A Beginners Guide to Mastering Manual Focus for Filming Wildlife

Name: A Beginners Guide to Mastering Manual Focus for Filming Wildlife
Uploaded: 2026-08-10T14:06:39+00:00
Duration: 22 min 43 s
Channel: George S Blonsky

00:00So hello and welcome to another video, my friends. I hope you've all been well. It's been a few months

00:06since I was able to bring you a video, mainly because I was out of the country shooting and then

00:14visiting my daughter in the UK as well, so it's not been possible.

00:18And then since getting back to Greece a few weeks ago, I had a workshop to lead. And then getting

00:27back to the village here, I moved into this little cottage, which, having been abandoned for the last few years,

00:36needed a bit of work to make it livable.

00:38So I haven't been able to get out that much and do much filming or photography. Plus, the weather's been

00:45absolutely horrible. The wind, the rain I can cope with, but the wind has been just really bad.

00:53So, yeah. Anyway, I was asked in the comments to a couple of the previous videos I made about manual

01:04focusing. So I thought I would make a video about it and give you some tips, hints, techniques, and the

01:14main thing of why use manual focus.

01:18I should also emphasize that I'm talking about manual focusing for filming wildlife, not photographing.

01:26Reason being that the autofocus in modern cameras, both the latter DSLR and the very latest mirrorless, is fantastic for

01:40photography.

01:41And there's absolutely no reason why anyone should need to use manual focus when photographing wildlife.

01:48The story's a little bit different when it comes to filming wildlife, however, and the main reason being that whilst

01:57the autofocus is fantastic in most modern cameras, especially the latest mirrorless cameras,

02:08and autofocusing technology has just come on amazingly from your basic face detect to now eye detect and eye detecting

02:21humans and animals, birds and mammals, to its ability to track focus, track a subject and maintain focus.

02:32It's all improved dramatically over the last few years, but having said that, that's true for when cameras are set

02:43in photo mode.

02:46A lot of cameras, when you switch to video mode, either the autofocusing doesn't work at all, is non-existent,

02:58or it's really limited.

03:02So, for example, in Canon cameras, I think, the Canon mirrorless cameras, you lose animal eye focus when switching to

03:12video.

03:14That might have changed, I don't know. I don't have a modern mirrorless camera myself, so I can't really comment

03:22on that.

03:23But suffice to say that in video mode, for most cameras, the autofocusing is just not good enough.

03:33And the way I can sort of illustrate that is that if you are a wildlife photographer, and you'll have

03:40experienced this,

03:41is when you have an animal that is on the move, and you have your camera set into machine gun

03:50mode, and you fire off 20, 30 shots or whatever,

03:53a few of those, in between all the sharp shots, are going to be out of focus, where the camera

03:59has briefly lost focus.

04:03And, whilst you're photographing, you pay no mind really to that, when it comes to the edit suite, because you're

04:10happy with the sharp pictures that you got,

04:13and you ignore the out of focus ones, where the camera lost focus.

04:19Now, if that was in video, those moments where you lost focus would render that clip completely useless.

04:27And usually, because in video mode, when you're shooting, the moment that it does lose focus, there is a high

04:35risk, a high chance, that the camera will start hunting for focus.

04:41So, not only will the shot just go out of focus, but then the camera will start hunting backwards and

04:48forwards, trying to reacquire the subject,

04:52and that hunting makes the clip completely useless.

04:55So, what I'm really talking about is image quality, and using manual focus in video for that reason alone, pretty

05:05much, you will achieve a much better hit rate,

05:09a better quality of image, and have more keeper clips than you will have lost clips.

05:17A second reason for learning and using manual focusing is that it's actually the industry standard for professional filmmakers, camera

05:31operators, cameramen, women.

05:34And in large part, it's due to the fact that by the time somebody sort of graduates from beginner to

05:46mid-range to expensive cameras,

05:50retail cameras, retail cameras should we call it, photographic cameras that also do amazing video,

05:55and you graduate into cinema cameras, you start losing more and more the ability for autofocus in those cinema cameras.

06:07So, whilst it might exist, you might have pretty good autofocus in something like a Sony FX6,

06:15still not good enough for filming wildlife, but it is pretty good.

06:21By the time you get up to a Komodo, a Red Komodo, or an Arri, or something along those lines,

06:30autofocusing is pretty much non-existent.

06:32So, in professional filmmaking, you have no choice other than to manual focus.

06:39And if that's your intention to go into professional filmmaking, wildlife filmmaking,

06:46then you really need to get a hold of manual focusing.

06:50And the last reason that I'm going to mention, although there are, I'm sure, plenty more,

06:54for learning how to manual focus as opposed to relying on autofocus is that, again, going back to image quality

07:05and camera techniques that you can use with manual focus that you can't use or are not as effective with

07:15autofocus.

07:16And what I'm talking about are techniques such as racking focus or pushing, pulling focus.

07:24And what that means, basically, is that in any particular shot,

07:33you might want to change your point of focus from a subject that is distant to a subject that is

07:39closer.

07:40And by pulling focus in that way, so you pull focus from the distant object to the close one,

07:47you can change emphasis in your shot.

07:51So, it's a static shot, and you're changing emphasis.

07:56And it's a really effective shot to use in filmmaking.

07:59So, for example, if you had, in the far distance, a predator of some kind, like a lion or something,

08:06and then in the foreground, you have its prey, a wildebeest, a zebra or something,

08:12and so you're focused on the distant lion.

08:16And by following its gaze, basically, you can change the point of focus to its prey,

08:23and that gives a different emphasis to your clip

08:27and really adds a lot of power to the sequence that you're trying to put together.

08:34So, that's another effective way, a photographic, a filming technique, I should say,

08:40that is really effective in storytelling, that you can only really use effectively with manual focus.

08:48Trying to do that with autofocus and then changing, by tapping on the screen,

08:55your point of focus from one subject to the other, will produce a rack that is so quick, so sudden,

09:05that it is not very pleasant to watch back as a viewer.

09:10Doing it manually, you can do it very gently, smoothly, and much more effectively than with autofocus.

09:18Okay, so that's a lot of the why one would use manual focus as opposed to auto.

09:26The question then becomes is, how do I do it effectively?

09:31How can I improve? How can I practice?

09:36And for those things, I have a few tips for you.

09:39The first of which, and I think most modern mirrorless cameras have it,

09:47certainly all the cinema cameras have it, from the low end up to the highest end,

09:52is something called focus peaking.

09:55Now, what that is, is basically, it's an in-camera tool

10:02that highlights the part of an image that is in focus by outlining it with a colour.

10:12You can change colours as well in the menu, so you can, I choose, I usually use red,

10:18but I think you have, depending on the camera, you can choose blue or yellow or green even, I think,

10:25as a highlight colour.

10:27You can also change the thickness of that highlighting,

10:31and it's usually expressed as a percentage of intensity, if you like.

10:37I tend to shoot, depending on the lighting situation,

10:42with the focus peaking set to 70-95%, depending on conditions.

10:48It's a really, really effective tool in helping you focus.

10:54And you can actually, as you rack focus, you can actually watch the focus plane shift

11:02from front to back and back to front.

11:03And you can actually even see the depth of the field of focus from front to back,

11:11whatever is there, whatever's going to be sharp.

11:16By watching those highlighted parts just move forward and back on the monitor.

11:22So that's my first and most important tip, is focus peaking.

11:27I can't emphasise how useful a tool that is.

11:37My second tip would be for some hardware that you can use

11:45that will help you in your manual focusing endeavour.

11:51The first of which would be to use a follow focus wheel.

11:55I will show you what that is here.

11:57So it's the little wheel that I've attached to the side of the camera here.

12:01And basically, this one is a Tilta Mini follow focus.

12:10And the benefit of using something like this is that, firstly ergonomically,

12:17you don't have to have your hand over the top or underneath the lens trying to focus and pan at

12:23the same time.

12:24It's a lot easier having your hand to the side of the camera and moving the wheel forwards and backwards

12:30to acquire focus.

12:32So ergonomically, it's much more comfortable to use and easier to find focus with for that reason.

12:39Another reason it's amazingly helpful is that, as most photographers and filmmakers,

12:52we're usually working to a tight budget, which means that we're going to be using photographic lenses rather than cinema

12:59lenses.

12:59And photographic lenses tend to have a very shallow, very small throw to that, both to the focus and to

13:08the zoom,

13:09which means basically for the focus that you only need to move it very slightly and it shifts focus quite

13:16dramatically.

13:17Now, if you're trying to find focus on a particular subject, so you're trying to focus on the eyes, for

13:26example,

13:27it's a really tiny shift from nose to eye, the focus point from nose to eye, or ears to eye.

13:35And it's really hard to do that by adjusting the barrel, the focus ring on the barrel.

13:42Now, because the focus wheel is geared, it means that you can make a rather large turn with the focus

13:49wheel,

13:50and it'll correspond to a very tiny adjustment of the focus ring.

13:58Still on the subject of tools, hardware that you might use for assisting you in manual focusing,

14:06is either an EVF, an external viewfinder such as this one, or an external monitor.

14:15Or you might get both if your budget allows and use them, each of them in different scenarios,

14:21as feels more comfortable to your shooting style.

14:25The benefit of an external monitor is that it'll usually be a much larger screen than the one on the

14:34back of your camera,

14:36making the focusing much more obvious, especially if you're using focus peaking as well.

14:45Similarly, it's true for an EVF, because you're looking through a loop and concentrating through the EVF at the scene,

14:54you can see detail more easily and you can find points of focus much more easily.

15:01And that's about it in terms of the hardware and tools that can assist you in manually focusing.

15:08Okay, so moving on to tip number three, and that would be utilizing the focus magnification in camera.

15:18So on most cameras, on the back screen, you have a magnification button,

15:24which you can punch into the image with and fine-tune focus to make sure that those details are pin

15:32sharp,

15:34an eye, skin patterns, fur patterns, whatever.

15:39Any details that you want to make, absolutely sure, are pin sharp.

15:42You can punch into the image and fine-tune your focus on that.

15:49The only stipulation for that, I would say, is that it's a lot easier on static subjects.

15:57If you're trying to track a moving animal to zoom, to track, to focus and magnify the image to focus

16:07in on the detail,

16:08I think you're not going to manage it.

16:11It's pretty impossible to do all of those things together.

16:14So, but for static subjects or relatively static subjects,

16:18punching in and making sure those details are sharp is another useful tool.

16:22Tip number four, and that is to try always to focus and to zoom smoothly, slowly and smoothly.

16:34If you just remember the adage, which I'm sure you've heard before,

16:38slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

16:40And if you stick to that, you won't go wrong.

16:43The key is to remember not to panic, basically.

16:47If you lose focus on your subject, think about it, take a moment, think where the subject is moving to,

16:58and then just very gently, very slowly reacquire focus.

17:01If you make quick sudden movements, either to the camera or to the focus wheel, the shot is rendered useless.

17:08If you don't panic, keep your head, reacquire focus slowly and gently and smoothly.

17:14The shot is not lost, the clip is not lost.

17:18A shot where an animal is out of focus and then comes into focus again gently and smoothly is eminently

17:27usable in a sequence.

17:29Tip number five, is to try to start with your subject in focus.

17:38For example, if you have a bird that you've been following and you know it's where it perches,

17:48what have you, you can pre-focus on that branch and wait for it to arrive.

17:56And then you'll be already in focus when that bird arrives on that branch.

18:02If you are staking out a trail and you know where, or you can guess, predict, where an animal might

18:11emerge onto that trail, you can focus on that point.

18:14If you are staking out, for example, a trail, you can focus on the trail and then you can see,

18:23have a look and see at the scene in front of you where the animal might emerge from towards that

18:29trail.

18:30You can practice pulling focus to the destination point whilst you're waiting for that animal to arrive.

18:42Being predictive in your focusing will also really help you.

18:47My last main tip, tip number six I think we're up to, is to set yourself up in as comfortable

18:56as possible a shooting position.

18:59If you're sat with a camera and you're not comfortable, you might get stuck when trying to track it.

19:09So for example, if I was sat like this next to my tripod, I'm coming up against my leg when

19:16I'm trying to follow the animal.

19:19And then I'd have to shift, I might hit, knock the tripod, knock the camera, lose the shot.

19:24So try and set yourself up in such a way where you can cover the entire range of where you

19:31think your subject is going to be and track them comfortably.

19:36Be able to reach your camera's controls, reach the follow focus wheel, look into your viewfinder or watch the monitor.

19:45Make sure you're comfortable how you're set up so that you can do that and focusing on that subject will

19:54be that much easier for it.

19:57The last point I wish to make, it's not really a tip, but it's a really valid point, is practice.

20:05You must get out and practice your manual focusing.

20:09There's no sort of two ways about it.

20:12If you want to get good at it, you can only do that by putting in the hours.

20:19You can set up bird feeders in your garden and you can practice pushing and pulling focus from one feeder

20:28to the other.

20:28You can set up perches for the birds to either land on before they get to the feeder or when

20:34they fly off from the feeders to the branches.

20:37And you can practice focusing, pre-focusing even on those branches, follow focusing when they fly off to the feeder.

20:46You can push and pull focus between the two feeders, between the branch and the feeder.

20:53You can do all kinds of things to practice in that set, in that kind of a setup.

20:57Or you can go down to your local duck pond and set the tripod up, set the camera up and

21:04just follow the ducks as they swim around on the pond, trying to keep focus.

21:12It's all about just practicing your art and eventually you will get good at it.

21:19It will become intuitive, it will become second nature, muscle memory and all of that.

21:24And you'll be able to do it without even thinking about it.

21:28But you've got to put in the hours.

21:29OK, so that just about wraps up all of my advice on using manual focus.

21:36I can't recommend it enough.

21:38It really will help you gain precision and control over your filming.

21:45It will liberate your creative juices to use better camera techniques for filming and make your sequences that much better

21:57for it.

21:58So I thoroughly recommend you give manual focusing a go when next year out filming wildlife.

22:07I hope you've enjoyed it.

22:09Thank you so much for watching.

22:10I hope it's been of value and informative for you.

22:14If you have enjoyed, please do consider hitting the thumbs up button down below and doing all that YouTube stuff,

22:21subscribing and all of that.

22:23Drop me a comment below.

22:24I really do appreciate it.

22:26I try and answer as many as I can.

22:31And yeah, it just remains for me to thank you again all for your support.

22:36And I hope to see you again very soon.

22:38Bye for now.

A Beginners Guide to Mastering Manual Focus for Filming Wildlife

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