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7D -people shots, how many just use centre-spot focus?

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Philip Smith106453

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I always have. Just never got out the habit from when I first started taking pictures on cameras with autofocus.

I hear great things about the auto focus on the 7D when using the multi-point setting, and I've tried it a few times, but I'm never confident that it will get the right focal point when I want it to, for example, focusing on an ear when I'm after the eye.

Anyone here just use centre spot, or, I suppose, more importantly, anyone here rely solely on the multipoint focus, especially for people shots?
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I'm in the habit of using center point (or more accurately a single point) without expansion from shooting sports and use it now for most everything. I can't see how using all the points is going to give me appreciably better results for portraits. I usually select a single point in the top of the frame (where the face or eyes will be) and then use the orientation feature (CF III-12) to switch automatically between pre-selected points depending on whether I'm oriented horizontally or vertically. I use this for both fast action sports and for portraits
 
I moved up from 400D. I still use one-shot for most of my people shooting, I don't think multi-point i suited for this application. What has changed for me is that I do very minimal focus and recompose as compared to my 400D. I thing that's mainly because it is now very fast to change focus points using the joystick (only complaint is when I am shooting vertical with the grip - the joystick is a bit too far)
Philip Smith said:
I always have. Just never got out the habit from when I first started taking pictures on cameras with autofocus.

I hear great things about the auto focus on the 7D when using the multi-point setting, and I've tried it a few times, but I'm never confident that it will get the right focal point when I want it to, for example, focusing on an ear when I'm after the eye.

Anyone here just use centre spot, or, I suppose, more importantly, anyone here rely solely on the multipoint focus, especially for people shots?
--
http://www.philip-smith.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/philipsmith/
Click to expand...
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PicPocket
http://photography.ashish-pragya.com

 
I find using all the focus points works well for rapid point and shoot of multiple people (like at a family gathering). With multiple young kids, the moment to select a focus point or recompose is a big deal.
 
I still use the center point but I now will move it around with the joystick as required.





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The solution is always simple. Getting there is the hard part.
 
I do use all AF points for people shots. It's much better than focus and recompose when shooting fast primes or even f2.8 zoom lenses. It's really nice to have the nicely distributed AF points available on 7D. I bought 7D thinking the 19AF points are good for action/BIF but now I realized it's actually most useful for still shots at thin DOF which happens to be my shooting style.
 
carlk said:
I do use all AF points for people shots. It's much better than focus and recompose when shooting fast primes or even f2.8 zoom lenses. It's really nice to have the nicely distributed AF points available on 7D. I bought 7D thinking the 19AF points are good for action/BIF but now I realized it's actually most useful for still shots at thin DOF which happens to be my shooting style.
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I may have to try that.

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The solution is always simple. Getting there is the hard part.
 
to use the center point for focusing in portrait or any other situation. The center point still is a good starting point for tracking (especially with it's higher precision) but by focusing and recomposing you are wasting the enhanced precision anyway, so what's the point, the rest of the focus points is quite capable of delivering the expected results.
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regards
Karl Günter Wünsch
 
" ... only complaint is when I am shooting vertical with the grip - the joystick is a bit too far ..."

Although I prefer to use the joystick for selecting the AF points as well (both with and without the grip) ... I find that when I'm using the grip I can change the AF point almost as fast by using the two wheels which are within easy reach (as opposed to the joystick).

I was a little surprized because I thought it would be more difficult that way. Anyway I now find that changing the AF points when using the grip is relatively easy. YMMV.

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A Few Images ... http://www3.sympatico.ca/gord.lange/a_few_images/
 
Gord SW Ont said:
I find that when I'm using the grip I can change the AF point almost as fast by using the two wheels which are within easy reach (as opposed to the joystick).
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Thanks Gord. I'll try to give it a shot. Using the joystick is very intuitive as we can jump to any point by just looking at the placement... but I am willing to give the wheels a try to see if it simplifies vertical shooting

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PicPocket
http://photography.ashish-pragya.com

 
Most of my shots are of people. I use the top focus point (spot), and never use multi-point.
Philip Smith said:
I always have. Just never got out the habit from when I first started taking pictures on cameras with autofocus.

I hear great things about the auto focus on the 7D when using the multi-point setting, and I've tried it a few times, but I'm never confident that it will get the right focal point when I want it to, for example, focusing on an ear when I'm after the eye.

Anyone here just use centre spot, or, I suppose, more importantly, anyone here rely solely on the multipoint focus, especially for people shots?
--
http://www.philip-smith.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/philipsmith/
Click to expand...
 
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