Camera Labs

a quick question about focusing where do focus your focus point when taking a picture of a person?

well so far I point my camera focus at their eyes and some articles says don't focus to their eyes O_o so now I'm a little confused where to point my focus point.

The eyes. Definitely the eyes.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

ohh thanks, what would be a good settings for portrait? AV or full Manual?

If you like to control depth of field but don't want to manually figure out exposures, shoot AV. Manual if you want full control, but you have to understand how your light meter is working, and also how the three pillars of exposure interact.

Also, what article said not to focus on the eyes?!

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Canon EOS 5D MkII | Canon EOS 7D | Canon Digital Rebel XSi | EF 35mm f/1.4L | EF 50mm f/1.8 II | EF 85mm f/1.8 | EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM | EF 135mm f/2L | EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS | 580EX II | LumoPro LP-120

My Flickr

three pillars of the exposures (which are ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture)?

when shooting AV you have to set the EV comp. by yourself right? because it doesnt move back and forth when changing the aperture.

hmm maybe I misread the article but I will try to look back on the site where I read it.

(Cant edit my post sorry if i'm double posting)

anyhow when taking portrait specially outside the background should be blurred (DoF?)

oki ill make it easy for myself about the aperture let say the lowest number (1. the wider the "IRIS" is and the background will be blurry, the highest number (22) the "IRIS" will become small and the background/whole scene will be in focus.

so to make the whole scene in focus I need a high number (f/higher than 1.8 or so).

when cropping will you just use the crop tool and just crop the desired size or image that need to be cropped?

I'd be interested to read which article says not to focus on the eyes when shooting portraits too!

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

Hi EOS,

If you are talking about portraits, I found this link interesting.

http://www.lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/rules.html

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Rule 36. Don't use those horrible tie-died backgrounds.

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

The eyes are correct. Its the first thing humans look at. Also one more thing to note about that: focus on the closest eye to the camera if the subject is standing at an angle.

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

All books I read suggested eyes for sure. I started taking outdoor portrait shoots.

My photography buddy happen to saw my photos and suggested that a few of my shots shall not focus on eyes. Reason?

He reasoned that head is shape, but the bokeh starts to be weird as 1/2 of her body is bokeh.

He suggested focusing "inner" to the photo eg shoulder, so that backside onwards can still be clear, while the background will remain bokeh.

Settings I used: f/4


While still agreed with 99% of portrait shoots to be at the eyes, his highlight does give me the 1% 'reserved'.

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www.flickr.com/photos/jojovan

I usually focus on the nearest eye of the subject but don't open the lens up to it's maximum aperture. Most lenses give their best image quality stopped down a little so with my 85mm 1.8f I would use f2 or f2.8 depending on the lighting and background. This will still give nice bokeh if your subject is a reasonable distance from the background, say 5ft minimum.

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Nikon D300 D80 D40 18-55mm 18-70mm 18-135mm 55-200mm 18-200mm 28mm 2.8f 50mm 1.8f 85mm 1.8f
Panasonic DMCFZ28 Slik Pro 700DX

I know a little about a lot, a lot about little and everything about nothing.

also DOF is affected by:

Aperture (large aperture = smaller DOF)
Camera to Subject distance (the closer you are to subject the smaller the DOF)
Subject to Background distance (further away from the background = more blurred the background)
Focal length (more telephoto = small smaller DOF)

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

not an expert portrait photographer by any stretch of the imagination and since focusing on eyes is the way to go, if possible or if you have to choose one eye try and focus on the right eye. The left if you are looking at them, for some reason first eye people look at is right eye. Seems silly but true, try yourself when looking at other people, it seems to work better.

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic