Tip of the Day: Using BBF (Big beautiful females?)

Okay, so the title doesn't hold true. But this is something that I've been reading up on the past week and informed Jin about as well and we played with it for the first time a few days ago. It always excites me to learn something new about something I love, especially if it's really beneficial and I want to share it with everyone. Anyhow, for those of you who aren't familiar yet BBF stands for back button focusing. It was mentioned all over Open Source Photo that many professionals use this feature and was also mentioned by a speaker, John, at the Digital Expo we attended over the weekend that many professional photographers utilize this. In dummy terms, it basically means instead of pressing the shutter halfway, you press the back (*) button on your camera to lock focus where you want and let go and the next time you press the shutter release on your camera it takes the picture since the back button prelocked the focus for you. Just an FYI though that this feature has to be enabled in your menu settings beforehand. You might wonder as I did what the advantages of this approach are versus the traditional method. For one, when pressing the shutter halfway you might accidentally lose focus if your finger moves slightly. Second, when using BBF the camera won't lose focus if something enters the picture while you're shooting. Also, if you're taking a series of similar shots, say for portraits, you don't have to refocus each time. Another example is if you're waiting for someone to make a certain expression, you don't have to sit still and wait with your finger on the shutter halfway until you capture the perfect moment. Personally, I think it takes a little getting used to since the back button is smaller and not as convinient to press but I'll definitely be using this feature more to see how it really benefits my shots. Afterall in photography, it only takes a second to miss a beautiful moment. More here including instructions for Canon and Nikon shooters: http://www.rickykphotography.com/tutorials/camera/back-button-focusing/