Is the right part in focus?

[midnightpro]

I am looking for feedback on this shot. I can not decide if i have the right part in focus. Is it OK that her eyes are not completely sharp?



Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 300 mm
ISO Speed 1000

[Bruce A]

No - I think the entire eye should be in focus. It seems from your data you had limited lighting for this shot. Her thumb, a little of of the pencil and her temple seem in focus. The eye misses out yet this is the focal point of the photograph. A stop smaller f/8 and focus right on the eye and better lighting would have helped you here. Nice idea and shot, just not quite implemented correctly.

[BigFuzzy]

Agree with Bruce.. no. In any shot I like to see eyes being in focus.. even more so in this sort of shot.

In the end, to me this feels like you used the central focus point without locking the focus on the eye and recomposing (or scrolling through the focal points while looking through viewfinder). Don't limit yourslef by using only the central and autofocus without knowing how to lock focus (or changing focal points) on the part you want most in focus. If in doubt, err on the side of having the eyes always in focus.

Do you have others where the eyes are in focus.

EDIT: Plus, when looking at it large on flickr the post processing work you did to create the selective coloring is very obvious, might want to clean that up. (I'll not comment on the choice of selective coloring as I'm very biased against it ..oops).

[midnightpro]

Thanks for the feedback on this. When i took the shot it was not apparent that her eyes were not in focus. I was doing a wedding and did not change my aperature at all during the day. I will be more conisent next wedding to chage my depth of field when needed. In regards to the color choices all i did was apply a gradient layer and erase the black and white to reveal the color that was already there. In this case the client loved the shot. I was looking for feedback as to whether i could or should use for my portfolio.

[Bruce A]

Originally Posted by midnightpro

I was looking for feedback as to whether i could or should use for my portfolio.

Well that's up to you of course, but I'd want the shots in my portfolio to be as appealing as possible. You could always try again even if it's not the same person. And just a tip which you may or may not agree with - when you do the eye colour selection try not to include the redness behind the lashes as shown in your shot, I think that would help.

[midnightpro]

Thanks i will try and go back and get rid of the red behind the lashes.