
go in, and I can expand that.
These next two are the expanded auto
focus area.
That's what Canon calls it,
and what that does is...
now I'm still using the center point for
focus, but it's those eight
little points around, or just giving me a
little leeway.
So if I go off just a little bit,
it's not going to immediately
zip out onto that background,
because it uses those outer points
just as a little help for me...
so if I can't hold the
camera quite so steady.
I have to really be off there for it to go to
that background, but for the most part it's
gonna keep me right where I want it to be.
So that's really cool.
Now there's another way you can do this
you can go to zone auto focus...
which is a much wider area,
and then the camera is actually
deciding what to focus on.
So when you are... have your auto focus activated,
whatever's closest to the camera is
going to be in focus.
So it is constantly looking at that entire
area and changing focus based on
whatever's closest.
So the problem with that is...
it takes control away from me,
so for example...
Erica hold your arm out right in front of
your face...
there, and when I do that it's gonna pick
that closest part... well what if I don't
want her hand in focus.
So the way I shoot most of the time is.
I'm going to use that expanded AF area,
and then I can choose to focus on her
face... even with
her hand out in front of her body...
so that way I'm taking the control back.
I shoot 99.99% of time with one of those
two expanded autofocus modes, because it
gives me the most control.
I can pick and choose where I want,
but it's a little wider than that tiny little
center point...
which is really hard to shoot with, so
when we're doing portraits,
there's also one more way to do it.
Now a lot of newest...
a lot of the newest cameras like
this EOS R have face detection autofocus,
which is right here, so that's a little
face there, and you can select that and
then you can also turn on the eye
detection. So that it will actually look
for the person's eye, and will stay with
her eye, and it's constantly going to be
on at least one of her eyes,
which is pretty insane that the computer inside
the camera is constantly looking
realizing that it's a face, and choosing
her eye to focus on.
So it's brand-new technology....
it's getting better with
every iteration,
and the challenge with
that is.. if you're not shooting a
portrait, or if she turns around, there's
no face, or you know, she's the side of
her head or something.
It makes it a little more challenging,
but in certain situations Eye autofocus
works really really well.
So basically to answer your question,
you have to figure out what works for you.
But those focus points give you a lot of
different options and ways to shoot
pictures depending on the type of
photography you do!
Thanks so much for asking that question.
If you have a question
don't forget AskDavidBergman.com.
You'll find a listing of all my gear on
there and a bunch of old episodes, so
with all kinds of great information.
Thanks so much for joining me, please
come back next week right here on
Ask David Bergman.