Wildlife Photography: Manual vs. Auto Focus
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- While doing wildlife photography should you use manual or auto focus? On safari, I go through my manual focus tricks.
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We're in a really cool place for wildlife photography: Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It's one of the best places in the world do see wild cats, lions, and leopards. And even though we only have limited time here for our wildlife photography I want to make the most of it. I also wanted to talk about focus and whether you should use manual or auto focus in your photography.
Here in the park, the wildlife was being a bit elusive and I was a little worried that this video wasn't going to work. Then, out of nowhere we got 3 beautiful lions on the road and the perfect chance to do some wildlife photography using the manual focus peaking of the Canon EOS R.
And, there was plenty of other animals to photograph. We saw meer cats, ground squirrels, impala, giraffe, and, yes, the lions.
I ended the video with a little talk about the focusing modes for wildlife photography. I hope it helps.
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#wildlifephotography #CanonEOSR
Last night we went wild camping with elephants and hyenas. Did you see it: ua-cam.com/video/NJlD2qCJw_4/v-deo.html
I have a whole new appreciation for manual focusing after I upgraded to mirrorless. Peaking and zooming with a one click to check focus is fantastic.
Focus Peaking has persuaded to use manual focus a lot more since I got it on my Sony Alpha 77ii a couple of years back. It is a real help but I agree with others it really has to be for use on stationary objects only (and the big cats are all too often very stationary objects!). For me, moving animals and birds are definitely continuous auto only.
I have had focus peaking on my Olympus cameras and I love it. It is great for macro and as you say when you are dealing with lots of foreground bushes and stuff like that. And for those that say you can’t take images of moving wildlife without autofocus, I guess you must be very very young. When I started taking images in 1970 of sports and wildlife auto focus was still 30 years away. Guess what I got the shots I needed. Auto focus certainly would have helped but it isn’t the only way to get images of fast moving subjects
Fair to say by the time your safari adventure ends you will be coming away with a bagful of images as you captured some superb images over the course of your trips.
I hope so! It's been really fun and a learning experience at the very least!
Yayy! It’s that special time of the day again...
Oh my, that sounds naughty.
Brendan van Son Didn’t notice...was supposed to sound completely innocent!!
Finally caught up on all of your videos from this last week! Great set, and great watching one after the other!
Auto Focus all the way for wildlife. I’ll manual focus with landscape but with wildlife you don’t have time to focus in on a moving subject. In my opinion.
And what do you do when there's a lot of brush in the way? Manual override
This is where the manual focus peaking of mirrorless has been game changer for me.
Brendan van Son Great video. I would say the advantages of manual vs auto focus are situational. Sitting lions along the road? Either way. A leopard in the bush? Manual. Birds in flight or a running cheetah? Gotta be auto.
To be honest there are times when I need to focus on far away object (not quite infinity) but lens hunts for a bit at close focus distance. I have to quickly turn to focus ring to near infinity in AF mode to assist the camera to focus faster.
A lot depends on how fast the wildlife is moving. Manual is fine when it's stationary - perhaps when it's moving slowly on a mirrorless camera with peeking. But try shooting a songbird flitting from branch to branch, a chaffinch catching flies or a diving osprey. Possible, but incredibly difficult.
Thank you for the focus peaking tip! Will try it out on my Pentax 😊
Love using the manual focus peaking with my mirrorless. I only shoot looking through the evf, so it’s great to have that option.
Yup, had totally surprised me. I love it
Eos R's grip is awesome!
I guess I will be showing my age when I mention my biggest complaint with focusing aids on modern cameras.
Way back in the day when we use 35mm film, many SLRs had a special viewfinder.
In the center was a circular area where, in the top half the image would move one direction and in the bottom half the image would move in the opposite direct as it went out of focus. This caused a split image. You center on your subject and adjust the focus until there was no split. then move your camera for composition and take the picture.
In a ring around that center was an area that caused out of focus parts to look like a bunch of diamond shaped blocks. Out of focus objects in the rest of the view finder would look like it had a heavy matte finish.
Those features made manual focus a breeze and very fast.
I don't know why they don't have that with DSLRs.
I agree with you, focus peaking is a game changer! Most for stationary subjects or slow. For this reason I want also a mirror less camera to put together my d500. I also love, in auto, the back bottom focus, with dinamic or group af, but I hate 3d focus. Unfortunately my d500 haven't focus peaking in live view =( . Waiting for your last safari, I understand you very well when you said that you're sad. Good work!
After shooting mirrorless for the last three years, it's nice to see the look on your face when you discovered focus peaking.......my system has an S-AF + M option (Single Auto Focus plus Manual) but in addition to that I also have a Magnify option to turn on in the menu's, which zooms to a user chosen degree for even better critical placement of the "halo" as soon as you turn the focus ring..........isn't mirrorless grand !
So cute baby Timon 😁
Hey Brendan, just saw you in downtown Cape Town! Wanted to say hi but didn't have time. Look forward to seeing what you are up to here. Enjoy!
Hey! That's crazy. Hope you're enjoying the 7s, even with the loss. Take care!
Your lion photos were incredible.
Thank you Brendan
What's manual focus?! thankfully the AF on Sony's mirrorless cameras is so awesome, manual focus is something I use on limited occasions like timelapse or landscape (on tripod) most other times it won't do any better job, and AF has those focus areas which you can use to pin point your focus even further.
I've used Sony and the af is one of the few things that Canon does better. It's just faster, and for video there's dual pixel af. The issue, though, with focus on wildlife photography isn't how "good" or fast it is. It's that if there's brush, trees, or grass in the foreground the focus can sometimes pick it up instead of the animal. So, mf gets you past that. The focus peaking - which Sony has had for ages, too - makes that so much easier even.
Sorry I do not agree about the af on canon being better or faster, you can watch some of the hybrid shooter comparison, the Sony af is faster by default, and you can set how fast it focused in the settings, meanwhile the canon eos r AF at least in video mode suffers from focus breathing, overall I tend to think the dual focus system is a bit overrated.
Great series of videos - Thanks
Wow a great adventure in Botswana Brendan !! Will definitely put this on my bucket list.
If you don’t mind, show us all the clothing items you take on a trip like this please.
I think you'd be surprised how little I pack. Will try to do something like that in the future
Brendan van Son Yes, We also travel extremely light and I think it would be good for people to see that.
Brendan, if I can make just one video as good as yours, I'll be a very happy man.
That's very very kind.
It's great to see the EOS R in real world use and you always do a great job explaining camera functions, if you keep it up and I'm going to have to get a dame EOS R, heck just got the 5D Mark IV, are you sure your not in marketing for Canon. hahaha
Haha, Maybe Canon needs to start paying me.
Love the music this episode!
Thanks Rico!
Well when the animal is walking parallel to the shooter and theres a lot of Grass (or Fence) in the way, Manual Focus in auto mode is the way to go.
Brendan!
Some map route in your amaizing video will do it even more informative. With deep respect
Good advice. I'll try to implement it.
Interesting thoughts on focus peaking. Back in the days where I first used SLRs MF was a lot easier due to the type of split prism focus screen. I miss that in a DSLR as there are many times when I would like to shoot MF but cannot be accurate enough. This is one area I think mirrorless will make a difference. Sadly for me it gives me headaches probably due to the image dragging still. Hopefully that drawback will be overcome soon.
Apologies for posting twice and accidentally putting a link it, alcohol fuelled iPad failure on my part.
Focusing is not a free choice; if the subject is fast moving you cannot manually focus, if there is low light/dark lens you cannot autofocus. So you do what the context and your tools dictate. If you could do all (i.e. no constraints meaning free-er choice cause we never really ever have free choice/options will always have varied 'costs' ) then you do what gets you consistently better results; e.g. if you do not trust you lens/AF system because you know it gets confused or back-focuses a bit then you do it manually; if you do not trust your eyesight you have to rely on the camera. That's my 2 cents.
Great video Brendan. Do you have a link for the park? Thanks for sharing. BTW I have a Sony A7 and I like to use vintage lenses. Focus peaking has saved my life... Peace!
I like that on the sony cameras it zooms in automatically when you start to manually focus so you can nail that eye perfectly.
Do you have list of the park you visited while you Africa?
It's coming on my blog soon
Hi Brendan
I love your videos. I'm a newbie photographer and I want to say that you are a huge inspiration. I love your vids and your work.
I get if you don't have time to answer every question but how would you recommend to shoot with dslr with a mirror? Auto focos or manual? and, what technique?
Cheers from denmark
I'd use AF and then manual focus override if you need to!
@@BrendanvanSon thanks man. Looking forward to your next video 🙏
How do we share our images with you and get inputs from you? Will you ever do a critique??
Will the auto focus be good with a combination of the Canon 6D body and the Canon 100-400mm IS II lens? I can barely find any details on the Internet, and I just got myself a Canon 6D. I enjoy shooting pictures of the street and animals, especially birds, but I have heard that a few problems with the auto focus can be caused when using the Canon 6D and this lens.
I've got a five-year-old entry-level DSLR with focus peaking. So, what's all this fuss about? :P
Good vlog, as usual. Keep up the good work! Cheers! :)
Focus peaking on live view? Or through the viewfinder somehow?
Live view on LCD only, obviously. Viewfinder HUD displays only focusing confirmations on AF points.
Yeah, that's always been the problem. I just hate photographing wildlife on the live view.
Somehow all those great photos were put in National Geographic years ago without AF.. Just sayin.
Looks like you gave up on your gimbal. Too heavy?
Nope, I'm loving it. Just trying to get better and NOT using it. And, in the car with the animals any gimbal is just impractical.
First... I was just feeling sad and then this notification came
Here's 81639173 points to make you feel better.
When you pay over $3k for a camera you should expect to be able to shoot ANYTHING with it lol. Thats why im having such a hard time deciding my upgrade. All these new ones cost alot and they have alot of flaws smh.
I think though, that their flaws are all greatly exaggerated. If you can't get great images on a 2018 version of almost any camera, there's bigger issues. 😎 Don't get so focused on the gear. Just shoot!
Every camera is flawed in someway, nothing is ever perfect, a camera that works exceptionally well for one photographer can be a terrible camera for another. What you have on YT are people who shout about the tiniest flaw in a camera and make you the viewer believe that this model is terrible, the camera is a failure and the company that made it is about to go bust as a result.
Look at this years launches from Canon and Nikon, all 3 cameras have been massively slated at launch yet as people began to use the cameras the headlines started to change as the truth worked its way out. Look at what Brendan is doing with the EOS-R, he is loving it and using it in situations where he would have expected to use the 5Div.
You look at what you need for your photography and decide which camera fits your requirements best, your camera choice will be a compromise but you will determine what you can compromise on.
Lie. The African national park to see big cats the Maasai Mara.
Maybe true. I've never been there though. Would love to go someday.
Didn't blog almost getting trampled by elephants while taking a pee? Huge opportunity loss.
Right?! haha
3rd?
Dreary dreary dreary
Kolihoddy
It's the combination of both that makes mirrorless so good. I use the Panasonic G9 AF + MF with peaking. With this setting the MF overrides the AF whenever necessary. I know people will moan about the m43 system being too small of a sensor and the CAF is not good enough ... But it works. Checkout instagram.com/ffotografie82.
Very exciting video. Thanks
I do not like the style of wearing your hat.
Third... seems bout right.
Haha, except you were 4 th!
@@BrendanvanSon Ah darn it. Someone commented before i finished my comment. 😂😂😂
Please change your style
With respect, I am not a mannequin for you to design. I like me, my style, and who I am. My style is mine. You have yours. Me yourself, and stop telling others how to be or look.