An excellent video, Jan. I would like to add a word about a feature on the R5II that I am finding extremely helpful. When shooting with zoom lenses what I often found lacking was the pre-focus feature that we find on big primes. This became even more missed when I moved to mirrorless. Being able to snap your camera back to a pre-specified distance is invaluable in situations like BIF where there are not a lot of other items to focus on to get your camera back ‘into the zone’ as you say. This is doubly important because as you correctly state the camera focuses much better moving forward than being pulled back. Custom buttons on the R5II (and I assume the R1) can be programmed to set and recall a specific focus distance giving you the functionality we previously only had on the ‘big white’ primes. A nice enhancement to the overall AF flexibility. Thanks for the video and happy shooting!
Excellent demonstration of many points I have emphasized. But, I have photographed Belted Kingfishers taking off hundreds of times with a Canon R5, with a 600 mm f4 IS lens, under circumstances where the background is at least 6 meters from the bird and perch, and the bird is on a perch that could not possibly confuse the autofocus system, and I maintained autofocus the whole time. I have NEVER had the autofocus jump onto anything or get off focus, no matter how long I waited. I have had many clients with the same Canon equipment photographing the kingfishers in the same way and they had the same results. But I had 2 clients with Sony equipment and their cameras did jump on the background rarely. Then, a quick reach to manually put the plane of focus near the perch was enough to successfully use autofocus to refocus. Using your method of on/off focus is best with lots of vegetation that could confuse the autofocus system but greatly increases the chances of not being able to take advantage of pre-capture. Basically, when you are not on the autofocus button (or half press) and the bird takes off, you miss the opportunity. Your point about not autofocusing on a flying bird too early, or basically when it is too small in the frame, because the camera will often lock onto the background, is very good. That is why I instruct clients to learn to estimate the distance at which a bird is about 1/4 frame wing tip to wing tip across the width of the frame, pre-focus there, and wait until the bird flies into approximately that range before attempting to gain focus. Then focus locks on and is maintained well as the bird gets bigger in the frame. The focus bump works well, under circumstances where you have a bird coming at you from a long distance away but is completely unnecessary once the photographer has gained mastery over what you nicely went over, regarding pointing your lens at a subject and knowing that it is centered when you bring your eye to the viewfinder.
This could be your best and most useful video. Thanks so much. I shoot with a Fujifilm X-T5 and it has an amazing feature that I use all the time. There is a setting called "Recall Custom 1 Settings" which toggles between current settings and Custom 1 settings. I have assigned this to AE-L button on the back of the camera. Custom 1 settings are set up for perched birds (single point focus, et al). Custom 2 settings are set up for birds in flight (zone focus, et al). When I walk around, I keep the camera in C2, so I am ready for action. When I see a perched bird, I press AE-L to recall the proper settings, and then press AE-L again when I want to be ready for action. Here is the key: If I am in C2 having difficulty locking focus on a moving target, I press hit AE-L, grab focus, then AE-L again to get back to action.
In the analog day, we always used pre-focusing. So I am used to in today's digital world. Most of the time, I also do my own subject detection, using smaller to medium sized focus area. In sports and concert photography, I am just as fast and have hardly any misses. I am using A1 and A9III.
Fantastic tips Jan, learning to prefocus has been so important for my progress and (inadvertently but happily) forced me to learn more about my subjects' behaviour so I can anticipate where they'll show up in a scene. I now know more about my subjects and I take better photos of them, a win win!
I have a number one tip for improving every single lens AF speed, turn on the limiter switch. The amount of people I see with full AF enabled when they can limit it to where the subject is far more likely to be. This reduces the time it takes to focus lock by half usually.
This is a good tip and one I used a lot with my Fuji camera and lenses which had limiter switches. However, I can't find how to limit with my new setup, R6mk2 and 100-400 lens. The lens doesn't have that switch? Any suggestions would be gratefully received! Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the tips. I do a bit of dolphin photography in the Highlands of Scotland. Anticipation of where they are coming up and pointing my camera in the right direction while looking at the sea rather than through the viewfinder is definitely a skill I'm still trying to develop!
Thank you Jan for your fantastic tips. I never heard about turn the camera to the left an right to get better focus results. I will try it. Best wishes Roland
Definitely the most useful bird photography video put out. No have not heard of tilting the camera but makes perfect sense because we know autofocus has trouble with horizontals.
Great review Jan! Based on my experience your tips are right on the money. Never heard of turning the camera on an angle... will give it a try for sure!
Superb tips and advice. Also it is good to get to know the species very well that you are trying to photograph and a good pair of light 8x32 binoculars will fit in most camera bags or around the neck and best to keep the straps short so they dont get in the way. I am often amazed by some who go out and buy very expensive camera kit but have no idea about the species they are trying to photograph or the birds behaviour and that is part of the key of knowing what the bird will do and for them to get excellent photos
Wow, lots of great information here! -- thanks so much! I too have noticed that focusing too long on something is asking for trouble -- I often back off the subject after a few seconds and then move back onto it to "keep" focused on the subject. Thanks again for all the great tips and observations.
Good review of many of the auto focus methods the one about turning your camera at an angle is new to me. Never heard it before. I’ll be giving it a try thanks.
Never heard about the horizontal issue, I'll be sure to try that one soon. Loved the Lightroom masterclass! Highly recommended for anyone looking to up their editing game, thanks Jan!
I almost did not watch this video thinking I know all about auto focus, but did learn from it so thank you for an interest video, I did not know about turning the camera at an angle.
I did not know about the focusing in front rather than behind the subject. Also the tip about tilting the camera towards vertical when dealing with horizontal subject. Can’t wait to try those out. Thank you for these very practical tips.
Great review, thanks Jan! I'll have to try angling the camera when it's not getting focus! On my R5 Mark II I've assigned buttons to "Register focus point" (light) and "Recall focus point" (M-Fn) which helps in those situations where the camera tends to go to the background. But your best advice is to practice, practice, practice-- so finding the buttons, finding the subject, angling the camera, etc. comes naturally in high pressure shooting situations. That's what I need to do more.
Very nice and useful tips!!! I have never heard of autofocus system losing focus over long period and holding camera diagonally to attain focus quickly, until I saw this video. I will try these in the field. Thanks Jan for these wonderful tips 😊
Brilliantly clear explanations! This video is highly useful even to those of us using DSLRs. "Tracking" seems to be used in two different ways which I find quite confusing. (a) "Tracking" focus while focus spot remains on subject, meaning front-to-back, a.k.a., Z axis focusing which is relevant to SLRs and Mirrorless ; (b) moving the focus zone around viewfinder automatically (X/Y axes focusing) which it seems only Mirrorless can do.
Pre focus is the biggest tip, focus on something near the subject on the ground or Tree branch higher up. On Sony I use Zone with Eye autofocus . If the Subject is static I have a button set to Spot Auto focus and f5.6 at 1/1000 sec. Great video Jan it is a shame to miss a shot. But even taking the best advice we all still miss 🤔Dam ! So I would add try not to beat yourself up too much, in my experience
This video is excellent! So many useful tips, A few of them I knew, but always good to have them refreshed. Particularily for us that don’t shoot wildlife every day. Thank you very much! If you are a Canon R5ii user, I can highly recommend Jan’s setup guide with the configuration file ready to load into your camera. It saved me hours! I did a few small tweeks to my personal taste, but the starting point is very very good.
Thank you for these tips, i’ve learnt things thanks to you, especially not maintening AF too long but rather 5 s to 10 s and then renew the operation. I’m looking forward to trying this ASAP because I used to keep the AF works continuously.
you are so right about the last tip, i realize that i am doing it without knowing, it just happened to me once and now i know why it worked. thanks so much Jan for all these tips and this very unique video. can you believe i do bird photography since 2005 and until now my eye and hand coordination is so poor if the bird is in bush or busy branches, way better if its inflight. will try to practice.
Thank you for another great video. I just purchased an R1, and I need all the help I can get! :) I had never heard the tip about tilting the camera. Can't wait to try it out. Merry Christmas!
Good tips Jan. The main reason the turning the camera on an angle works or is even needed is because most mirrorless cameras are stillin the dark ages on AF and don't offer x-type AF points. Olympus has had them for years but the big three have been hopelessly out of touch. IIRC the R1 has some x-type AF points. Ultimately, we need them at 45 degree angle rather than horizontal=vertical layout.
Thanks, Jan! All great tips. I always have issues re-locating my subject. I'll try your techniques. I've never heard of tipping the camera a bit vertical to help. I'll try this too.
once again a great video... in which I found technics I already mostly use - save the "weird" camera turning, although if you think about it, it makes perfect sense
jan, another great video with awesome tips. i will try the side to side tilt when i next shoot water scenes. after shooting thousands of swallows, i figured out about prefocusing. since most of the birds fly over water hawking bugs. i pick out a spot, focus the water at that spot and try to anticipate the birds movements. although i still have lot of blurry shots i amaze myself by the number of full winged keepers i get of the swallows both soaring and chasing bugs with a prefocus selected. i agree with your observation that canon r5ii will focus easier from the prefocus going away than coming forward. thanks again.
One handy tip is to set your memory recall button on the lens to the closest distance you expect for a subject and then between subjects get in the habit of pushing it to reset your focus in front of your next subject, not behind it. That will also help if you can't get a bird flying against the sky in focus, a quick press of the button and your focus is in front of the bird and more likely to lock onto it. Thanks for the tip about tilting the camera. I can't wait to try it.
Locking on is all well and good, but at 400mm and F/5.6 if my lens is focused near either end of the range even an eagle can be almost invisible depending on how far away it is. That's okay for one perched in a tree, but trying to track a BIF when you can't even see it seems to be outside my skill set. That's why there are times when I'd like to have a minimum focus distance of 5 to 10 meters.
You are so good! Every time I watch you I learn something valuable. And your delivery is so reassuring.Thank you. But now to your requests. As far as the vertical line preference of auto focus, I was not surprised. As a video shooter I have used manual focus with peaking for years. I always wondered why the peaking always gravitated to vertical lines , like legs, vertical branches or vertical feather edges and completely ignored anything horizontal. I guess the guys who invented peaking are the same ones who developed autofocus. Regarding getting on the subject quickly without looking in the viewfinder, have you tried a rifle sight? I have a 4x rifle sight mounted to my tripod platform right next to the camera. It's on a ball head. Before shooting I line the viewfinder and the sight on a stationary object at the distance I expect the bird to be so what is in the center of the viewfinder is in the cross hairs of the sight. Then when the bird shows up I find it in the 4 x sight, which gives a super wide field of view regardless of how the camera is set. The bird will be in the viewfinder. I filmed a landing pintail yesterday following it in the sight and not even looking in the viewfinder, and it was in the frame all the way.
Great video Jan and really helpful tips. I didn't know the trick of tilting the camera, I am curious to try it as soon as possible. Thank you very much
Thanks for great tips! I have a tip regarding how to get the bird in the frame. I look in the viewfinder with my right eye and at the same time have my left eye looking at approximately 11 o'clock and approx. 1/2 a inch outside the lens, then the bird is visible in the viewfinder.
Excellent video Jan. All great tips. I think your penultimate tip about giving AF a break is one of the best tips that I don't see anyone else mentioning. I've found myself doing this for the past many years for both perched and flight shots just like what you show in the video. It helps a lot. I'm primarily a Sony shooter these days but have owned the Z9 and R5. A couple extra tips for Sony cameras. Pre-AI chip cameras have a preference for whatever is centred in the frame (I've noticed this for years and Mark Galer has confirmed this in some of his videos). So getting your bird centered in the Wide or Zone before engaging AF will increase the reliability of the AF grabbing the bird right away. I've found with the AI chip cameras this isn't working anymore (something I actually find as a downgrade for the newer Sony cameras). Also I find for BIF the Sony cameras are best shot in just non-tracking Wide or Zone. Those are more reliable not jumping off the subject and getting stuck on some distracting background like waves or trees. Tracking modes can work well for BIF but if they happen to grab a distraction they rarely recover to the bird in time where as non-tracking often will.
Hi Jan, great video. Some good refresher comments and definitely I hadn’t heard of the horizontal/ vertical thing. With my OM-1 for stationary subjects I will occasionally use the 2x digital teleconverter function. It can help with acquiring focus by zooming in with no change in f stop. Ok, you get a cropped jpeg but you also get the normal raw file to edit if you wish. Sometimes the superfine jpeg is all you need. To you and your family have a good Christmas and I look forward to more of your videos next year. Cheers.
Good review of many of the auto focus methods the one about turning your camera at an angle is new to me. Never heard it before. I’ll be giving it a try thanks. R
Great tips on getting reliable AF...thanks for sharing your expertiese! In my experience, if Canon's eye control AF works reliably well (admittedly a big if for many people), AF techniques that utilize "whole area AF" are not really needed. I typically just leave it on spot or area AF and 1) look in the general area the subject i want in focus is in so the AF spot/area moves close to the subject (need not be exactly on the subject) and the camera will instantly recognizes the subject I want, 2) I start AF, and the camera will lock and track the subject until AF is turned off. On my R1 it is typically so seamless it seems like everything I look at is automatically tracked. I find myself forgetting about focus while shooting like this...like the camera is reading my mind. Don't think I could go back to a AF system that didn't use eye control.
so weird that this video pops up on my homepage today. was struggling to get this bird of prey in focus and in flight and whilst my canon M50 doesn't have subject tracking I was sure that there's something technique wise I'm not doing right. This video was so helpful and I'll be eager to try out all the tips you gave
Thanks for this! If you think there is enough interest, I'd love to see a video on using the R5II's precapture mode. When I use it, it is like the camera AF does not track. The bird leaving the perch is in focus, but it seems focus stays on that spot and the bird is out of focus once it leaves. I believe Duade mentioned that he spoke to you about this issue. Is there something to be done? Thanks!
Hi Jan! Another great video! The bump technique is an old carry over from the DSLR days as that seemed a major thing that we did to keep our birds in flight in focus. Funny how some of the old techniques are still a staple even with new technology. What about DMF? I found using DMF when shooting American Kestrels with busy backgrounds was an essential part of keeping them in focus. It takes a bit of practice but if you loose focus during a sequence you can bring it back pretty close to your subject quickly with just a little bit of a turn on the focus ring and then immediately return to auto for the rest of the sequence once the system has re-acquired the bird. Steve (The Owl Man) Nanaimo B.C.
Great tips! I am definitely faulty of focusing on a subject too long. It has happened to me as well, that at some point the AF switches to something else and suddenly the bird flies off. When using precapture, there is no other way though, except to use manual focus. I would be interested in bird video AF-tips as well as how to use the different custom buttons on super tele zooms, as I never used one myself and they seem to work a little differently.
I've heard of all of these tips before, and use all of them except for the rotate camera tip (I keep forgetting it LOL!). I'm still not 100% with raising camera to my eye and getting the bird in the EVF, but have greatly improved over the past year. I've been partly hampered by an old mark 1 EF 500mm f4 prime, which is slow to grab initial AF acquisition (once it's found the target, AF tracking is pretty good). Have just bought a RF200-800 (it's not in your recommended list Jan, is that an oversight?) and I am currently testing it (has been hit and miss and I'm still working out why). I think a lot of it comes down to getting out into the field and spending a lot of hours in said field. Never underestimate bird behaviour either. One tip I learned from someone on UA-cam and I apply to raptors is approach said bird with the camera already up to the eye. Birds don't see your face in that scenario, and it seems that birds get triggered by the human face and react/flight to that. Hide the face and et voila!
incredible video, it is funny that i have done this ever since I had to start focusing manually on Alpha 200 when the focus sensor got dirty beyond being cleanable and then with A77II and a Tamron 150-600 G2 that I believed it was my fault (though sharp it ended up having some issues such as suddenly disconnecting from the mount) and now back to manual focus because none but one of my 7 lenses is native and i've gotten away quite handily with slow autofocus, although 99 percent of my photos were taken in manual focus being so much time on the doodoo side of lens performance taught me doing this. Lesson number zero: start with a borked camera lens!
I tried to get a grebe shot on the water and the camera struggled to focus..I will definetly try turner the camera on an angle and see if that improves my odds...Thanks Tim
Hi Jan. I did go to your website, but the 'before' pictures are too easy and that's why the 'after' look so good. Would like to join and buy the masterclass only if I see a tough photo, with lots of things infront and behind the bird, shadows of the twigs on the bird, different lighting on parts of the bird,..etc..kind of challanging pictures being made to look great in the 'after'.
Hey, I use examples in the class that are relatable for most. If I go too extreme it’s off putting. But with what I teach you could remove an elephant in front of the bird if you wanted to. The techniques are the same and I show you multiple ways to remove branches, including one raw with a few branches going right across a bird with patterned feathers and you will get the raw file to play with yourself, too
Thanks for sharing your great expertise, Jan! Especially the exercise of pointing the lens at the object before looking through the viewfinder helped me to find it much faster. The new AI translation function is strange for me. I turn it off and instead try to improve my English when I don't understand something. Which hasn't happened yet. Your explanations are always easy to understand, even for non-native speakers like me... 😉 Regards, Frank
9:52 same here, use it for windsurf photography also. If I keep the tracking on when a surfer is going to a wave to jump, I mostly loose focus half way. I always refocus just before taking of. With windsurfing on the sea, in waves, the camera is very 'eager' to focus on waves, which you mostly can't see through the viewfinder, only later to see the AF 'followed the wave coming towards you' . ALL Canon camera's do this, I have the R5 and R3, and both have trouble with this. And both have trouble focussing during bad weather (heavy rain or grey weather with lot's of wind... mainly because the air is filled with moisture, salt, and sand) Ow and tip for people using Canon's R5.... don't trust the AF face/eye detection, at least not in videos. If a person is sitting still, disable it, since, with video, I had many 'failed' focus moments during an interview, were the camera was not completely able to focus on the eyes, and goes 'breathing', and sometimes focus on totally different things, even when the AF point is right on the face. This happens especially when people wear hats or glasses. The R3 does this also a little, but weirdly the R and R8 are way better in this respect. For video, I would even recommend the R8 over the R5/R3, way cheaper and video quality is the same... only downside, those damn small batteries... With an R3 you can shoot all day long...
Yes, that's one of the reasons I use the R3 and now R1 for filming, the R5 does have its moment in video tracking. This is often caused as well when people use their hands a lot when they talk.
Kudos, Jan, great tips! I knew the H/V thing with mirrorless, The R1 should no longer need it, right? What I did not know is that AF likes to move away and not back. And that focusing too long is making the camera move off subject. The R7 is terrible at AF, what are your tips / settings for this little disaster? I put an APS-C lens on my FF R8 that crops to 9 Mpix and the pictures are way sharper than the R7s because they are actually in focus. My tip is expensive: use an f/2.8 lens. The R7 works like a charm with bright enough apertures.
This is by far one of the best videos on bird photography I found on YT. Thanks a lot!
Glad you enjoyed it!
An excellent video, Jan. I would like to add a word about a feature on the R5II that I am finding extremely helpful. When shooting with zoom lenses what I often found lacking was the pre-focus feature that we find on big primes. This became even more missed when I moved to mirrorless. Being able to snap your camera back to a pre-specified distance is invaluable in situations like BIF where there are not a lot of other items to focus on to get your camera back ‘into the zone’ as you say. This is doubly important because as you correctly state the camera focuses much better moving forward than being pulled back. Custom buttons on the R5II (and I assume the R1) can be programmed to set and recall a specific focus distance giving you the functionality we previously only had on the ‘big white’ primes. A nice enhancement to the overall AF flexibility. Thanks for the video and happy shooting!
Excellent demonstration of many points I have emphasized. But, I have photographed Belted Kingfishers taking off hundreds of times with a Canon R5, with a 600 mm f4 IS lens, under circumstances where the background is at least 6 meters from the bird and perch, and the bird is on a perch that could not possibly confuse the autofocus system, and I maintained autofocus the whole time. I have NEVER had the autofocus jump onto anything or get off focus, no matter how long I waited. I have had many clients with the same Canon equipment photographing the kingfishers in the same way and they had the same results. But I had 2 clients with Sony equipment and their cameras did jump on the background rarely. Then, a quick reach to manually put the plane of focus near the perch was enough to successfully use autofocus to refocus. Using your method of on/off focus is best with lots of vegetation that could confuse the autofocus system but greatly increases the chances of not being able to take advantage of pre-capture. Basically, when you are not on the autofocus button (or half press) and the bird takes off, you miss the opportunity. Your point about not autofocusing on a flying bird too early, or basically when it is too small in the frame, because the camera will often lock onto the background, is very good. That is why I instruct clients to learn to estimate the distance at which a bird is about 1/4 frame wing tip to wing tip across the width of the frame, pre-focus there, and wait until the bird flies into approximately that range before attempting to gain focus. Then focus locks on and is maintained well as the bird gets bigger in the frame. The focus bump works well, under circumstances where you have a bird coming at you from a long distance away but is completely unnecessary once the photographer has gained mastery over what you nicely went over, regarding pointing your lens at a subject and knowing that it is centered when you bring your eye to the viewfinder.
Thanks Jan! I'm learning a lot from your videos and Duade Paton's. Great to have Aussie photographers who are making such amazing content.
Glad you're enjoying both of our content!
This could be your best and most useful video. Thanks so much.
I shoot with a Fujifilm X-T5 and it has an amazing feature that I use all the time. There is a setting called "Recall Custom 1 Settings" which toggles between current settings and Custom 1 settings. I have assigned this to AE-L button on the back of the camera. Custom 1 settings are set up for perched birds (single point focus, et al). Custom 2 settings are set up for birds in flight (zone focus, et al). When I walk around, I keep the camera in C2, so I am ready for action. When I see a perched bird, I press AE-L to recall the proper settings, and then press AE-L again when I want to be ready for action. Here is the key: If I am in C2 having difficulty locking focus on a moving target, I press hit AE-L, grab focus, then AE-L again to get back to action.
In the analog day, we always used pre-focusing. So I am used to in today's digital world. Most of the time, I also do my own subject detection, using smaller to medium sized focus area. In sports and concert photography, I am just as fast and have hardly any misses. I am using A1 and A9III.
Fantastic tips Jan, learning to prefocus has been so important for my progress and (inadvertently but happily) forced me to learn more about my subjects' behaviour so I can anticipate where they'll show up in a scene. I now know more about my subjects and I take better photos of them, a win win!
The focus bump and tipping camera are new concepts to me. Thanks
I have a number one tip for improving every single lens AF speed, turn on the limiter switch. The amount of people I see with full AF enabled when they can limit it to where the subject is far more likely to be. This reduces the time it takes to focus lock by half usually.
This is a good tip and one I used a lot with my Fuji camera and lenses which had limiter switches. However, I can't find how to limit with my new setup, R6mk2 and 100-400 lens. The lens doesn't have that switch? Any suggestions would be gratefully received! Thanks in advance.
@@SkylarkFieldsnot all lenses have them unfortunately
@@TuomoTanskanen Thank you for replying. Trust me to choose one that hasn't! Never mind, will learn to do without it! 🙂
@ I think only 2 of my L series telephoto lenses have it, while shorter/prime L series or non-L lenses don’t have it.
Unfortunately, the RF 200-800 doesn't have the focus limiter switch. I wish it did.
Thanks for the tips. I do a bit of dolphin photography in the Highlands of Scotland. Anticipation of where they are coming up and pointing my camera in the right direction while looking at the sea rather than through the viewfinder is definitely a skill I'm still trying to develop!
Yes that will help a lot
Perhaps the video one can learn the most! It's so generous of you to share these essential secrets with us!
Glad you think so!
Great advice as usual! There was one small clip around the 1:40 Mark where it looks like it was Still CLOG before color correction
Oh no hehe
Thank you Jan for your fantastic tips. I never heard about turn the camera to the left an right to get better focus results. I will try it. Best wishes Roland
Glad it was helpful!
Definitely the most useful bird photography video put out. No have not heard of tilting the camera but makes perfect sense because we know autofocus has trouble with horizontals.
That was my goal, glad it helped you!
Thank you Jan for another great video! You are one of the best.
Thank you
Really good advice Jan! Much appreciated!
Glad it was helpful!
Great review Jan! Based on my experience your tips are right on the money. Never heard of turning the camera on an angle... will give it a try for sure!
Never heard about turning the camera to an angle tip. That was wow will definitely try this next time in the field.
Glad it was helpful!
Superb tips and advice. Also it is good to get to know the species very well that you are trying to photograph and a good pair of light 8x32 binoculars will fit in most camera bags or around the neck and best to keep the straps short so they dont get in the way. I am often amazed by some who go out and buy very expensive camera kit but have no idea about the species they are trying to photograph or the birds behaviour and that is part of the key of knowing what the bird will do and for them to get excellent photos
These are awesome Jan! I've experienced all of these challenges!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks Jan, the tips are very worthwhile and will be a great help out in the field!
awesome!
Wow, lots of great information here! -- thanks so much! I too have noticed that focusing too long on something is asking for trouble -- I often back off the subject after a few seconds and then move back onto it to "keep" focused on the subject. Thanks again for all the great tips and observations.
It’s a good technique
Good review of many of the auto focus methods the one about turning your camera at an angle is new to me. Never heard it before. I’ll be giving it a try thanks.
Never heard about the horizontal issue, I'll be sure to try that one soon. Loved the Lightroom masterclass! Highly recommended for anyone looking to up their editing game, thanks Jan!
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I almost did not watch this video thinking I know all about auto focus, but did learn from it so thank you for an interest video, I did not know about turning the camera at an angle.
keep that in mind for the next videos, too :D Glad I could show you something new
I did not know about the focusing in front rather than behind the subject. Also the tip about tilting the camera towards vertical when dealing with horizontal subject. Can’t wait to try those out. Thank you for these very practical tips.
Glad you found it helpful!
Great review, thanks Jan! I'll have to try angling the camera when it's not getting focus! On my R5 Mark II I've assigned buttons to "Register focus point" (light) and "Recall focus point" (M-Fn) which helps in those situations where the camera tends to go to the background. But your best advice is to practice, practice, practice-- so finding the buttons, finding the subject, angling the camera, etc. comes naturally in high pressure shooting situations. That's what I need to do more.
Yes, that's what really matters, putting it all together when it counts and your heart is racing with excitement
Man, those were some awesome tips! I definitely had not heard of some of those thanks for sharing!
Glad to help!
Very useful tips. Thanks a lot Jan. Some things I hadn't thought of, like turning the camera to get more confident focusing. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
thanks Jan, always a great wealth of knowledge.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Very nice and useful tips!!!
I have never heard of autofocus system losing focus over long period and holding camera diagonally to attain focus quickly, until I saw this video. I will try these in the field.
Thanks Jan for these wonderful tips 😊
Glad to hear it was helpful!
Brilliantly clear explanations! This video is highly useful even to those of us using DSLRs. "Tracking" seems to be used in two different ways which I find quite confusing. (a) "Tracking" focus while focus spot remains on subject, meaning front-to-back, a.k.a., Z axis focusing which is relevant to SLRs and Mirrorless ; (b) moving the focus zone around viewfinder automatically (X/Y axes focusing) which it seems only Mirrorless can do.
Pre focus is the biggest tip, focus on something near the subject on the ground or Tree branch higher up. On Sony I use Zone with Eye autofocus . If the Subject is static I have a button set to Spot Auto focus and f5.6 at 1/1000 sec.
Great video Jan it is a shame to miss a shot. But even taking the best advice we all still miss 🤔Dam !
So I would add try not to beat yourself up too much, in my experience
Depends on the shot we miss 😂
@@jan_wegener Too true 🙂
This video is excellent! So many useful tips, A few of them I knew, but always good to have them refreshed. Particularily for us that don’t shoot wildlife every day. Thank you very much!
If you are a Canon R5ii user, I can highly recommend Jan’s setup guide with the configuration file ready to load into your camera. It saved me hours! I did a few small tweeks to my personal taste, but the starting point is very very good.
Great to hear Jens
Thank you for these tips, i’ve learnt things thanks to you, especially not maintening AF too long but rather 5 s to 10 s and then renew the operation. I’m looking forward to trying this ASAP because I used to keep the AF works continuously.
Great to hear :)
@ very helpful indeed
Will try some turning camera for horizontals. Thanks for the tips. I use most of them but always good to hear. Be Well.
The last tip is new to me. Can’t wait to try it.
you are so right about the last tip, i realize that i am doing it without knowing, it just happened to me once and now i know why it worked.
thanks so much Jan for all these tips and this very unique video. can you believe i do bird photography since 2005 and until now my eye and hand coordination is so poor if the bird is in bush or busy branches, way better if its inflight. will try to practice.
Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for another great video. I just purchased an R1, and I need all the help I can get! :) I had never heard the tip about tilting the camera. Can't wait to try it out. Merry Christmas!
Good tips Jan. The main reason the turning the camera on an angle works or is even needed is because most mirrorless cameras are stillin the dark ages on AF and don't offer x-type AF points. Olympus has had them for years but the big three have been hopelessly out of touch. IIRC the R1 has some x-type AF points. Ultimately, we need them at 45 degree angle rather than horizontal=vertical layout.
Thanks, Jan! All great tips. I always have issues re-locating my subject. I'll try your techniques. I've never heard of tipping the camera a bit vertical to help. I'll try this too.
Glad you found it helpful!
Some great tips Jan, and you are appearing much better these days. Hopefully, you’re staying healthy.
Thank you! It’s a bit more stable atm
Great video...👍
I found my answer in one point you made to not track continuously for long stretches of time. Thank you..
Great 👍
am a wildlife youtuber, planning to buy Nikon z8
these tips will help me for sure 👍
thanks ❤️
Great tips, Jan. I will definitely try them.
Excellent tips, Jan. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
once again a great video... in which I found technics I already mostly use - save the "weird" camera turning, although if you think about it, it makes perfect sense
Thanks for sharing!
jan, another great video with awesome tips. i will try the side to side tilt when i next shoot water scenes.
after shooting thousands of swallows, i figured out about prefocusing. since most of the birds fly over water hawking bugs. i pick out a spot, focus the water at that spot and try to anticipate the birds movements. although i still have lot of blurry shots i amaze myself by the number of full winged keepers i get of the swallows both soaring and chasing bugs with a prefocus selected.
i agree with your observation that canon r5ii will focus easier from the prefocus going away than coming forward. thanks again.
Sounds like you’ve figured out a great workflow!
Gotta try the angle trick, thanks Jan.
Good luck!
One handy tip is to set your memory recall button on the lens to the closest distance you expect for a subject and then between subjects get in the habit of pushing it to reset your focus in front of your next subject, not behind it. That will also help if you can't get a bird flying against the sky in focus, a quick press of the button and your focus is in front of the bird and more likely to lock onto it. Thanks for the tip about tilting the camera. I can't wait to try it.
Great tip!
Locking on is all well and good, but at 400mm and F/5.6 if my lens is focused near either end of the range even an eagle can be almost invisible depending on how far away it is. That's okay for one perched in a tree, but trying to track a BIF when you can't even see it seems to be outside my skill set. That's why there are times when I'd like to have a minimum focus distance of 5 to 10 meters.
Thanks for the advice it’s very useful indeed
Glad you think so!
Hugely helpful information, Jan. Thanks for posting!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Jan, great info on Autofocus!
Glad it was helpful!
Super, dass deine Videos jetzt auch mit deutschem Audio sind!
hoffe ich klinge nicht zu schlimm :D
You are so good! Every time I watch you I learn something valuable. And your delivery is so reassuring.Thank you. But now to your requests. As far as the vertical line preference of auto focus, I was not surprised. As a video shooter I have used manual focus with peaking for years. I always wondered why the peaking always gravitated to vertical lines , like legs, vertical branches or vertical feather edges and completely ignored anything horizontal. I guess the guys who invented peaking are the same ones who developed autofocus. Regarding getting on the subject quickly without looking in the viewfinder, have you tried a rifle sight? I have a 4x rifle sight mounted to my tripod platform right next to the camera. It's on a ball head. Before shooting I line the viewfinder and the sight on a stationary object at the distance I expect the bird to be so what is in the center of the viewfinder is in the cross hairs of the sight. Then when the bird shows up I find it in the 4 x sight, which gives a super wide field of view regardless of how the camera is set. The bird will be in the viewfinder. I filmed a landing pintail yesterday following it in the sight and not even looking in the viewfinder, and it was in the frame all the way.
Thanks for sharing, good tips!
Great video Jan and really helpful tips.
I didn't know the trick of tilting the camera, I am curious to try it as soon as possible. Thank you very much
Glad it was helpful!
Great tips, especially not to try and hold to the subject in focus for too long at one time. I'd never that one before. Thank you!
Glad you found it helpful!
Thanks for great tips!
I have a tip regarding how to get the bird in the frame.
I look in the viewfinder with my right eye and at the same time have my left eye looking at approximately 11 o'clock and approx. 1/2 a inch outside the
lens, then the bird is visible in the viewfinder.
Thanks for sharing!
Amazing as always!! I wish you could show how to change things inside of the camera (such as case or so..).
Thanks!!
Some excellent hands on advice and I iwll certainly be applying these useful tips!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent video Jan. All great tips. I think your penultimate tip about giving AF a break is one of the best tips that I don't see anyone else mentioning. I've found myself doing this for the past many years for both perched and flight shots just like what you show in the video. It helps a lot. I'm primarily a Sony shooter these days but have owned the Z9 and R5.
A couple extra tips for Sony cameras. Pre-AI chip cameras have a preference for whatever is centred in the frame (I've noticed this for years and Mark Galer has confirmed this in some of his videos). So getting your bird centered in the Wide or Zone before engaging AF will increase the reliability of the AF grabbing the bird right away. I've found with the AI chip cameras this isn't working anymore (something I actually find as a downgrade for the newer Sony cameras). Also I find for BIF the Sony cameras are best shot in just non-tracking Wide or Zone. Those are more reliable not jumping off the subject and getting stuck on some distracting background like waves or trees. Tracking modes can work well for BIF but if they happen to grab a distraction they rarely recover to the bird in time where as non-tracking often will.
Hi Jan, great video. Some good refresher comments and definitely I hadn’t heard of the horizontal/ vertical thing. With my OM-1 for stationary subjects I will occasionally use the 2x digital teleconverter function. It can help with acquiring focus by zooming in with no change in f stop. Ok, you get a cropped jpeg but you also get the normal raw file to edit if you wish. Sometimes the superfine jpeg is all you need. To you and your family have a good Christmas and I look forward to more of your videos next year. Cheers.
Merry Christmas to you and your family too!
Waiting for your comparison between the Canon R1 vs Sony A1ii or R5ii. Thanks for the Af tips.
Excellent advice that I will use on my R5 2. Thank you for delivering quality content.
Glad to help!
Always great information!
Glad you think so!
Cheers Jan, I always thought my inability to handhold a camera level was a fault!
Thanks Jan!
Please test Z50II and 180-600 for birding!
Now that’s what I call useful! Thank you!
Glad to hear it!
Very good tip - tilting the camera to focus on swimming birds..
Good review of many of the auto focus methods the one about turning your camera at an angle is new to me. Never heard it before. I’ll be giving it a try thanks. R
Can you do a challenge to use an old DSLR to do wildlife photography. It would make a interesting video
Great tips on getting reliable AF...thanks for sharing your expertiese! In my experience, if Canon's eye control AF works reliably well (admittedly a big if for many people), AF techniques that utilize "whole area AF" are not really needed. I typically just leave it on spot or area AF and 1) look in the general area the subject i want in focus is in so the AF spot/area moves close to the subject (need not be exactly on the subject) and the camera will instantly recognizes the subject I want, 2) I start AF, and the camera will lock and track the subject until AF is turned off. On my R1 it is typically so seamless it seems like everything I look at is automatically tracked. I find myself forgetting about focus while shooting like this...like the camera is reading my mind. Don't think I could go back to a AF system that didn't use eye control.
Some of those were new tips for me. Thank you 🙂
Glad it was helpful!
so weird that this video pops up on my homepage today. was struggling to get this bird of prey in focus and in flight and whilst my canon M50 doesn't have subject tracking I was sure that there's something technique wise I'm not doing right. This video was so helpful and I'll be eager to try out all the tips you gave
Awesome! Sometimes the algorithm knows exactly what we need 😆
Thanks for this! If you think there is enough interest, I'd love to see a video on using the R5II's precapture mode. When I use it, it is like the camera AF does not track. The bird leaving the perch is in focus, but it seems focus stays on that spot and the bird is out of focus once it leaves. I believe Duade mentioned that he spoke to you about this issue. Is there something to be done?
Thanks!
That’s definitely one of the issues
Thank you for the tips, very useful.
My pleasure!
Very good video and tips, impressive camera to.
Great tips ❤
Last two tips were new for me 😊
Hi Jan! Another great video! The bump technique is an old carry over from the DSLR days as that seemed a major thing that we did to keep our birds in flight in focus. Funny how some of the old techniques are still a staple even with new technology. What about DMF? I found using DMF when shooting American Kestrels with busy backgrounds was an essential part of keeping them in focus. It takes a bit of practice but if you loose focus during a sequence you can bring it back pretty close to your subject quickly with just a little bit of a turn on the focus ring and then immediately return to auto for the rest of the sequence once the system has re-acquired the bird.
Steve (The Owl Man) Nanaimo B.C.
Yes I use that a lot. It’s often the fastest way to bring it back
Great tips, Jan!
Glad it was helpful!
Great tips! I am definitely faulty of focusing on a subject too long. It has happened to me as well, that at some point the AF switches to something else and suddenly the bird flies off. When using precapture, there is no other way though, except to use manual focus.
I would be interested in bird video AF-tips as well as how to use the different custom buttons on super tele zooms, as I never used one myself and they seem to work a little differently.
Thank you for this very focused (pun intended) video. I appreciate the shortness of this idea filled tutorial. You are a talented instructor.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Good tips. Thanks. However the Pre-capture on the R7 is useless because the sensor’s readout is too slow.
I've heard of all of these tips before, and use all of them except for the rotate camera tip (I keep forgetting it LOL!). I'm still not 100% with raising camera to my eye and getting the bird in the EVF, but have greatly improved over the past year. I've been partly hampered by an old mark 1 EF 500mm f4 prime, which is slow to grab initial AF acquisition (once it's found the target, AF tracking is pretty good). Have just bought a RF200-800 (it's not in your recommended list Jan, is that an oversight?) and I am currently testing it (has been hit and miss and I'm still working out why).
I think a lot of it comes down to getting out into the field and spending a lot of hours in said field. Never underestimate bird behaviour either.
One tip I learned from someone on UA-cam and I apply to raptors is approach said bird with the camera already up to the eye. Birds don't see your face in that scenario, and it seems that birds get triggered by the human face and react/flight to that. Hide the face and et voila!
Thanks for a very helpful video
My pleasure
incredible video, it is funny that i have done this ever since I had to start focusing manually on Alpha 200 when the focus sensor got dirty beyond being cleanable and then with A77II and a Tamron 150-600 G2 that I believed it was my fault (though sharp it ended up having some issues such as suddenly disconnecting from the mount) and now back to manual focus because none but one of my 7 lenses is native and i've gotten away quite handily with slow autofocus, although 99 percent of my photos were taken in manual focus being so much time on the doodoo side of lens performance taught me doing this.
Lesson number zero: start with a borked camera lens!
Great tips! Thanks, Jan.
I tried to get a grebe shot on the water and the camera struggled to focus..I will definetly try turner the camera on an angle and see if that improves my odds...Thanks Tim
Hi Jan. I did go to your website, but the 'before' pictures are too easy and that's why the 'after' look so good. Would like to join and buy the masterclass only if I see a tough photo, with lots of things infront and behind the bird, shadows of the twigs on the bird, different lighting on parts of the bird,..etc..kind of challanging pictures being made to look great in the 'after'.
Hey,
I use examples in the class that are relatable for most. If I go too extreme it’s off putting. But with what I teach you could remove an elephant in front of the bird if you wanted to. The techniques are the same and I show you multiple ways to remove branches, including one raw with a few branches going right across a bird with patterned feathers and you will get the raw file to play with yourself, too
Thanks for sharing your great expertise, Jan!
Especially the exercise of pointing the lens at the object before looking through the viewfinder helped me to find it much faster.
The new AI translation function is strange for me. I turn it off and instead try to improve my English when I don't understand something. Which hasn't happened yet. Your explanations are always easy to understand, even for non-native speakers like me... 😉
Regards, Frank
Yes, not sure I’d like that translation myself, but might help some
Great tips and advice it's not all about the settings.
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful.
Great video and the last tipp was really helpful!
Glad you think so!
First time coming upon your video love it
At least I’m not alone, great tips. Thank you
Hi Jan helpful advice do you shoot with back button focusing rather than traditional using the shutter button?
Yes
Thanks for more awesome information! Some new ideas!❤
Glad to help!
9:52 same here, use it for windsurf photography also. If I keep the tracking on when a surfer is going to a wave to jump, I mostly loose focus half way. I always refocus just before taking of.
With windsurfing on the sea, in waves, the camera is very 'eager' to focus on waves, which you mostly can't see through the viewfinder, only later to see the AF 'followed the wave coming towards you' .
ALL Canon camera's do this, I have the R5 and R3, and both have trouble with this. And both have trouble focussing during bad weather (heavy rain or grey weather with lot's of wind... mainly because the air is filled with moisture, salt, and sand)
Ow and tip for people using Canon's R5.... don't trust the AF face/eye detection, at least not in videos. If a person is sitting still, disable it, since, with video, I had many 'failed' focus moments during an interview, were the camera was not completely able to focus on the eyes, and goes 'breathing', and sometimes focus on totally different things, even when the AF point is right on the face.
This happens especially when people wear hats or glasses.
The R3 does this also a little, but weirdly the R and R8 are way better in this respect. For video, I would even recommend the R8 over the R5/R3, way cheaper and video quality is the same... only downside, those damn small batteries...
With an R3 you can shoot all day long...
Yes, that's one of the reasons I use the R3 and now R1 for filming, the R5 does have its moment in video tracking. This is often caused as well when people use their hands a lot when they talk.
Kudos, Jan, great tips! I knew the H/V thing with mirrorless, The R1 should no longer need it, right? What I did not know is that AF likes to move away and not back. And that focusing too long is making the camera move off subject.
The R7 is terrible at AF, what are your tips / settings for this little disaster? I put an APS-C lens on my FF R8 that crops to 9 Mpix and the pictures are way sharper than the R7s because they are actually in focus. My tip is expensive: use an f/2.8 lens. The R7 works like a charm with bright enough apertures.