Focus Point Moving and/or Back Button Focus

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Jmoffett

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Forgive me if I missed it in my search of this forum, but I have a question of how moving the focus point fits in with back button focus. About a year ago, I took all three of classes from Christopher Balmer of The Yellowstone Camera Store and spoke to him personally at his store as well. He completely changed my way of shooting as well as post production, and my pics instantly started to improve using his teachings.

For both wildlife and landscape photography, I have switched to shooting manual, auto ISO, continuous focus, single point focus moving the focus point as needed, and continuous high frame rate. I have just moved from a D7500 to a D500 so moving the focus point is even easier with the separate joystick.

I fully understand that back button focus with focus and recompose is popular as well as somewhat of a religion, but I also understand the shortcomings of that process with some lens curvatures, close subject proximity, as well as the possibility of missing a shot during camera repositioning. Please don’t hate me, but I think for me, moving the focus point is actually the best solution. I do however see benefit in separating focus from the shutter release to the AF-On button in order to also gain the benefits of BBF where you can either utilize a continuous focus holding the AF-On button in, or lock focus by pressing and releasing the AF-On button. That does seem to potentially be a big ask of my thumb In the heat of the moment.

My question to the group, is anyone using a combination of moving the focus point and BBF, or are they better separated and leaving the focus to the shutter release. If you use both, is it correct to assume that you just let muscle memory kick in to become efficient in positioning the focus point quickly then move to the AF-On button to initiate focusing, either continuous or focus lock, OR is it better to just keep focus initiation on the shutter release.

Thanks for your advice.
 
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It's been awhile since I've shot a dslr and mirrorless can take care of the problem for us, but I think bbf is still useful on dslr. I guess I'd try to place the point at the spot in my composition I want the eye to be, then follow with the camera. Or stay in the center but leave room to crop. Or maybe I'm missing the question.
 
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I guess for me the answer is it depends. The D500 is a great camera, but not all of its focus points are created equal. I did try moving the focus point a lot, but I found as I drifted away from the central area, the focus wasn’t as robust all of the time. So for me, I used BBAF with the subject in the middle and recomposed. I know different techniques work for others, but this was how I ended up doing it 90% of the time. I got so married to BBAF, I still use it on my Z9. But then again…I’m old.
 
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bleirer said:
It's been awhile since I've shot a dslr and mirrorless can take care of the problem for us, but I think bbf is still useful on dslr. I guess I'd try to place the point at the spot in my composition I want the eye to be, then follow with the camera. Or stay in the center but leave room to crop. Or maybe I'm missing the question.
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Just not sure if the two methods are better kept separate, leaving the focus initiation to the shutter release button or if they can effectively be combined. I believe that I want to stay with moving the focus point, but do see some advantages to using the AF-On button for focus initiation. Wondering how more experienced shooters handle this.
 
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I use both. If I have an idea where I'm going to want to compose the subject, I move the focus point. For example, when light is coming in across the frame and I know I want the subject looking into the light. If I could want the subject anywhere in the frame I put the focus point in the middle and either recompose with BBF or just center the subject and compose in post.

I'm not super fast at using the joystick to move the focus point, so for me I will miss many fewer shots recomposing with BBF than trying to fuss with the joystick.
 
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