splathrop Offline Upload & Sell: Off
|
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 5dmk3 only using center point af, am I wasting this camera? | |
With static subjects (I suppose newborns are pretty static) all you lose with focus and recompose on the 5D 3 is some focusing accuracy, and maybe not much of that if you are good at it and avoid the commonest pitfalls. But not all subjects are static.
For example, imagine shooting a hockey game with the goal to your left and the action to the right. When someone lets fly with a shot, you want the focus on the shooter (or on the goalie), but either way, you want the other piece in the picture too. No way to get that with focus and recompose. Note also that the 5D 3 lets you program pre-registered autofocus points so you can switch instantaneously with buttons.
Or shoot the long jump at a track meet. You want to stand at the end of the landing pit and take the shot of the oncoming jumper using a vertical frame orientation. You also want to get low, and show the pit at the bottom, to emphasize the elevation of the jumper. You need to use a right-side-of-the-frame focus point on the jumper to get that. And you can! You can get 3-4 shots of the jumper in the air, and one of the landing, with sharp eyelashes in every frame. It's so easy it's like cheating.
Or imagine shooting birds in flight. You may want to put the birds above the landscape, or the landscape above the birds. Vary the focus point accordingly.
All of which is a warmup to saying that social dynamics work like that other stuff. Focus where you want the attention, not in the center of the frame. Then compose the shot with an eye to letting the out-of-focus parts of the composition move the viewer's eye to where you want the picture emphasis. Start doing that and you will get a hell of a lot more than a 1% improvement.
Good question, by the way.
|