PLEASE HELP! Are the lenses focused on his face/will his face look clear?

Hello. My name is Pavle. I'm a young photographer. I have just started, so I'm a beginner so I'm still learning. Focus (that square thing) was set on this guy's body (stomach) and not face. What I'm trying to ask is if that (square) is on his stomach will only part of that body (stomach) be in focus or his whole body including his face? Will his face look clear and sharp or no? On some other pictures that I took of him, that same square was on his face, but his face wasn't even clear/sharp, it was blurry?! I am so confused. Can somebody please help me? I'm trying to compete in a competition, but I don't even know If any of this pics are good?! Also, sorry, English is not my first language. Thanks a lot.

Here are the pictures:

94pax94 wrote:

Hello. My name is Pavle. I'm a young photographer. I have just started, so I'm a beginner so I'm still learning. Focus (that square thing) was set on this guy's body (stomach) and not face. What I'm trying to ask is if that (square) is on his stomach will only part of that body (stomach) be in focus or his whole body including his face? Will his face look clear and sharp or no? On some other pictures that I took of him, that same square was on his face, but his face wasn't even clear/sharp, it was blurry?! I am so confused. Can somebody please help me? I'm trying to compete in a competition, but I don't even know If any of this pics are good?! Also, sorry, English is not my first language. Thanks a lot.

94pax94,

You are trying to take a very difficult picture here.

Your subject is standing in shadows against a background that is brightly lit.

Your camera is going to struggle to find focus.

If you can, try placing him in a spot where the sun is falling on his face.

Also, As Digirame said, you are using a very wide aperture of f/3.5. This is going to result in a very small depth of field, or that area that is in focus. Try setting your aperture to a larger  number like 5.6 or even f/8. This will let you slow your shutter speed down.

Steve Thomas

Hi and welcome!

In addition to what Digramme and Steve have said, I'll add this:

• Always use the centre AF point, it's always (on any DSLR) the most accurate.
• Secondly, if the face is the same distance from the camera then they would be in focus, but you'd have to be very lucky to have it so, especially at f/3.5.

-

BTW before using the 7D that I currently use I used an EOS 1200D and then a 600D (same as you). I've recently been culling a huge amount of shots I took with the 1200D, because I left the AF on auto-select and 7 times out of 10 the camera missed focus. Lesson learned - select AF point manually.

94pax94 wrote:

Hello. My name is Pavle. I'm a young photographer. I have just started, so I'm a beginner so I'm still learning. Focus (that square thing) was set on this guy's body (stomach) and not face. What I'm trying to ask is if that (square) is on his stomach will only part of that body (stomach) be in focus or his whole body including his face? Will his face look clear and sharp or no?

Everything that is in the plane of focus will be in focus. See https://www.photokonnexion.com/definition-plane-of-focus/

So if you stand directly in front of a brick wall and take a photo focussed directly ahead the whole wall will be in focus.

Items in front/behind the field of focus will appear sharper (smaller aperture eg f/11) or more blurred (larger aperture eg f/2). Research Depth of Field as others have said.

You can do your own sums putting in your figures at:

https://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

At your wide apertures very little in front or behind the plane of focus will be sharp.

The lighting and shadows across the face make it difficult to appreciate what is in focus or not and shooting in the shade with low ISO has probably resulted in the big apertures your camera has set.

Frame the shot so the cameras focus point is directly over the face, half press the button you use to take the shot and hold it so it locks focus, re-frame the shot while holding the button half way, take the shot by pressing down the rest of the way on the button.

Practice this focus lock re-framing,  its very useful. Also look at flash fill if the subject is dark and background lit, or HDR.