Portrait Focus

[Olivia Price]

I posted this in another section but after thinking about it I thought it should probably be here.....
I have been working on getting spot on focus for portraits. As suggested by several articles I have increased my shutter speed and aperture and have been doing much better when capturing those close up shots but when it comes to a full body or distant shot I cannot nail down my focus. Can someone please help me How do you nail down your focus? Any tips you can give me would be great!


Here is an example:

Camera: Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Lens Model: EF50mm f/1.8 II
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100





Edit: I guess you cannot really tell from this photo, but when I zoom in 50-100% her face is not in focus.

[MrJones]

what is your focusing technique? are you using the focus points or just the middle one?
are you focusing on the eyes in head shots and on face when shooting full body?
did you try it with your kit lens or other lenses? I think, as far as I remember, that the 50mm f/1.8 won't deliver good focus when shooting full body.. but I'm not that sure.

[Olivia Price]

Originally Posted by MrJones

what is your focusing technique? are you using the focus points or just the middle one?
are you focusing on the eyes in head shots and on face when shooting full body?
did you try it with your kit lens or other lenses? I think, as far as I remember, that the 50mm f/1.8 won't deliver good focus when shooting full body.. but I'm not that sure.

For this shot I used manual focus. I usually use center focus, one shot but I have also tried moving my focus point to fit my composition. I've found that at a distance they all seem to come out soft. I try to focus on the eyes for every shot, but maybe I am missing? I have tried it with my other lenses and had the same result but I haven't tried recently since I've adjusted my diopter....and put to use the recommendations I've read. I'll give that a try and see if I get the same result!

[JFSanders]

I input your exif data into the online DOF calculator with the assumed distance to subject of ten feet. As you can see your DOF is 1.84ft but it looks like you are focused behind her. Now if you were closer the DOF becomes much smaller. So be aware of subject distance at larger apertures. Also, if you are focusing and then recomposing but not keeping your camera in the same focal plane it will cause your focus to be off even when manually focusing.

Jim