The Shot That Should Have Been Perfect

There's a spot I like to shoot from in volleyball, just behind and to one side of the umpire's chair. It's a good angle for catching players bumping and setting. I was in that position when a player on my side of the court dove straight toward the camera. A dream scenario. It happened fast enough that I just reacted and hoped it would land the way I pictured it.

Then I looked at the images. The autofocus had latched onto the eye of the player behind her instead of the player making the dive.

What Went Wrong

Autofocus is remarkable technology when it's set up right. When I first started, I was honestly a little intimidated by how many settings modern cameras give you for it. For this match, my AF-area mode was one of the custom wide area settings, sized 9x6, roughly a third of the frame, with eye tracking turned on. The idea is that once a player enters that zone, eye tracking picks her out automatically.

The problem in this case is that the zone was large enough to catch both players' eyes at once, mine and the one behind her, and the camera had to choose. I don't think that's the whole story though. There's a more specific setting I think was the bigger culprit, and I'll get to it in a second.

What I'm Changing

Two settings are getting adjusted before the next match.

The first is focus tracking with lock on, which controls how quickly the camera drops its current subject and locks onto something new. It runs on a scale from 1, quick, to 5, delayed. Mine was set to 3. I'm moving it to 2.

The second, and the one I think matters more, is subject motion. Some Nikon bodies let you tell the autofocus whether your subject moves erratically or steadily. My D5 was set to erratic, my Z9 to steady. Volleyball players move erratically within the frame, unlike a sport like track or cross country where the motion holds one direction. I'm switching the Z9 to erratic for the next match to see if it makes a difference.

I'm also still using AF-C, continuous autofocus, on every shot, every sport. That one doesn't change. And eye tracking stays on across all my bodies, including the D5. It's a DSLR, so its version of eye tracking is a step behind what the mirrorless bodies do, but it's still worth having on.

Back Button Focus

One more thing worth naming, since it's a common point of debate among photographers. I shoot back button autofocus, meaning a dedicated AF-on button on the back of the camera handles focus, and the shutter button only fires the shutter. It's not the only right way to do it, just what I've settled on.

If you shoot the more common setup, shutter button doing double duty for focus and release, or back button like me, I'd like to know. Same goes for the autofocus settings above. If you've experimented with focus tracking speed or subject motion settings on your own gear, tell me what you landed on.

Grab the Locations PDF

If you're new here, I put together a PDF that walks through the shooting positions I use for volleyball, including the spot behind the umpire's chair mentioned above and the two spots I shoot from most, floor level with a 70-200 and the top of the bleachers with a 300mm.

What's Next

The next series of episodes moves to high school volleyball. If there's something in your own autofocus setup you'd try differently, or something you'd like me to test, let me know before I'm back in the gym.

Get out there and make beautiful images.