Bits & Pieces, A Wide Variety Of Photos

See that de-focused baby chair handle? That's what makes this picture work, the one with only the baby is not even half as good.

I just realized that I don't have to wait until I have a large post or review ready to post it, so I decided to start right now, I will show some images in this post that have nothing to do at all with each other, just some photos with captions, I hope you enjoy it.

I have been using the camera less and less the last couple of months and my posting rate has been too slow, there are several reasons for that:

• I have started a new job in a new company and it's taking most of my time and concentration.
• I decided that I have to spend more time with my family (i.e. less time in front of the PC).
• My main computer now is a desktop, which I am too lazy to sit in front of for a long time.
• I lack inspiration and time.

But I am snapping out of it (by it, I mean, the photographer's block, you know what a writer's block is, right? I thought so), I started by looking at my lightroom catalog (mainly the old 550D pictures) and decided that I had to post some of them here, so there you go.

55W H7 Bulb, 60mm Macro, f/8, 1/250, ISO 400

I will start with my recent shots first, I was bored dead at home and decided to shoot anything, so I brought out my three Canon speedlites, put them to manual mode, half power and pointed all of them at the ceiling with two of them slightly towards the walls. I got out my 60mm Macro since it opens up a lot of possibilities because of the close focusing distance, I started looking around for any small object to shoot and I found that H7 bulb that I had lying around.

A Happy Friend, 85mm, f/2.5, 1/125, ISO 1600

And that's one of my friends that I visited recently, shot with the 85mm at f/2.5 since I didn't want to completely wipe his face. Light was an on-camera bounce flash pointed behind my back to the side (bounced from a purple wall, but was easily fixed by shooting in RAW).

Old Man - Full Picture, 50mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO 100

Old Man - Crop 1, can you see me?

Old Man - Crop 2

Ahhh, I miss that lens, the 50mm f/1.8 II is one wickedly sharp lens, if only it had a nicer bokeh, a better auto-focusing mechanism and a better build quality, but otherwise, it is the lens, best bang for the buck.

iPhone 3GS, 60mm Macro, f/6.3, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

iPhone 3GS Crop

I remember when I first got my macro lens, I was shooting extreme closeups to see how many hidden details a macro lens and 18 megapixels can reveal, this is one of them, we were taught that one pixel consists of three colors, red, green and blue, now I believe them.

Sunset in Sudan, f/8, 1/20, ISO 200

A lovely sunset shot outside my apartment in Khartoum, Sudan. Shot with the 18-55 kit lens.

Foggy Morning, Smart Village, f/4, 1/320, ISO 100

This was shot on one of the foggy mornings at the Smart Village where I used to work before, I saw the fog and decided that it would make very good pictures.

Biker, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 100

One of my favorite shots of a full biking day, I went along with around 25 bikers to shoot their meeting, I might post about it later, but this picture especially works in B&W because of the old style of the bike and the rider.

Little Girl, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100

You don't always need artificial light sources to get good pictures, shot in very harsh sunlight, the whole idea was to give her back to the sun and to meter for her face and not the whole scene, a slight vignette also helps.

Huh? f/6.3, 1/160, ISO 400

Total artificial lighting, one strobe on the white wall at the back, also giving the rim light on the right side of the photo, and one key light with a shoot through umbrella.

Yellow Cups, 60mm Macro, f/4, 1/40, ISO 1600, hand held, as usual

A shot that I took for one of the mini challenges on dpreview, the theme was yellow, I find this picture striking for some reason.

Out Of Focus, f/1.8, 1/25, ISO 400

I was playing with my Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, it is a manual focusing lens and I was shooting a street full of cars, rounded out of focus lights look really attractive to me (not this same picture, but usually they do), maybe because I was deprived of them with auto-focus point and shoots?

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Cheap but Good Point and Shoot for Serious Photographers

My wife wanted a new camera for those occasions when I wasn't available to take photos.  I also liked the idea of having a small point-and-shoot when the situation didn't warrant bringing my DSLRs, but I wanted one that had at least decent image quality.



If money were no object, I would like to get a Fuji X100, which has already received accolades from many pro photographers such as Neil van Niekerk and Zack Arias.  My wife (non-photographer) loved the retro design but I felt that $1300+ for a camera for casual shooting was way too much.

I also considered the Fuji X10 (available Nov. 2011).  I was even more interested in it than the X100 because of the lower price and more useful focal focal length range (35mm vs. 28-112mm).  But the cost is still substantial -- $600.  Too much for our limited purposes.  That could buy a lot of stuff for our kids!
Even the Canon G12 (around $450 at Amazon) or the Nikon P7100 ($500) are outside our budget.  Ditto with the Canon S100 ($429 at Amazon) and Panasonic LX5 ($370 at Amazon).  Too bad - the P7100 hotshoe would have been nice (I have a TTL cord, which would have allowed easy off-camera lighting).  We needed something more affordable but still had decent image quality.

I then looked at the Canon S95 ($320 at Amazon).  The S95 is a good choice because of its low noise sensor.  For more experienced photographers like me, it also has great controls for a point and shoot, offering many of the adjustments I've come to rely on in a DSLR.  It even has a nifty control ring around its lens (the function of the ring can be set in the menu).  I even recommended the S95 to a friend who was looking for a point-and-shoot.

I looked around for possible lower-cost alternatives to the S95.  I looked closely at the Canon SD4000 ($200 at Amazon) and Nikon P300 ($260 at Amazon). The latter two offer some similarities to the S95:

1. Image quality:
Based the dpreview tests, S95 is hands-down the winner.  It has less noise and more detail.  However, in my eyes, the SD4000 isn't far behind the S95, with just slightly less detail.  And the P300 isn't quite as good as the SD4000 but I'm not a pixel peeper.  In my opinion, the P300 image quality is close enough to that of the S95 and SD4000.

2. PASM.
Correction: the S95 and P300 have PASM.  The SD4000 is limited to PAS - see comment below.

3. Wide angle:
The S95 and SD4000 go as wide as 28mm. The P300 goes to 24mm.  Note: The SD4500 has a 10x zoom range from 36-360mm but wide angle is more important for me than a long tele length, that's why I didn't even consider the SD4500.

4. Decent aperture range.
The S95 and SD4000 go as wide as f/2.0 at their widest angle.  The P300 is as wide as f/1.8 at 24mm.

Other than the price, here are the differences that I found most significant.

1. Raw mode.
The S95 can take photos in raw.  The SD4000 and P300 can only shoot in JPEGs.  Why is this important? See mshafik's post "Raw vs. JPEG: Myth or Fact" http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2011/05/raw-vs-jpeg-myth-or-fact-definitive.html

2. 1080p video.
The P300 can shoot at 1080p at 30fps in stereo, with optical zoom capability.
(The SD4000 can shoot at 720p at 30fps, while the S95 can shoot at 720p at 24fps).

3. Slow motion video.
The P300 can shoot at 120fps at 640x480.
The SD4000 can shoot at 240fps at 320x240.
Ever since the Casio F1 came out, I had been dreaming about taking smooth slow motion videos... :)

4. High speed continuous shooting.
The P300 can shoot at 30fps for 16 frames at a resolution of 2560x1920 (substantially higher than the 1600px I usually use).  It can even shoot at 60fps or 120fps at 1280x960. Perfect for capturing that key moment.  (The S95 and SD4000 don't have this capability.)

5. Two control dials.
The P300 has two control dials (same with the S95, while the SD4000 has only one).  This is amazing -- my first DSLR (Pentax K100D) had only one!

Based on the similarities and differences, I thought I could go with the SD4000 or P300 even though I would lose the S95's raw shooting mode.  I initially wanted to buy the SD4000 because I prefer Canon's SOOC look to Nikon's and because of the price difference.  However, there was one more important difference between the SD4000 and P300: flash exposure compensation.

Incredibly, the SD4000 has no FEC adjustment (even though it has flash exposure lock).  I was planning to use the camera to trigger a slave flash optically.  But if I couldn't dial down FEC, then I would likely end up with overexposure most of the time.

The P300 fortunately does have FEC, +/- 2EV.  If I bring it down to -1 or -2 FEC that would work as a fill light while the slave flash could be the key.  So I got the P300 instead.  Will post first impressions when I get it and a more detailed review after using it for a while.

Now available: P300 review

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Thank You Fellow Bloggers: My Favorite Blogs - Part 1

I have always wanted to cover this title, but I kept delaying it and preferring technical subjects thinking that they might appeal more to our readers, until a few days back, when one of my absolute favorite bloggers decided to put his blog on hiatus. This made me think a lot about the circumstances that caused this to happen and I believe that this is the best time to write this post.

The whole internet has been writing about Steve Job's death and how he affected their lives, consider this post as a thank you, a tribute to those bloggers who really made a significant difference to my photography and probably to a lot of other people's as well.

I follow more than 50 photography/DSLR video related blogs via Google Reader, but I really perk up and feel all tingly when I see an entry from one of the blogs I really love, every single one of these blogs has a direct (and significant) effect on me, my photography and my bank account, yes, I bought lots of my photography equipment based on some post or some image that I found on one of these blogs.

I am not a paid photographer and I didn't gain a single dime from any of my photos or my posts over here, so I'm sort of free to not have a certain style to my photos, I'm free to try and use all sorts of lighting techniques, I can be a strobist, a one light photographer or an available light shooter, all I want to say is that I'm very open minded to all the different techniques and different styles you're going to see in my list, I have respect for each and everyone of them,  so please keep this in mind while going through my ramblings below.

DISCLAIMER: The order in which I am going sort my list below has nothing to do with how better one blogger/photographer is than the other, unfortunately there has to be some sort of order (alas, that's the way life is) and that order is completely random.

1. The Visual Science Lab - Kirk Tuck

Kirk's blog is unique in it's mixture of a large variety of topics, ranging from technical equipment reviews to sudden rants about things that ticks Kirk off to how the logistics and business of photography works to deeply philosophical posts about art, portrait love shooting sessions and why do we take pictures. A one of a kind blog, the closest blog I can find that shares some of Kirk's "air" is Shutterfinger which I enjoy sometimes.

What attracts me the most to Kirk's blog is the writing style and the frequency of his posts, sometimes he can post up to 4 posts in just one day. I bought my Canon 60D and 35mm f/2 lens because of Kirk Tuck, and I was starting to get excited about the new Olympus cameras, but all of this has come to an abrupt end, if you don't know, Kirk has decided to stop posting on his blog because of some idiot's comment that made him rethink the whole purpose behind his blog, which lead him to the conclusion that he better spend his time in money making activities rather than posting free content for the internetz. That was a sad day, if I were to choose only one blog to follow, I wouldn't hesitate to choose Kirk's lab.

P.S. This paragraph is addressed to Kirk, you can skip it if you want and read the rest of the post. Dear Kirk, I have read everyone of your 700 something posts, but didn't comment a lot as did a lot of your readership (evident from the 250 comments on your last post versus the average 20 comments on the other posts), I agreed with some of your posts and disagreed with others, I know that it is your blog, it is your time and it is your decision, but allow me to say that I don't completely agree with the reasons for stopping your blog.

You mentioned that the blog takes time from you and you have to keep it updated regularly, but who obliged you to do so? I believe you put this target for yourself, you don't have to post daily or even weekly updates, do it when you have free time that isn't going to cost you money or take you from your family, I remember you mentioned that you wrote your posts while importing pictures in lightroom, and you're a pretty quick writer too. The other point you mentioned was something about free content, I'm not an expert but I'm not entirely sure that your blog's content can be monetized easily, nobody would pay money for technical product reviews since they are out there for free, and I don't believe that the other content can be monetized as well especially that you say it gets a lower number of page views. Finally, I have always felt that you poured your heart's content in your posts, you wanted to vent out some thoughts, you wanted to share them and discuss them with others, I don't believe that all of your posts were written for the sole reason of making a brand name and image. On this blog here I post product reviews and photography techniques because I love to teach the others everything I know, I don't get money for what I post nor am I a photographer who wants to build a brand, I do it in my free time and at my leisure because I enjoy it.

That's all I wanted to get off my chest since I read your last post, it has been a real pleasure reading your blog and I hope that some day I will find one of your new posts in my RSS feed.

P.S. I immensely despise the word "photog", just like Kirk pointed out once, if you use it please consider not using it anymore.

2. Strobist - David Hobby

David is probably the first photographer I got to know when I started learning photography, I saw a part of his Lighting 101 (or was it 102?) DVD on one of my friend's computer and he linked me to his blog, from there I devoured the lighting 101 and 102 series of posts, I learned all about small flashes (strobes), modifiers, triggers, gels, chimping, light reverse-engineering, etc... 70% of my lighting knowledge comes from the strobist blog. As with all of this list, the strobist was the reason I bought 3 Canon flashes, 2 Chinese studio flashes, a couple of wireless triggers and lots of light modifiers and DIY stuff.

I have one request from David, if you're reading this, please, please, pretty please use a wider template for your blog and use larger images for your posts, I would love to be able to see the images clearly in your posts while reading, currently I have to click every single image to see a larger version in a new page to understand what you're talking about, then keep switching between the post material and the images, did I say please? :-(

3. Tangents - Neil Van Niekerk

My favorite flash photography blog, Neil is a well known wedding photographer that is famous for his on-camera bounce flash techniques and the black foamie thing. 90% of my flash lit photos are done using the on-camera bounce flash techniques I learned from Neil's blog, it is the quickest and easiest way (not to mention the lightest) to shoot great looking soft-lit pictures. You will find lots of great tutorials and videos freely posted on Neil's blog, I suggest that you read every single one of them. I bought my Lastolite 24" EzyBox based on the results I saw on the tangents blog.

4. Laurence Kim

Gorgeous photos, that's the only word that can describe Laurence's site, not beautiful, not elegant, not amazing but rather gorgeous photos. Laurence has done a lot of gear reviews (which I really enjoyed), posted about some techniques (which I copied successfully), but the most unique thing about his blog is how gorgeous his photos look, take his last post for example, see what I mean? Most of his photos are shot using available light and they have a very light and airy feel.

One more attractive aspect about his website (just like his photos) is the light and airy feel it has, the design is very simple, non distracting and very professional at the same time. I have also followed his adventures with film cameras and medium format in earnest, you can find some great info on his blog. And as usual he was the reason I bought my Canon 85mm f/1.8.

5. Zack Arias

Probably shares my "favorite flash photographer" title along with Neil vN, his photos are just unique, check his latest blog to see what I mean. He has recently updated his blog to a nice clean and uncluttered template with wide large photos (similar to Laurence Kim). Zack is known as the one light guy because he usually uses one light only in his photos, and to a good effect. A must see on his blog is his great one-hour-long video explaining his complete post-processing workflow, this video has converted me into a lightroom and RAW-shooting addict.

My only gripe with Zack is that he doesn't blog as much as he used to (although he tweets a lot), but I know that he's in a new stage in his life and I am patiently waiting for the goodies to come back.

6. LensRentals - Roger Cicala

The LensRentals blog has become more famous recently after being featured on Gizmodo more than once, and for a very good reason, Roger's uniqueness comes from the insane amount of lenses and cameras at his disposal, he goes on about busting all the myths about lens' sharpness and variations between copies, how does dirt on a lens affect it's performance and all sorts of exciting experiments. He even stacked 50 UV filters to a lens and took pictures to see what happens, just because he can.

Roger also has some great scientific articles about lenses that would really teach you a lot you probably didn't know about. I also thoroughly enjoyed his talk about lenses history and how they progressed to become what we use today.
 

7. Gavtrain - Gavin Hoey

Gavin's videos and tutorials on YouTube was among the first I saw when I was still learning photography, he doesn't post much now, but I learned a great deal of techniques like the water drop and smoke photography from him. Gavin is a photoshop master and has some great post-processing tips on his blog, he also usually posts some photoshop tips on TipSquirrel.com.

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Thank you Steve Jobs

I want to take a moment to say thank you to Steve Jobs.  No, I'm not an Apple fanatic (I'm a PC user) but I made a list of the different ways Steve Jobs and Apple has had an impact on my life:

 

1.  My first computer.  The first computer I learned to use was an Apple IIc.  I even remember the name of the computer class: "My First Byte."  We didn't learn any programming or anything -- we were mostly playing games like hangman and such.  I probably was too young to learn anything (I recall the teacher having a difficult time explaining division to me, something I had not yet learned in school).  But this early exposure to computers made me familiar with them and help me become far more skilled at using computers than my peers for the rest of my education.

 

2.  GUI.  Nowadays, we take for granted the graphical interface in computers, phones, and almost everything else.  I credit Apple with making the GUI (graphical user interface) mainstream.  Yes, Xerox invented the GUI in-house, and yes Microsoft won the OS wars a long time ago and put a GUI on most people's computers.  However, Apple was the first to sell to the public a computer with a graphical interface, at a time when the norm was a text-based interface.  (The Xerox Alto GUI was used in-house only.)  Windows borrowed heavily from the Apple interface and the rest is history.

 

3. Pixar.  Steve Jobs was one of the co-founders of Pixar, one of my favorite movie studios, and the producer of the first CGI movie (Toy Story of course!).  I still love CGI movies.

 

4. Apple stock.  Around the time Apple made the Mac vs. PC ads, Apple's market share started to grow and it became less of an esoteric choice.  I found the sales pitch appealing and on that basis bought Apple stock, even though I didn't use Macs myself.  It's probably one of the best investments I ever made.  I only wish I had bought more!  Oh well.

 

5. Mac.  Eventually we did buy a Mac.  It was a used iMac G4 (the one with the swiveling screen) because I wasn't sure if we would like using a Mac.  I was amazed at how stable it was. I could suspend it and restart it over and over and didn't feel the need to reboot except about once a week or couple of weeks.  I was also impressed how a relatively slow processor (it was 1.25ghz and this was around 2007) performed acceptably well.  I found the OS X interface easy and fun to use, although there were a few tasks that had me consulting the help screen every so often.  Then one day we had a strange power outage that turned our appliances on and off several times in succession in just a few seconds.  Our iMac was a casualty and it was unfortunately too expensive to fix.  Macs still appeal to me though I find them too expensive for my budget.

 

6. iPhoto.  This was my first editing/organizing program (before then I saw no need to organize my photos, much less edit them).  Like the Mac in general, it was easy and fun to use.

 

7. iPhone.  I was a blackberry user since 1999.  When the iPhone came out, I thought it was interesting but I didn't think I could live without the blackberry keyboard.  Plus it was also ridiculously expensive when it first came out ($599 remember? :) ).  Then my mother-in-law gave me an iPhone for my birthday this year.  The apps and browsing experience made all the difference and I don't think I will ever use a different phone again (except perhaps an Android).

 

8. iPad. This is not so much me but more about my wife.  She probably spends half her waking life reading books and surfing the net on it.  The iPad also helped our son get a haircut without crying (my wife and I used to have to hold him down). :)

 

Thanks again Steve.

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Photography Is Not a Spectator Sport

This is weird.  The other day, my brother-in-law was browsing a website and saw a photo that looked like... my son.  It turns out that a website called Photographytalk.com used my photo in an article discussing balancing ambient and flash outdoors in sunlight.  Link to article here.  Screenshot here:

And it appears they took the photo from an article on this blog talking about... balancing ambient and flash outdoors in sunlight:

http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/2010/05/balancing-flash-and-ambient-part-2.html . Screenshot here:

EDIT: I contacted PhotographyTalk and got a response from the website owner, Alex, who offered to delete the photo or provide attribution.  Problem resolved.

First of all, I'm not at all saying we're the first to discuss balancing flash and ambient.  Hell no, not by a long shot.  I keep saying over and over: we stand on the shoulders of giants.  I learned about flash photography from sites and books/videos authored by David Hobby, Neil van Niekerk, David Ziser, among others and whenever I get the chance I tell others about how helpful these sites were to me.

Anyway, I want to use this occasion to point out something about our blog.  Mshafik and I worked on this blog in order to improve our photography and to share our knowledge.  In that regard, when we discuss a technique or product, we use information based on personal experience.  We find that with our personal experience, the information we can give is more useful to our readers.  And if you do something yourself, you learn much more from it.  Don't be content with researching information on the 'net and practicing only it in your head.  Go out there and shoot.

Going back to the article, I sent several suggestions to PhotographyTalk.com.  Hopefully they'll incorporate them.  Meanwhile, if you want to learn about TTL flash and balancing flash and ambient, I suggest the TTL Flash Tutorial and these posts (list is updated in our index page):

1. Step-By-Step Example of Balancing Ambient with Bounce Flash
2. Balancing Flash and Ambient: Easiest Scenario
3. Balancing Flash and Ambient: Sunny Outdoors
4. Balancing Flash and Ambient: Dim Ambient
5. Flash Blur
6. Effect of Shutter Speed and Aperture on Ambient and Flash Exposure
7. Setting the Ambient Exposure with TTL: Aperture, Shutter Speed or ISO?
8. Holiday Pictures Outdoors at Night
9. Candlelight Photos.
10. Birthday Cake.
11. Balancing Flash and Ambient: Does TTL Take Ambient Into Account?

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Photoshop Elements 10 trial now available

A 30-day trial version of Photoshop Elements 10 is now available:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_elements

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Back Button Focusing, What? Why? And How?

Excuse the quality of the picture, this is the best I could get out of my wife's P&S

So you've heard about BBF or Back Button Focusing and was wondering what BBF is. Maybe you also heard that once you get used to it you will never go back. In this post I will tell you what is BBF and why it is one of the best things that makes using a DSLR more practical and enjoyable.


WHAT IS BBF?

BBF is short for Back Button Focusing, which means that you will move the focusing function from the shutter button to one of the buttons at the back of the camera (usually the "*" button on a Canon), check the picture of my Canon 60D at the top, you will find three buttons on the top right part at the back of the camera (Rebels or xxxD series only have two).

Usually half pressing the shutter button initiates auto-focusing and auto-metering, and completing the press snaps the picture, the whole idea of BBF is to remove this focusing function from the shutter button and move it to a button on the back, but why would anyone want to do that?

WHY USE BBF?

For one very simple reason, in order not to let the camera focus everytime you press the shutter button to take a picture. You are going to tell me "but I can easily switch the lens to manual focus and achieve the same result", true, you can, but can you do the the same as in the scenarios that I will mention below?

SETTING UP BBF

But before that, I must tell you how I have assigned the buttons on my camera first, so that you can imagine what I am talking about when I am describing the scenarios.

• A half press of the shutter starts metering (exposure calculation).
• A full press on the shutter will snap the picture whether it is in focus or not.
• A press on the "*" button at the back will engage auto-focusing (will focus and lock the focus once if "Single Shot" is chosen, will keep focusing and tracking if "AI Servo" is chosen).
• AEL button remains as it is, locks exposure when pressed.

The above configuration is not the only available configuration, you can shuffle the different functions between the buttons as you wish, I have 10 different possible combinations on my 60D.

One advantage of the xxD and xD series Canons over the xxxD (Rebel) series is the extra "AEL" button, if you have an xxxD camera, you'll have to sacrifice the exposure lock function in order to use the "*" button at the back for focusing instead.

You can change the button assignment on your Canon via the custom functions "C.Fn." menu under the settings, they are listed on this Canon's Learning Center page for different cameras.
There's an easier way to do it on the 60D through the quick menu, press the "Q" button, go to button assignments and you will find something that looks like this.

Custom controls quick menu on a Canon 60D

For Nikon users I found this link that describes how to set it up, if you can't do it on your Nikon, please tell us in the comments and Mic will be glad to help.

[Mic: For Nikon, the process is similar, although it varies by camera model.  In some higher-end cameras such as the Nikon D300 there is an independent AF-ON button.  The camera will focus when that button is pressed.  However, by default the camera will also focus when the shutter is half-pressed.  To use BBF, you disable the focus of the half-pressed shutter.  This is an option listed under the Autofocus options.  In the D300, it's option a5 AF Activation.

On older cameras such as the Nikon D70, you can use BBF but you have to use the AE-L button as the BBF button, thus giving up AE-L.  To enable BBF, find the option for selecting the function of the AE-L button and change it to AF-ON.  Enabling that option automatically disables the focus on half-pressing the shutter.

On still other cameras, such as the Nikon D80, there is no dedicated AF-ON button but there is a user-selectable Fn button that can be used for BBF.  Alternatively, you can assign the AE-L function to the Fn button and use the AE-L button as the BBF button.  The process is similar to that of the Nikon D70.]

THE SCENARIOS

I have read almost all of the posts and the forum topics that talk about BBF, and some of them list some possible usage scenarios that are straight out of science fiction books. I will tell you about the real life situatioins where BBF has helped me.

- Focus & Recompose: Imagine you're shooting someone using the focus and recompose method, you've already focused the picture, moved the camera a little to a composure of your liking and took the picture. Now imagine that the person in front of you made an interesting face or you said some instruction to them and want to take another picture, if you press the shutter again the camera will try to focus again compromising the focus you've already set, and you'll have to focus and recompose from the start again,  while if you're using BBF you can happily shoot away while the focus remains set from the first time.

- Tripod Shooting: Imagine you have the camera on a tripod shooting some product, you have the focus set and you're taking several pictures, unless you change the focus button to manual, everytime you press the shutter button (and it is way more annoying when you're using a remote release) the camera will try to auto-focus and ruin your set focus.

- Difficult Focusing Situations: This happened to me a lot with the Canon G11, I was shooting some dark women dresses for an ad, the dress' position was fixed and I was standing in the same position, when I tried to focus the camera, it kept hunting and giving me the red rectangle which means it can't focus (dress is dark and has no contrast to help the camera focus), so I increased the room lights, the camera focused correctly, I turned the lights down and took my first picture, you can imagine what happened next, when I tried to take another picture the camera started hunting for focus (again!) and threw my correct focus away, ARGH!
If I had BBF then, I would set the focus once and shoot as many pictures as I like.

I assume you got the idea by now, the MAIN advantage is that you can set your focus, and shoot as many pictures as you like without the camera trying to focus again. However there are other useful scenarios for BBF:

- Canon's USM technology enables you to use the focusing ring at anytime even if the focusing button is set to "auto", that way using BBF you can focus manually at will and start shooting pictures without the camera trying to auto-focus, that way you can forget about the lens focus setting (manual or auto). A counter argument in this case would say "but I can set the lens to manual focusing and do the same thing", but there's a difference, sometimes (especially when shooting macro, and the camera's AF struggles) I quickly press the "*" button at the back to get the focus in the vicinity of correct focus, then resume focusing manually myself, after I''m satisfied with the focus, I know that when I press the shutter button the camera won't try to auto-focus and ruin my efforts.

- Finally, one great benefit for us Canon users (not sure about Nikon, Mic?*) is that we can use one focusing setting to either capture still or moving subjects. Let me explain, on Canon cameras we have three focusing settings (not entirely sure about the 7D and the 1D), Single Shot, AI Focus and AI Servo.
Single shot focuses once and stops when focus is achieved, AI Servo keeps focusing and tracking whatever it is that you're focusing on, and AI Focus is supposed to be an intelligent mode that detects whether it should use single shot mode or track subjects if they're moving, but I never had reliable success with it.
With BBF, I leave my camera on AI Servo all the time, that way I can use it as a single shot or track something without changing any settings, pressing the "*" button would focus until I release the button (when the subject is still), or I can keep the button pressed to track a moving subject. 


[*Mic: For Nikon, we have similar options, although it varies by camera.  At a minimum, there is a manual focus mode (M), a single focus mode (S), a continuous focus mode (C).  The function of the continuous focus mode can be changed from always attempting focus (similar to Canon's AI Servo), a mode called AF-A where it's similar to single but will switch to continuous when the subject moves (similar to Canon's AI Focus).  On some cameras there is a separate button for AF-A, whereas on other cameras AF-A is selected in the menus.  Some older cameras such as the D70 don't have AF-A at all.]


IS BBF FOR ME?

I will tell you a little story, when I saw all the rage about BBF, and all the "I tried it and I never went back" stories I was excited to try it myself, and I first tried it on my 550D I used for one or two times and decided that I hated it and it slowed me down and went back to the half-press shutter focusing.

After a few weeks I decided to try it again and force myself to get used to it, and I never went back. For Real! Now I feel very frustrated whenever I use some camera where every time I want to take a picture it has to focus first, ARGH!

The only problem with BBF is when I give my camera to someone not used to it. The solution is simple, I have a custom mode (amateur proof mode, if you will) where the camera is setup to aperture priority, auto ISO, all focusing points active, single shot focusing, single shot drive, and auto-focusing set to the shutter button. All I have to do is to set the aperture to f/8 and give my camera to the poor guy to take pictures of me.

UPDATE: I usually post technical posts that to the dpreview.com forums for one of two reasons, either to benefit other readers or to get expert opinions on the post material, this one of those posts, and it has created some valuable comments and insights, I'd suggest you check them here.

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