The Best Autofocus Mode for Street Photography

We've already covered zone focus on our channel, which is a great way to handle focusing when it comes to street photography, but now we'd like to cover the best autofocus mode for street photography: tracking focus. Though there are many ways to handle autofocus, I find tracking to be the most flexible and reliable in any given situation—a very welcome trait in street photography.

[Mel-]

Clear description in a friendly conversational manner. Especially the difference between AF-C and AF-S. Much appreciated.

[dansuzukiphotography]

Your explanations are extremely easy to understand, thank you!

[scopicdrive]

Thank you very much for your videos! Didn't even realize until now that I could track with my fujifilm! It is changing my life XD

[thegroove]

I have just tried this mode today and it works a treat. I am a Nikon user. Looking forward to the weekend putting it to use in the city.

[peterknoester]

Hi Lukasz. I just bought a Ricoh GR3X. Setting it up in Manual mode with Auto ISO I came across your videos. Great help, thanks! Where I'm not sure about though is the following. In street photography I like to alternate between 'fishing' and 'hunting'. I use BBF to prefocus during 'fishing': focus and release. I use the camera with two hands, so BBF on the Fn button doesn't bother me. After seeing this video and reading your comments on certain questions I'm not sure what to do though if I want to photograph moving subjects while 'hunting'. I prefer to separate exposure and focus. So I can press the shutter button halfway to lock the exposure seeing nice light and then autofocus (which I prefer over snap) on the moving subject. You recommend using Tracking AF for focussing, which I understand. Can I combine this with using BBF while 'hunting'': focus and hold? Keep using BBF for 'fishing' and 'hunting' seems to be an efficient way to alternate between the two.

[paulm]

Good summary, but I don’t follow your AF-S over AF-C rational, especially w/BBF. I use AF-C w/BBF for street photography. Once I obtain focus I release the focus button, so the cam does not re-focus somewhere else. (Focus removed from shutter button.)

[supermarkomarkomarko]

Thank you for this tip, I'll test it next time I go out

[eff_kaa]

Thanks (again) for the video!
One question: When using Back Button Focus, why would you change between AF-S and AF-C? As I understand: If you use BBF and set the focus mode to AF-C, you get the functions of AF-C while holding down the focus button whereas you get the AF-S-alike functions when you press the focus button once, release it and then take the shot.
Would be cool if you could help me out! :-)

[desertoo]

Great video. I just use AFC with eye track enabled. :P

[stevemcbeyphoto]

Enjoy watching your videos. Great tips! 📷🇦🇺

[marclabro]

nice tutorial. I am now using more the subject tracking on Z6ii. sometimes the yellow box jumps from a face to a tree but that's Nikon :-)

[SatanSupimpa]

The camera, the ninja jump, someone is channeling his inner Peter Parker.

[jeromeclavilier]

Hi, Great channel for Street Photography. Thanks a lot.
When you speak in (timecode 5:30) afc, which you don't like :). it is possible to remove your finger from the bbf, the focus is already done and is locked, like afs? Is that right?

[longboarddancingworld]

When you use the tracking my AF mode, is the base tracking mode set to AFC or AFS? Also what’s your thoughts on the GR3’s tracking mode? I find it still kinda clunky and slow 😅 and my q2 monochrom sadly doesn’t have tracking :-(

[MasKpt]

Does the GRIII handle tracking mode better?

[ginavillalobos]

How do oyu set this up in the menu for Nikon Z6?

[JanneRanta]

Wouldn't you be able to use back button focus on the Ricoh so you can have single point, af-c continously on? So when you recompose you simply stop focusing. It's basically like having both af-s and af-c at the same time without changing the setting.

[IIMIKEYMOII]

I got a Nikon D780 which has the 3D Tracking, but I'm unclear if its automatically activated. I have AF-C selected. When I go into the Nikon Menu > Autofocus > a4 3D-tracking face-detection, it is greyed out. I noticed when I switch to the Optical Viewfinder, 3D Tracking Face-detection is selectable and 'ON'. It seems as though it's on in both Optical and Electronic Viewfinder, but I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.

[scratchgonzo]

4 years since this video I wonder if his views have changed with the updated cameras 🤔

[marvinthephotoman]

Such a useful function i must find it hahaha