Maybe THE BEST Setting On My Camera

When I finally got around to figuring out what this "hack" was and making my camera do it, I was instantly hooked. I knew I'd never go back to how I was shooting before. This was a game changer and I wished I'd done it much sooner.

This magical change? Back-button focus.

I'd heard other photographers talk about using "back-button focus" and I didn't pay much attention. A friend and I attended a photography conference and on one of our photo walks, the photographer was helping people set up their cameras to have that function but she couldn't figure mine out! (It's too low level, haha). I came home and put it on my 'to-do' list to research how to do it. And then proceeded to not do anything. (I'm a half-procrastinator).

Being honest? I just didn't know how amazing it would be. If I'd had any clue I would have done it much sooner. But I still haven't told you what exactly it does for me.

When you get a camera, the focus button is the shutter button. You press the shutter halfway down to achieve focus and then press the rest of the way to take the photo. This means you are refocusing for every picture. For a professional photographer, this can be a bit of an issue.

Back-button focus takes the focus off of the shutter button and assigns it to another button, usually on the back of the camera. Once you achieve your focus, as long as the distance between you and your subject does not change, you don't have to refocus again. You can take photo after photo and you only have to focus once you or your subject changes the distance. It's a total game changer!!!

Every camera is a little bit different in how you go about setting up back-button focus, so I'd recommend searching your exact camera model "how to". It takes a little bit of getting used to having to press a separate button, but it soon becomes second nature and it makes life so much easier.

Back-button focus does not work with automatic modes (I'm pretty sure this is across all models). You have to be in Manual, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority.

Do you use back-button focus? Or have you tried it and it wasn't for you? Tell me why you love it or why you don't like it so much. If you haven't used it, are you interested in trying it now? Leave me a comment with your thoughts!