Nikon D3300 / D3200 Focus Square Tutorial | How to Focus Training Video

The easiest way to learn your camera's focusing systems is to think of it in terms of how, when, and where the camera is focusing. If you can break it down to those three simple concepts, this is going to be easy. Now when you get your camera out of the box, the default setting for focusing, once it's turned on, is that when you push the shutter button halfway down, it engages the camera's focusing systems. So that's how you focus. If you push it down, all the way, it's going to take the picture. I'll do it real quick. Pretty straightforward. When the camera is focusing has to do with how often the camera's focusing systems are engaged. Is it a single moment, or is it over and over and over again? The way we access our auto-focus modes, which has to do with when, is we're going to push our I button, and you're going to see it in the bottom left-hand corner. When you come into this menu, you should see four different options, and the truth of the matter is, there's really only two. AF-S stands for auto-focus single servo, and what this means is that when we push the shutter button halfway down, and hold it down, eventually we get something called focus locked. And if you look in the bottom left-hand corner of your camera, when this is engaged, you should see a little green circle. That means the camera has focusing lock. Now as long as I hold the shutter button halfway down, and I move the camera around, the focus will not change. This is a very important and powerful tool if you are interested in taking pictures of people, because as a portrait photographer, we want to get focus lock on their eyes. So what I do, is I get a focus lock, hold the shutter button halfway down, and I recompose. That means I move the camera to position the subject in a more aesthetically pleasing position in the frame. This is called recomposing, and I'll show you more about this when we cover the portrait crash course later on in the video. If you're a sports photographer, or maybe you shoot wildlife, or race cars, or kids moving around, you're probably going to want to test out AF-C, which stands for auto focus continuous. So when we select AF-C, you should be doing it following along with your camera if you're not, and we look through the viewfinder, you're going to notice something very interesting when you move the camera around. That green dot starts to blink, and what this means is the camera is continually focusing over and over and over again. We do not achieve focus lock with AF continuous, because the camera is trying to make a prediction of a moving subject. What we're going to do, is put our our focusing square over the moving subject, and we're going to hold our shutter button halfway down, track the subject, and push the shutter button down all the way when we're ready to take the picture. Very useful for moving subjects. Now the good news is, if you are a pure beginner, what I recommend is to go with AF-A, which stands for auto focus automatic. In this mode, we're giving the camera permission to switch between AF-S and AF-C. When I shot weddings, I almost exclusively left my camera on AF-A, because the bride would be standing outside the church, now she's walking down the aisle, now she's standing at the altar, and now she's dancing, and now she's cutting cake, and so there's lots of this moving and stopping and moving and stopping, and the camera does a pretty good job of determining whether or not you're dealing with a still or a moving subject. It's one less setting you have to worry about. Now most of the time, my camera does stay on AF-A, unless I'm doing a really important portrait shoot, or maybe I'm shooting sports exclusively for the day. Now the fourth option we have in this menu is M. This stands for manual. The truth of the matter is, I never use it, simply because our cameras, most of the lenses, come with an AF to So when I want to do manual focusing, I flip the switch to manual, and I focus with the ring, but there are some lenses out there that don't have this switch, and if you have one, you would manually focus by going into your menu and turning it to M. So the when the camera is focusing has to do with the autofocus modes, and whether it's a single focus lock or a continual refocusing. Where has to do with our focusing points. The way we select this menu, again we're going to push our I button, we're going to go into the second from the bottom left hand menu, it says AF area mode, and you're going to see four different selections in here. I'm going to make a very strong recommendation to use your single point selection in nothing else. The reason is, the other three modes give permission to the camera to change how the focusing, and which focusing squares are being used. With single point selection, you have complete control, and you know where the camera is looking, and where it's focusing. 100% of the time, I use single focusing squares, so just keep that in mind. What does this mean? You should have your camera, look through the viewfinder, and tap your shutter button, and you should see one of those focusing squares light up. Now, wherever the camera is lighting up, in terms of those points, that is where it is focusing. If you want to change your focusing square, you are going to push on your directional pad, in the direction that you want the next square to be selected. So we push on the pad, and we can change our focusing points. This is very useful, and it's one of the more important skills you need to become, you know, like secondhand nature, is changing your squares as you look through the viewfinder. So for example, if you wanted to get a moving subject on the edge of the frame, you would use one of the edge focusing points. Again, pretty straightforward. Now, a cool little tip about this is that if you push the OK button, it'll jump back to the center square. A lot of people don't know that the center square is hypersensitive on almost all DSLR cameras, and that's the same for our Nikon, is that it is more sensitive and more accurate. So if you're having a very hard time, you know, getting a precise focus lock, keep that in mind. The center focus square is cross type, the other 10 are not. Very important to remember. For the sake of being thorough, let's talk about the other autofocus area modes, or the other wares. The dynamic AF focusing cluster has to do with allowing the camera to get information from the surrounding squares. It sort of like takes a little sneak peek, and it makes a judgment on where the subject is going to be. 3D focusing is meant for moving subjects, and it's supposed to allow the camera to actually change which focus square is being used, and how it is focusing on the subject. The concept of it is spectacular, and when it works, it's awesome, but it's not always perfect. The AF, or the autofocus automatic mode, essentially gives permission to the camera to focus on the closest subject to you. I never use it. And as another side note, I should tell you that if you are not shooting on P, A, S, or M, which you should be, the camera is going to make a lot of the focusing decisions for you, and you're not going to be able to switch around in these different modes. I tell all beginners, focus, no pun intended, on the P, A, S, and M modes, the creative modes where you have complete control. Now as you advance as a photographer with your skill sets, there may come a time when you want to use different customized controls, such as back button focusing. Back button focusing essentially is a customization that removes the halfway shutter depression of focusing, and it moves it to this back thumb button, A, F, L, A, E, L. So the way this would work is you engage focusing by pushing on the thumb button, and you take the picture by pushing the shutter button down all the way. The shutter button is responsible for nothing else but taking the picture. Now the reason I don't teach back button focusing to pure beginners is it's simply a little bit easier to learn the halfway depression, and then taking it all the way, but a lot of my professional friends shoot exclusively on back button focus, and when you get more advanced, I would definitely recommend checking it out. So in summary, how does the camera focus? You push the shutter button halfway down. Second, when does the camera focus? That depends if you are on a single mode, or a continuous predictive mode. Single mode gets focus locked. The continuous predictive mode tries to guesstimate where your subject is going to be. For focusing clusters, I definitely recommend you go with the single square, simply because it's going to give you the most control. So that is your crash course on the how, when, and where your camera focuses, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you found this video helpful, you may want to check out my crash course for the Nikon D3300 or the Nikon D3200. I'll show you the basics and teach you how to shoot like a pro in no time. You can order it from the following link.