A BETTER Way To Focus (Street & Travel Photography)

Great tips, BTW not sure you are aware, but most Fuji cameras you can set to AF "ALL" mode, and it will switch between modes as you resize the rectangle, so when you make rectangle smaller it will switch to single point focus, bigger - zone, etc., I find it super handy 🙂

Manual focus with peaking is really useful shooting through glass storefronts or cafes where the camera can have a hard time ignoring reflections and debris stuck to the glass.

Another useful thing is setting up the AEL/AEF lock to toggle. I find it very uncomfortable having to press and hold the button until taking the shot.

Recommend to use "AF Mode = All" which allows you to scroll from single point to zone to wide to single point. "All" means "all of the three modes", not "all points". No need to go into "AF Mode" anymore, just turn your scroll wheel to get from one single AF point to all you have, no more thinking about single or zone or wide

My method: wide(ish) lens, f/16, infinity at f/16, auto-ISO, pray

So happy I found your channel a while back as I'm still learning new tips regarding photography as well as the functionality of my xt3. Big THANK YOU!

The thumb focusing trick is such a great street trick too that so many people don’t realize. No one thinks you’re shooting when your thumb is on the shutter instead of your index. You can be a lot more discreet and look like you’re just holding your camera. Especially with a rangefinder body.

Another great explanation of real world camera use. Thank you. Honestly taken together with your other tutorials this is a course on photography.

Always exciting informative and brilliant pièce of cake. Love to see how you deeply peel an aspect of photography and how you explain that in a comprehensive way even for us intermediate photographer… bravo mate 👏

As mentioned below, I have set my AE-L & AF-L buttons to toggle On/Off , like a light switch. Frees up my thumb for other buttons on my X-T3.Great video as usual, always learn something new .

It's great hearing a reasoned well-paced delivery on this, from someone basing it all on real-life experience rather than the quick-fire latest fad deliveries on other channels, preaching about some new trick they've learnt. 100% agree with you on this subject, glad to know there's common sense out there ;)

It was really interesting to hear your perspective on this. When using my R5, it is 100% back button focus in continuous AF [Servo] mode. I press and release for single AF. I hold the button for continuous AF. The real beauty of the R5's AF system—missing from my Fuji bodies as well as the new X-H2S—is its dual back button focus, where one button can be configured to focus traditionally on whatever is under the focus point while the other instantly focuses on a subject's eyes. It is hard to overstate the flexibility this system offers when shooting street. I can configure the Eye AF button to initiate focus on the person under the focus point or simply the closest person in a zone of my choosing. (While precisely positioning a focus point has always been a struggle for me, moving a zone left or right is easy.) The whole system is a game changer for anyone who prefers to use AF when shooting street.

oh wow, best video about operating the camera buttons to actually focus I have ever seen.

Another well done video. Really enjoying and learning from your weekly episodes.

Thanks a lot, focus in busy environments has been tough so this is very helpful!

Thank you. I did enjoy the tip of being in AFC and being able to shot in AFS without switching by simply using the back button in AF lock only. Thanks.

The best way for the scenarios you mentioned in my opinion 👍🏻

Concise & clear. Thanks for doing this & not even trying to sell something

Excellent focus video. Many videos tell you what canera focusing options do but not how to use them in the real world. This provides practical and useful focusing procedures. Many thanks!

Great work, I recently discovered your channel, after 20+ years shooting only analogue I started with digital too and I must admit the settings can be overwhelming. I appreciate your tips, they have helped me a lot in figuring out how to do stuff. Thank you