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Focus on Eyes or Not

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Bob Magluyan

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It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people" photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s) in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls. Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
 
separately from metering and exposure.

On fast paced activity, go Av and close the aperture a couple of stops when you can.

dan
Bob Magluyan said:
It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people"
photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the
eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s)
in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls.
Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either
the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to
re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I
find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
Click to expand...
 
If you take a shot of someone and the nose is in focus but their eyes are not, it will look out of focus. If the eyes are in focus then the whole shot can look much better.

If you know you're shooting with a very narrow depth of field (e.g., f2.8 at 200mm, or f1.8 at 50mm) then try and focus on the subjects eye(s). If you have a wider depth of field, you're probably safe focusing anywhere on the face or torso.
--
Jeff Peterman

Any insults, implied anger, bad grammar and bad spelling, are entirely unintentionalal. Sorry.

 
Anybody else care to respond?

Thanks to all those who have responded. I think the deciding factor is definitely depth of field but I was wondering what techniques different people use to manage this issue of "sharp" eye and quick focus/response.
Bob Magluyan said:
It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people"
photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the
eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s)
in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls.
Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either
the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to
re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I
find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
Click to expand...
--
BobM
 
Go Av and close the aperture a couple of stops when you can?

What in the Heck does that mean? Your advise is very lose and vague at best.

I would better to suggest to lock the exposure meter with the * button, then you have up to 16 seconds to recompose, focus and take the picture.

Generally always shoot portraits in Av mode and adjust the aperture as required TO SATISFY THE BOKEH YOU DESIRE FOR THE SHOT.

JT
riokid said:
On fast paced activity, go Av and close the aperture a couple of
stops when you can.

dan
Bob Magluyan said:
It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people"
photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the
eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s)
in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls.
Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either
the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to
re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I
find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
To over-expose is human...
 
Jeff Peterman said:
If you take a shot of someone and the nose is in focus but their
eyes are not, it will look out of focus. If the eyes are in focus
then the whole shot can look much better.

If you know you're shooting with a very narrow depth of field
(e.g., f2.8 at 200mm, or f1.8 at 50mm) then try and focus on the
subjects eye(s). If you have a wider depth of field, you're
probably safe focusing anywhere on the face or torso.
--
Jeff Peterman
Any insults, implied anger, bad grammar and bad spelling, are
entirely unintentionalal. Sorry.

Click to expand...
--
To over-expose is human...
 
J Thompson said:
Go Av and close the aperture a couple of stops when you can?

What in the Heck does that mean? Your advise is very lose and vague
at best.
Click to expand...
No, it's clear and concise.
J Thompson said:
I would better to suggest to lock the exposure meter with the *
button, then you have up to 16 seconds to recompose, focus and take
the picture.
Click to expand...
How would you have 16 seconds in "fast paced action", which is the scenario for which this advice was given?
J Thompson said:
Generally always shoot portraits in Av mode and adjust the aperture
as required TO SATISFY THE BOKEH YOU DESIRE FOR THE SHOT.
Click to expand...
The point was that when you don't have time to focus on the eyes and recompose, all you can do is dial in a smaller aperture.

Roy.
 
1. Arrange the poser in such a way as to consider the background, lighting, and the position of the pose.

2. Put the camera in Av mode.

3. Make the flash ready. If using fill, put the flash in H-Sync mode.

4. Spot or Partial meter on the poser's skin, then press * button.

5. Focus on the poser's eye. Adjust DOF via aperture F-stop in such a way as to make the DOF fat enough to keep the eyes, nose and other facial parts sharp. Also juggle the issue of background blur (bokeh) as required. Hold the shutter button down, recompose and take the picture. But bear in mind that when you recompose, be mindful that what you think is in focus may no longer be.

You must consider the following when taking such a picture:

1. background blur (bokeh)
2. focus of facial parts
3. metering to get skin tones correct.

4. Adjust White Balance to insure proper tones. Use gray card test shot or shoot RAW so that you have wiggle room in post processing.
5. Get the eyes razor sharp. Other facial parts not as important.
6. Use tripod as required.

Once you get good at this, you can do all this in a matter of seconds and to layman it will seem you simply raised your camera and took the snapshot. But little do they know that you considered all these issues.

JT
Bob Magluyan said:
Thanks to all those who have responded. I think the deciding factor
is definitely depth of field but I was wondering what techniques
different people use to manage this issue of "sharp" eye and quick
focus/response.
Bob Magluyan said:
It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people"
photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the
eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s)
in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls.
Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either
the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to
re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I
find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
Click to expand...
--
BobM
Click to expand...
--
To over-expose is human...
 
Roy van der Woning said:
Roy van der Woning said:
Go Av and close the aperture a couple of stops when you can?

What in the Heck does that mean? Your advise is very lose and vague
at best.
Click to expand...
No, it's clear and concise.
Roy van der Woning said:
I would better to suggest to lock the exposure meter with the *
button, then you have up to 16 seconds to recompose, focus and take
the picture.
Click to expand...
How would you have 16 seconds in "fast paced action", which is the
scenario for which this advice was given?
Roy van der Woning said:
Generally always shoot portraits in Av mode and adjust the aperture
as required TO SATISFY THE BOKEH YOU DESIRE FOR THE SHOT.
Click to expand...
The point was that when you don't have time to focus on the eyes
and recompose, all you can do is dial in a smaller aperture.

Roy.
Click to expand...
--
To over-expose is human...
 
J Thompson said:
J Thompson said:
J Thompson said:
I would better to suggest to lock the exposure meter with the *
button, then you have up to 16 seconds to recompose, focus and take
the picture.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
You're talking about separating exposure and focus. The point of riokid's post is that when the action is too fast paced to focus on the eyes first and then recompose to achieve the desired framing, your only option is to narrow down the aperture so that the eyes will still be in focus even though you don't focus on them. Locking exposure won't help you here.

Roy.
 
...whenever possible, as this gives the image the punch and definition where it has the most impact. One thing I have grown very fond of on my 20D is the lil joystick to move the focus points around....perfect when shooting people in portrait mode.

CHIA
 
Folks,
Diverce by great advice.

Thanks once again to all. It seems that I should not run the risk of having the eyes come out soft. Maybe, as mentioned, training myself to respond quickly to focusing and re-composing is the key.

Anyway, definitely a lot to consider. Good job. Thank you.

bob
Bob Magluyan said:
It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people"
photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the
eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s)
in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls.
Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either
the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to
re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I
find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
Click to expand...
--
BobM
 
Good work J Thompson. Without you this forum would crumble.
Bob Magluyan said:
It's been said many times that the sharpest area in a "people"
photo should be the eyes. I'm curious how many here focus on the
eyes and then re-frame the subject. Or do you frame the subject(s)
in the viewfinder and let the focus point settle on where it falls.
Obviously except situations where the focus point falls on either
the background or foreground.

I find that in fast moving situations I may not have time to
re-frame, i.e. parties, etc. Even in location portraits though I
find that I don't always have the luxury of re-framing my subject.

Can any of you share your techniques and how well it works for you?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

--
BobM
Click to expand...
--
I am a sex object.
Everytime I ask girls for sex they object.
http://www.mikecousins.com
 
I usually attempt to focus on the near eye of the subject of a single-person portrait.

This is really only significant (that is, focusing on the near eye rather than, say, the closest nostril) only when the depth of field is tissue-thin. In that same case, "focus and recompose" can often result in focusing error--specifically apparent backfocusing--because turning the camera on its lateral axis will place the focused plane behind the intended plane.

If the DoF is tissue-thin, better results come from composing, then focusing.

In ancient times (around 1985, B.A.F.) I used a plain groundglass screen in my Canon F-1 cameras for portraits. I composed first, locked my tripod head, and then focused on the near eye of the subject wherever the composition put it. The plain groundglass was as optimum as you could get for that kind of method.

These days, the groundglass is rather poor for focusing in most AF cameras and especially in APS-C format DSLRs. I continued to use the same manual compose then focus method with Elans that only had the center AF mark, using FaR only when I had enough DoF to play with.

I have been using the mid-outer focusing mark (the closest one to where I'd put the eye in the final composition) and then making minor composition changes with my 10D. That was a PITA all the time.

I like the locations of the 20D AF marks much better than those of the 10D. The 2:30 and 4:30 focusing marks are very close to the "Rule of Thirds" intersections, and very close to where I'd generally place the subject's near eye. I can pretty much always put a focusing mark on the near eye and shoot, doing only minor cropping in post edit.
--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'
 
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