I recently posted this thread on the Nikon digital Learning Site and as I was going over the comments I thought it would make a great Tech Tuesday so, here it is…

Do you choose AF-S (single focus) or AF-C when you point your camera at your subject? If you are shooting stationary subjects, you likely have the focus set to AF-S which means, you select a focus point, depress half way down on the shutter button, the lens focuses on the target within the selected focus point, and as long as you keep the shutter button halfway depressed, the focus is locked. You can move the camera to different compositions and the focus will stay on the distance setting that you locked in…until you lift your finger off the shutter release.

That’s great for stationary subjects. What about moving targets? There’s AF-C (continuous focus) where point the camera at your subject, depress the shutter release halfway down and the lens focuses on your subject. When the subject begins to move the camera kicks in to continuous focus and follows the subject, changing focus as needed while we fire off a sequence of shots.

Pretty straight forward…but, what happens when you are in single focus and your subject begins to move? You have to either quickly change the focus to continuous (oh, yeah, the subject is long gone by now) or you reach up and take control of the focus using the manual focus ring on the lens (a very viable option… if you have an AF-S lens), or you keep the camera in continuous and when the subject falls out of the focus point range you simply switch to single focus (and forget to switch it back for the anticipated action) or, once again reach up and take control of the focus manually (again, if you have an AF-S lens).

I shoot action a great deal of the time so, I want to be set for action…continuous advance and continuous focus. But, there are times when the subject falls out of the focus area (even with 51 focus points this can happen) or I need to lock focus for several frames. Invariably, I would switch to single focus and forget to switch back (ok, maybe most of you don’t have this memory issue but for those of you who do…) to continuous and miss a great sequence.

Enter the AF-ON button on the rear of many cameras. (AE-L/AF-L works if you don’t have AF-ON on your camera. Check your manual for specifics on these settings for your camera). These settings are based on the D3 family. Now, I leave my camera set to AF-C and I have programmed my AF-ON button to be focus and exposure lock (AE/AF lock. Custom setting a9 on D3 series bodies). Now I have the best of both worlds. I have the ability to track moving subjects and when I need to override the continuous, I simply focus on my subject and depress the AF-ON button (and hold it) recompose and fire away. To get back to continuous focus, I simply release the AF-ON button. and begin tracking my subject.

The reason I have set the AF-ON button to be both focus and exposure lock is that the focus point plays a part in the overall exposure of an image. When I point the camera at a scene and focus, some of the exposure is determined by the focus point selected telling the camera that this is the subject which in turn affects the exposure. So, I lock the exposure at the same time I lock focus and shoot away.

*The AE-L/AF-L button (Custom f6 has several options to program in to this button but, one of the primary settings is exposure and focus lock.

Here’s an example of how I use the AF-ON to bounce between focus lock and continuous focus…

Shot from a bouncing boat, I locked focus on the bird, held the AF-ON button and fired off a few shots.

My camera reverted to continuous focus (Dynamic 21 point as discussed in a previous post) when I released the AF-ON button to allow me to track the Kittiwakes flying overhead.

As the boat drifted closer to the Kittiwake nests, I aimed at the birds, focused, held the AF-ON button to lock focus (remember, I’m on a bouncing boat and the focus kept changing from the bird to the rock, rock to the bird as we bounced up and down) and fired off a burst. I was then able to select the shot with the birds composed the way I wanted without any concerns over which image was in focus.

Whenever a bird would come in to land on the rock, there would usually be some interaction amongst the birds. Continuous Dynamic allowed me to capture this exchange

Take time to think about how you shoot… do you have your AF-ON, AE-L/AF-L buttons programmed to suit your style of shooting?

Here’s how I did it…

-I set up my tripod and leveled it, mounted my camera in vertical with the lens set to 50mm, dialed in a seven stop bracket and click, pan with a slight overlap…click, repeat six more times to cover the entire scene and processed each seven stop bracket in Photomatix then opened the images in Photoshop and processed the pano. A few finishing touches using High Pass and a curves adjustment layer to darken the image slightly and the end result was just what I had hoped for.

Image created with Nikon D3S, AF-S 24-70mm on Lexar digital Media

Last week I discussed the beauty of photographing a bird while it is preening. It would seem that the images are reward enough but, if you are patient and keep that lens trained on your preening bird, more often than not, you will be rewarded with a bonus…the “wing flap”…

The wing flap is the added bonus for those who don’t give up on a preening bird too soon…

Before I understood this simple behavior I would be hit and miss, just happening on a bird as it did a wing flap but, I didn’t know what led up to that action…

Now that I understand that at the end of a preening session the bird will do a wing flap to get all the loose feathers out and to settle its wings in to place I anticipate the behavior and keep my lens trained on it AS LONG AS IT TAKES for it to finish preening (shoot that’s just more beautiful preening shots for the files, right!) and capture that final wing flap…

Here are a couple of tips…in anticipation of the grand finale DON’T fill up your buffer or you will be left sitting on your shutter while nothing happens (*special note to self on this one!) and miss the peak of action…

Tip number two…now that you’ve held back some on the preening shots to have room on your buffer, don’t hold back when the wing flap begins…it’s usually quite brief and you want to capture the full sequence and in the process, the peak of action…

Tip number three…this one’s a biggie…leave some room around the bird for the wing flap to avoid cutting off wings, heads, other bird parts, etc. They get both wider and taller when they are doing their wing flap! (Sorry no examples…don’t get me wrong, I get them now and then, I just deleted them all when I should have saved them as examples) You know the images I’m talking about where you have the bottom half of the bird in the top half of the frame while the rest of it has already left the picture before you could react or you have a frame filling, virtually wingless bird flopping around in the image and miss…yeap, peak of action!

Images created (in order) Nikon D3, AF-S 200-400mm VR – D3S, AF-S 600mm VR II – Nikon D2XS, AF-S 600mm with TC-17E II – Nikon D3S, AF-S 600mm VR – D3, AF-S 600mm with TC17E II – D3S, AF-S 600mm VR with TC-14E II on Lexar Professional Digital Media

…and to add the creative finishing touches in the digital darkroom…

I’ll be teaching this technique and more at Photoshop World next week. Hope to see you there!

Image created with Nikon D3X, AF-S 24-70mm on Lexar Digital Media.

While I love a bird portrait as much as anyone, behavior adds so much more impact to an image and preening behavior is one of my favorites! I love the beauty and grace, the simplicity of the gentle curve of a White Ibis’ neck as it reaches for the feathers on it’s back…

I try to catch them as they stretch and pull at their wings…

At the very tip of their wing, a wisp of feather curls around their beak…

And the dexterity in which they get to those hard to reach places…

When they are in or near water, zoom (or step back) a bit and include the reflection…

Try to isolate your preening bird to keep your viewers attention focused right where you want it…

So, the next time you find yourself photographing birds, watch their behavior and train your lens on a preening bird…not only will you make some simply beautiful images there will likely be an added bonus at the end so, stay focused (on your bird) and…stay tuned next week when I share the bonus!

Images created with (in order) Nikon D3 – AF-S 600mm f4, D3S, AF-S 600mm VR – D1H, AF-S 600mm – D2X, AF-S 200-400mm VR with TC-14E II – D3, AF-S 600mm f4 VR with TC-14E II – Nikon D3, AF-S 200-400mm with TC14E II on Lexar Digital Media