How To Focus With Live View - Landscape Photography
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2019
- If there's one topic that keeps coming up in questions it's focus, where and how. I decided to do a really short and, hopefully, simple video on exactly how to focus with live view (or at least how I focus with live view) to get images that are sharp from foreground to background.
I hope you enjoy it
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I'm always delighted to watch your videos, you were spot on, I remember not much a while ago I had this question in my mind and I couldn't find a video explaining in such detail. I ended up having to figure it out by myself by trying, so I'm sure you will help a lot of people.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Sorry it was too late to help you out but, as you say, hopefully others will find it useful. Thank you for watching and commenting
It's always interesting to see how other people do their focusing and as I use very similar equipment those tips will come in handy, thank you.
I'm glad you found it useful Des. Thank you for watching and commenting
Thanks a really helpful video - how have I missed these in the past? Now subscribed - keep them coming!
Welcome aboard and I'm glad you found it useful. Thank you for watching, commenting and, of course, subscribing
Great Video Ralph! An important topic for sure which can be surprisingly difficult to cover. Well explained run through of your method 👍
Glad you enjoyed it James, I know this was something I struggled with when I got started, trying out different methods, so I thought it was worth sharing the approach I've settled on and that works for me. Thank you for watching and commenting
Good suggestions which I will try. I generally focus a thing into my scene, hold down the focus lock, reposition the shot and shoot.
Glad you found it interesting. If you want to use autofocus then I really recommend setting up back button focusing. It means you don't have to hold down the lock button and your focus will stay 'locked' until you are ready to change it. Thank you for watching and commenting
interesting vlog ralph, again i'm learning something new from you. I must admit all my photography focusing is now in manual as I haven't used auto focus for years now.
Some time ago I noticed that a number of my replies to comments that people had made had disappeared. At the same time I also had problems with peoples comments vanishing.
Although we never got to the bottom of this I really wanted to make sure that all the comments showing that I hadn't replied actually had a reply.
So.... If I genuinely didn't respond at the time... my apologies and if you did get a reply at the time, sorry for the second (much later) reply.
Either way, thank you for watching and commenting. I appreciate the support
Thumbs up ere' Ralph, didn't know that with Live View! Great demo and instruction on how to focus - I will have to try this! Many thanks for sharing the info :)
Glad you found it interesting Shaun, let me know how you et on with it. Thank you for watching and commenting
Interuptions aside, great info & useful technique
👌
Glad you found it interesting. Thank you for watching and commenting
Another great tutorial Ralph, it is pretty simple stuff, but it always comes in handy to go over this sort of thing, and I really enjoyed the video, I am off to Morocco soon, so I will be rewatching all your tutorial videos to remind me what to do and what not to do, so I can get some amazing images, take care mate.
Morocco!
Some time ago I noticed that a number of my replies to comments that people had made had disappeared. At the same time I also had problems with peoples comments vanishing.
Although we never got to the bottom of this I really wanted to make sure that all the comments showing that I hadn't replied actually had a reply.
So.... If I genuinely didn't respond at the time... my apologies and if you did get a reply at the time, sorry for the second (much later) reply.
Either way, thank you for watching and commenting. I appreciate the support
High from Brazil,
Great work , I'm learning photography and I didn't know this technique. It helped me a lot.
👍
Glad it was helpful. Thank you for watching and commenting
Very helpful vlog Ralph thank you
Glad it was helpful. Thank you for watching and commenting
Thank you for demonstrating this!!! I actually have the same camera as you so this makes it really easy. Currently I just have the stand alone version of Light Room and do not subscribe to Adobe for Photoshop. Do you have any suggestions for photo stacking software besides Photoshop? Thanks again!!!
I'm glad you found it interesting and useful Patty. Any software that can do layers and layer masks should allow focus stacking, I'm not really familiar with any of the other options but you could try something like GIMP (which I believe is free and I think allows layer masks. Thank you for watching and commenting
Hi Ralph, just come across your video and it fits my current situation really well. Enjoyed your explanation, technical enough without too much BS. I have a question for you...... if your screen display shows a really sharp picture during manual focus should this sharpness also be in your final image. I can focus to great sharpness but even using all of the right techniques and settings my images never come out quite as sharp. Beginning to think my Canon 90D isnt capable of achieving what I am after.
Glad it was helpful Graham. In general, providing you have AF turned off so the camera doesn't refocus when you press the shutter button, you should be seeing a sharp image. of course viewing on a bigger screen will show up any issues that may not be visible on the back of the camera. The 90D should be fine and maybe other factors are causing an issue (camera shake, too small an aperture, IS turned on when on a tripod, too high ISO etc.) Also it's worth checking if the image is sharp in some places and not in others. I had major problem on an old lens where one side of the image was soft. The lens was 'de-centered' and needed to be repaired. If I was you I would run some tests on a nice fixed and flat subject like a brick wall and use AF as well MF to really check the results. Thank you for watching and commenting and do let me know how you get on
nice one Ralph and the other Ralph
Glad you enjoyed the contribution from both if us :-) Thank you for watching and commenting
Interesting vlog and great photo channel. Greetings my friend and have a nice weekend. 👍
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and liked my channel, thank you for watching and commenting
Good job mate ! Liked you video and also subscribed. Yes, the subject of focusing and sharpness always comes up. Focus stacking is another way for better sharpness from foreground to background and of course you did mention that. But that's another video series. Did you cover that in your videos ? Thank you.
Glad you liked it Charles, I appreciate the sub. I do focus stack quite a bit and I've mentioned bits of it in other videos. I did a dedicated video on the topic a long time ago so it's not the best quality (if you want to see it here's the link th-cam.com/video/nDtOqT8W1Co/w-d-xo.html) but I have been thinking about doing a newer version. Thank you for watching and commenting (and, of course, subscribing)
@@RalphGoldsmith I'll be checking out more of your videos. Any of your videos covers the topic in the use of professional DSLR LCD screen Loupe for outdoor shooting and checking of composition, LCD info, sharpness. These screen loupes magnifies and also blocks bright stray light. I come from a background of large format user, a loupe and an over the head black cloth was essential to check sharpness when camera tilts and swings were applied. I recently acquired the Nikon D850 (Always was and still is a Nikon user), the LCD on Live View is amazing but outdoors on a bright day loses , and increasing the brightness will drain more battery power. Cheers
@@VellaCharles I hope you continue to enjoy them. I've never used a loupe, thought about getting one a few times but never have. I tend to compose using the viewfinder and focus and exposure check using Live view. It can be difficult to see the screen in bright light although I think the D850 screen is better than the one on my D810.
Top Man 📸👍
Thank you for watching and commenting
Short and concise
Hopefully that's good 😀. Thank you for watching and commenting
nice video ! Nikon shooter over here. Keep making videos!
Glad you enjoyed it, I will. Thank you for watching and commenting
Good video. I have problem, just bough 18-200 nikon, on my d5500. It focus perfectly in viewfinder, but poor focus(sometimes cant focus at all) on liveview. I dont know why, what could be a problem?
Glad you liked the video. My guess is that the live view auto focus is contrast detection whereas the viewfinder is using phase detection (I think anyway). To focus in live view you may need to find an area of strong contrast to put the focus point over for it to work. Hope that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting
The reason I watch these videos? Because I always learn something for someone else.
I'm glad you found it useful. Thank you for watching and commenting
Sir, are you from London? Your accent is really reminding one of friends who was coming from East London.
I'm originally from a little bit north of London but there may be some similarities in the accents, Thanks for Watching
Hello sir, happy new year. The Back button focus is not working on Live view on my D850. Is this how it should Be? Or I must send the camera to fix. The focus lock button is ok and the AF8 is turned to OFF.
Happy New year to you. I'm not sure how much I will be able to help with your question but I'll give it a go.
On the D850 the AF-ON button should be assigned to back button focus by default. All you need to do is go in to the Custom Setting Menu select Autofocus > AF activation > AF-ON only which will stop the shutter release button triggering the autofocus.
If the AF-ON button is not triggering the autofocus at all then the only things I can think of are:
That the function of the AF-ON button has been re-assigned but that would also stop it from working in viewfinder mode as well
Some kind of lens issue (if you are using third party lenses)
An issue with the camera itself (which would need a repair or maybe firmware update)
You could try changing the AF modes (AF-S, AF-C etc) to see if that makes any difference
nice tuto. i have just set my d750 with focus on AE (AF-ON) and my camera to AF-C so i can follow a person walking in af-c or in steady position in AF-S. I am now discovering exposure display in liveview and your method helps me a lot in that sense. I am still in AF-C but for unknown reason, in LV, I have a focus red square on display i can't move with cursors and AF-C doesn't work. even af-on 1 time doesn't work and i need to press longer until it beeps. strange, no ?
I'm glad you found it useful Marc. A strange problem you seem to be having. Live view autofocus can be a little hit and miss in low light or where there is a lack of contrast, much more so than the viewfinder.The only reason sI can think of for the red focus square not moving are if the lock has been engaged (around the centre select button) or sometimes it times out and you either need to come out of live view and back in or half press the shutter button. Hope some of that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting
thank you. seems it was locked and also less responsive than in viewfinder. what about the AF-ON in liveview ? i am on af-c and ican see there is a AF-S and AF-F written on top but doesn't react with af-on as if in af-f it was continuously tracking.
@@marclabro I don't think AF-C works for live view focusing, AF-F is the nearest but I think it's more for video. I think, for stills, if you want continuous autofocus for moving objects you are better using the viewfinder as autofocus is a lot faster that way
thank you for sharing this... and i have a question, how did you set the live view zoom in one click? I use nikon too but i cant find that in setting menu..
I'm glad you found it useful. On my D810 I did the following to set up that button: - Menu - Custom Setting Menu - Controls - Multi Selector center button - Live view - Zoom on-off - 1:1 (100%). On my D7100 It was Menu- Custom Setting Menu - Controls - OK Button - Live view - Zoom on/off - High magnification or Medium magnification (I can't remember which). The difference between the two is because the D810 has a separate OK button and the D7100 only had the OK button as the center of the multi selector. I hope that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting
Woaaah thanks again.. 👍🔥🔥😎👍
@@drrp.6107 No problem, happy to help
Silly question , I have what looks to be a level circle when I’m in live view any ideas how to turn this off thank you
Sounds like the artificial horizon. You can normally toggle round what is displayed on live view, Maybe the INFO button (depends on the camera type). Or go into settings and find the option to turn it on and off completely. Hope that helps
What I do is twist the barrel all the way out at the object furthest away, keep the shutter button pressed half way, then twist the barrel back anti clockwise until the proper frame is in view and click. Am I wrong about this? This is the technic a old pro told me to do. I've used this many times and is seems to work.
I'm not familiar with that technique. Holding the shutter button down is usually a way to lock autofocus and / or exposure. If it works for you then it's not wrong, it's just a different way. If you're not happy with the results you're getting then try the approach in the video. Thank you for watching and commenting
Ralph, I've the "*" as my back button focus on my Canon 1100D/T3 DSLR. My lens is set for autofocus.The mode is Manual.
When shooting with the viewfinder, the "*" works properly to autofocus.
When shooting Live View, pressing the "*" button acts as a shutter NOT as an autofocuser.
What is the problem and how to rectify it, please.
Many thanks!
I'm not familiar with the detailed functions of that camera so I'm not sure how much I can help. My suspicion would be that it has something to do with the AF mode so changing that (maybe to One Shot AF) may help. Other than that it would depend if there is a different control set up menu available for Live view shooting. Hope you can get it sorted out. Thank you for watching and commenting
@@RalphGoldsmith Thanks, Ralph, your response is appreciated.
is the camera you are using a 5d mark III ?
In that video I was using a Nikon D810, hope that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting Gerald
So for a single shot, not photo stacking, after you check the sharpness in the farthest point and the foreground where to you place the focal point square in the frame? Thanks!
The short answer is, it doesn't matter, Because the auto focus is off the camera won't try to re-focus when I press the shutter release. I hope that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting
It does help!! Thank you for your reply!!! :-)
How to set long exposure on liveview? My camera dosn't allow the shutterspeed go below 1/30 when shoot liveview
Do you mean you can't go below 30 seconds? If so this is the same on most cameras (and will be the same using live view or the viewfinder) and you need to go into 'Bulb' mode where the shutter is open as long as the button is being pressed (you normally need to be in manual exposure mode an I normally use a cable release to avoid camera shake). If that's not what you mean I'm not sure as I guess it depends on what camera you have . Thank you for watching and commenting
Ralph, why is it, when attempting to shoot macro with live view (Canon T3), when I switch from viewfinder to live mode, the LCD is completely black, only showing the white rectangle, even though the subject is well-lit?
Thank you!
Difficult to know for sure. The live view screen is probably giving you an exposure preview so if the exposure is too dark (even if the subject is well lit) you may well get a dark screen. If you increase the exposure does the screen get brighter?
@@RalphGoldsmith Ralph. you are the 'King of Photographic Solutions" - I don't know why I didn't think of that, I should've -call me "DUH".
Thank you!
@@usernamemykel Glad I could help.
Great video! Just a few questions: when using live view instead of viewfinder my autofocus settings are completely different f.e. my af-c is gone and replaced by af-f and my aaf modes are now subject tracking, normal area, wide area and face priority, istead of single point, dynamic, 3d, and auto... another issue and probably the most ennoyinh one is that the release time of shooting true live view is really really slow even tho this isn't true viewfinder and my shutter speed is high, my screen also goes black when holding my shutter button down to get multiple shots... anyways great and clear video, keep it up.
Glad you enjoyed the video. DSLRs often have different autofocus systems between live view and viewfinder (contrast detection vs phase detection) and different autofocus modes. Often on DSLRs the live view autofocus modes are more directed towards video - AF-F for example. When you say the release time is longer with live view I'm guessing it's the time taken for the autofocus to lock and then release the shutter? This is probably because the contrast detection AF is slower than phase detection AF. The 'dark screen' live view on continuous shooting is also something that's fairly common on DSLRs and also on some mirrorless cameras where it also effects the electronic viewfinder as well. Hope that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting
@@RalphGoldsmith appreciate the fast and clear answer! So if i understand correctly it's just something i can't do mich about. But i'll just use it to set up my camera to then shoot the photo itself true the viewfinder, have done this for awhile now but it workes. But know i finally know the ideas behind it :-) and yes the "slow" shooting is indeed me pressing the shutter button all the way but than i hear some sort of after click just like you have with the viewfinder but faster... keep up the work mate and once again thanks for the fast and clear answer!
@@RalphGoldsmith just one more thing for later when upgrading my gear... is it something that can be better with other dslrs or is it just common for dslrs in general? Just so i know what to look out for later on.
@@wodandewael3613 Mirrorless cameras have pretty much taken over from DSLRs for most uses now and , particularly higher end ones, often seem to avoid most of these problems
Forget focus stacking until you try adjusting your depth of field first. Remember you focused on infinity, and are wasting a lot of your depth of field (it is beyond infinity). So FOCUS ON THE NEAR, and check your infinity, it may still look sharp (you moved your area of sharp focus a bit closer to cover both distances). If it doesn't look sharp at infinity, only then choose to stop down your aperture, or focus stack.
Another good approach. I guess we all use what we find works best for us. Thank you for watching and commenting
Does anyone know a way to disable continuous focusing in live view mode, Nikon D750? Even on tripod, once focus is established camera will refocus anytime something passes in front of lens. This is without touching the camera. Does not occur in viewfinder mode, only live view.
Hi Richard. Check your AF mode in live view. I suspect you are in AF-F. If you change it to AF-S then the problem should stop. Let me know if that helps. Thank you for watching and commenting
@@RalphGoldsmith Ralph, thank you so much, that seems to do the trick. Question is why does the focus continue to hunt in live mode but not in viewfinder mode?
@@richardcassel4500 AF-F mode was primarily designed for movement tracking in video (which is why the focus changes if something moves in the frame) On Nikon DSLR's video is done in Live view so it's not a mode that's available via viewfinder shooting (viewfinder has AF-S , AF-C and AF-A). Unless you're shooting video I wouldn't bother with AF-F
Sowww super. Hou can i Set my camra this way ???????????????????????
Glad you liked it. It depends on your camera so let me know what you're using, maybe I can help
Thank you for watching and commenting
Archi nul !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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