BACK BUTTON FOCUSING

Arshad khan

Speed up your work by re-assigning AF tasks
The method of activating
autofocus by half-pressing the
shutter release is the default
setup on many cameras. But although
it may be familiar, it isn’t necessarily
the most effective way of working
with AF. Many pro sports and wildlife
photographers reassign AF activation
to the AF-On button, usually located on
the back of the camera. This button is
designed to be accessible to your thumb,
and by turning on back-button focusing
you can activate AF without using the
shutter release.
It takes a little practice, but this method
has the advantage of splitting the role of
AF activation and image taking between
both buttons, meaning that you don’t
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release to refocus. It also makes it easy
to switch between single and continuous
focusing, which is useful if you’re shooting
multiple subject types.
On many cameras, you can opt to have
the shutter button trigger AF, but this
reduces the usefulness of back-button
focusing. With the job divided, the camera
is in manual focus mode until you press
the AF-On or AF-L button. For wedding,
performance or street photographers,
this often-overlooked technique can help
increase the image hit rate