Jim Levitt
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Lars Johnsson wrote:
Jim, but why do you have the focus point at the shade on the shoulder/neck ? Why not on the eyes/face ?
I would not have my focus point aimed liked you have on any of those 3 samples. Two pics are aimed at shoulder/neck. And the other is aimed so 50% of the focus point is on his mouth and 50% on the saxophone
Hi Lars,
Maybe we should start a new thread, on how to properly locate AF focus points?
I grew up using slide film, trying to compose in-camera all the time. Old habits are hard to break! With the sax player, I got the framing I wanted including the microphone, as tight as I could be with the lens I was using. I couldn't move closer. I might have aimed a little lower if there was an AF point beyond those that exist. With horn players, if I can't get a focus point on the eyes or on eyeglass frames, I've found the intersection of the mouthpiece and the mouth to provide a good point of contrast for AF to lock on. There's usually something shiny meeting a line of some sort around the mouth. Isn't this a better target than a smooth cheek, for example? The mouthpiece/mouth area is right in the middle of the depth of field zone I wanted, and should have given me the face in focus. Would you suggest that I loosen up the framing (from 200mm to 180, say) to put the AF point on the eyes, and then crop later?
For the woman walking, I used the AF point I already had set on the camera from something else I'd been photographing a moment before. But you'll see that the first frame, where the point is on the neck, is in focus. It's the second frame, with the AF target more on the face with some of the neck line, that is out of focus. Why is this a difficult target for the camera? It's not significantly different than what was under the focus point in the first frame, unless the bit of shirt in the first frame gave the camera what it needed. I was at the short end of the zoom (70mm) already, or I would have gone wider, giving me a greater chance of putting the target on an eye. In any case, I wanted to avoid having the target include some of the much brighter background. I've seen that cause the camera to lose focus.
When the camera lost focus in the two shot sequence of the woman slowly walking toward me, it shifted focus behind her. With the sax player, it shifted focus in front of him, closer to me. In both cases I thought I had the AF target covering an area of sufficient contrast.
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SIGH.....looking at these BIF pictures....... incredible shots by all. Let me know if ya wanna trade...