Plane of focus looks about right, eye detail and your reflection in it clear. For a kit lens handheld at 1/80th (could still be some camera or head movement) up close where you probably weren't perfectly parallel to the young lady's face, it came out fine.
Only real way to tell is focus test on tripod with good, known lens. That said, I'd take it home to test. Nice eyes by the way.
If you're trying to use the 1/<focal_length> rule then you should have the shutter speed up to at least 1/100 on a DX body. The DoF with those settings is only 1.2cm (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html) which is why the top lashes are OOF and the bottom left ones are sharp. Agreed with the focusing on the reflection noted above.
You should really try these focussing tests on a focus chart (or a brick wall hah!). Google for one. Remember that your D300 has the lens adjustment feature, so that if you find one of your lenses back- or front-focussing, then you can fix it easily.
May 16, 2008 at 07:41 AM
Andre Labonte Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
hjanssen wrote:
Focussing in the centre of the eye is asking for trouble, because you are focussing on your own reflection and the focus should be twice the distance.
Does it really work that way?
If I take a photo of a mirror that is five feet from the camera but the image seen on the mirror is a mountain 20 miles away, is my camera focussing at five feet or 20 miles?
Greg
May 16, 2008 at 10:11 PM
Andre Labonte Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
If I take a photo of a mirror that is five feet from the camera but the image seen on the mirror is a mountain 20 miles away, is my camera focussing at five feet or 20 miles?
Greg
Yes, it really works that way. In the scenario you describe, the camera will focus at infinity (i.e. 20 miles). The image of anything in a flat mirror is as far behind the mirror as the actual object is in front of the mirror.
Andre Labonte wrote:
Yes, it really works that way. In the scenario you describe, the camera will focus at infinity (i.e. 20 miles). The image of anything in a flat mirror is as far behind the mirror as the actual object is in front of the mirror.
I guess that's not the case with this example, if it were, nothing except my reflection would be in focus.
well small dof, both subject and camera are not fixed, eyes lids move very fast, your expectations seem very high, at 1/80th the mirror effects sharpness, looks good to me.
