Day out with my Girlfriend

[bullseyez]

thx all for the advice. think i will try not to recompose and see how it came out. and also next time i will just try f/2 instead. One CMer mention about telephoto prime, do you mean 100++mm prime?

 

[TheChef]

Don't blame your lens. Your technique is incorrect.

 

[TheChef]

thx all for the advice. think i will try not to recompose and see how it came out. and also next time i will just try f/2 instead. One CMer mention about telephoto prime, do you mean 100++mm prime?

Also, don't be poisoned into buying more stuff. But, if you are rich, I have nothing to say.

 

[candleghost]

thx all for the advice. think i will try not to recompose and see how it came out. and also next time i will just try f/2 instead. One CMer mention about telephoto prime, do you mean 100++mm prime?

if u unable to get the focus point within your composition, shoot wider with the focus point on the eyes den go back crop the photo, u nt going to print life size photo so cropping (losing some megapixel) is not important

 

[ejunlow]

thx all for the advice. think i will try not to recompose and see how it came out. and also next time i will just try f/2 instead. One CMer mention about telephoto prime, do you mean 100++mm prime?

i'm curious... why not use the 24-70 when you have it?

 

[Entertainer]

are you shooting in ONE SHOT or SERVO?

 

[Alan Chan]

to half-press and recompose will shift the focus on shallow DOF. if you cant use point select then use MF instead.

 

[bullseyez]

i'm curious... why not use the 24-70 when you have it?

cos i miss the bokeh from 1.8. lol

 

[bullseyez]

are you shooting in ONE SHOT or SERVO?

ONE SHOT

to half-press and recompose will shift the focus on shallow DOF. if you cant use point select then use MF instead.

That's what my fellow friends told me too. how bout manual set the focus point, half lock shutter button, manual focus till object sharp n snap? tat's the correct way?

 

[hotchoco1ate]

ONE SHOT



That's what my fellow friends told me too. how bout manual set the focus point, half lock shutter button, manual focus till object sharp n snap? tat's the correct way?

I think that this will be too tedious. And there is no saying you wont move/shake considerably during manual focusing.

My suggestion for manual focus to be tack sharp is to use a tripod.

1. Set up tripod
2. Change to live view.
3. Zoom in to the eyes.
4. Fine tune manual focus
5. Snap.

The tripod will dramatically reduce handshake and the zoom will ensure tack sharp focus.
To the untrained eye, if you try to manual focus through ur view finder, it is generally not very accurate unless you have been doing it long enough to approximate. To top it up you can use a remote shutter if you dont like using/not used to timer mode.

If i were you, i would try to frame my subject's eyes to one of the 9 focus points of your camera, instead of composing first then find the nearest focus point. And i wont recommend you shooting wide open as well as it tends to be OOF since the DOF is so shallow. At least stop down 2/3stops.

Hope i helped :thumbsup:

PS: Too many distracting elements in your pictures other than the last one. However that appears to be OOF. Otherwise your subject is rather photogenic ...

 

[Limsgp]

With the 50mm on a crop body, and most are full body shots, I presume you're standing > 5m away from the subject in most of the shots?

The DoF @ F1.8 at this distance is > 60cm. I doubt it is an issue of too shallow DoF + recomposing resulting in blurred subject, Unless during recomposing you shifted > 60cm in front or behind, which in practical sense, is quite unlikely.

The 50mm is known to be quite soft wide open, that's one possibility.

Another is the AF of the camera might be unreliable.

 

[BigFatLenses]

u don recompose, u compose first what u wan, shift your focusing to her eyes, remember only her eyes, den u snap

buying a 1.4lens or 1.2lens wont help if your shooting techniques is nt correct

i don't quite understand the first bit.. care to elaborate more to enlighten me?

i mean, if i compose first, then shift to the eyes to focus, won't the composition be lost unless i recompose?

 

[Ferderico]

do you really have to use the lens at F1.8?
usually if i take full body length shot, i could take it at F2, F2.8 or even F4....

unless i take head-shoulder shots then i might consider F1.8...

 

[Zahne]

i don't quite understand the first bit.. care to elaborate more to enlighten me?

i mean, if i compose first, then shift to the eyes to focus, won't the composition be lost unless i recompose?

Use ya eyes to see wat u wanna take, then see through viewfinder and choose the focus point nearest to the eyes or on the eye. Some Prime lens like 50f1.4 or 85f1.2 haf thinner DOF, so it's not recommended to recompose unless u got higher F.no ba.

 

[Akatsuki]

Work on your composition, sometimes, less is more. Another issue is your focus, I believe alot of bros here have highlight to you about the usage of AF points and re-composing.

50 f/1.8 is a very capable lens in it's own right, you'll not go wrong with continuous practice!

 

[BigFatLenses]

or can use MF also i guess?

 

[hotchoco1ate]

i don't quite understand the first bit.. care to elaborate more to enlighten me?

i mean, if i compose first, then shift to the eyes to focus, won't the composition be lost unless i recompose?

Okay perhaps i should elaborate more why people generally do not recompose if they are using a very wide F number eg f1.2,1.4,1.8.

Lets imagine your subject is standing 1.505m away from you. (there is a reason why i am so precise)

You lift your camera to compose.

You aim at her nose (1.501m away from you). You focus. And lock focus.

Okay now you recompose, keeping the focus there. You aim at her eyes (1.504m away from you)

If you were using f1.4 (just to exaggerate and illustrate my point), the picture will be slightly OOF.

Its because your focus point from the subject before recomposing is 1.501m. In other words all objects/subjects exactly at 1.501m away from the camera will be IN FOCUS. But even slightly off the mark at 1.504m it is longer than the required distance, thus it will be OOF (out of focus).

If you were even closer to your subject, maybe just 0.705m away from you, now the distance between the focus on her nose (0.701m) and her eyes (0.704m) will have a even higher percentage difference, albeit the same absolute distance, and the OOF will be even greater. (sorry if you cannot understand this im trying my best)

However if you were using a much higher F number such as f4 or f8 for that matter, such a minute (small) change in distance WILL NOT matter and your subject wont be OOF (provided you dont pixel peep). To put it in a another fashion, a higher f number will try to keep more objects or subjects in focus ie from 0.8m to 1.2m away from camera will in focus, anything less than 0.8m or anything more than 1.2m will be OOF, as compared to 0.8m to 0.85m if you were using a very wide aperture.

Hope the TS and other who are asking can understand the above. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[BigFatLenses]

Okay perhaps i should elaborate more why people generally do not recompose if they are using a very wide F number eg f1.2,1.4,1.8.

Lets imagine your subject is standing 1.505m away from you. (there is a reason why i am so precise)

You lift your camera to compose.

You aim at her nose (1.501m away from you). You focus. And lock focus.

Okay now you recompose, keeping the focus there. You aim at her eyes (1.504m away from you)

If you were using f1.4 (just to exaggerate and illustrate my point), the picture will be slightly OOF.

Its because your focus point from the subject before recomposing is 1.501m. In other words all objects/subjects exactly at 1.501m away from the camera will be IN FOCUS. But even slightly off the mark at 1.504m it is longer than the required distance, thus it will be OOF (out of focus).

If you were even closer to your subject, maybe just 0.705m away from you, now the distance between the focus on her nose (0.701m) and her eyes (0.704m) will have a even higher percentage difference, albeit the same absolute distance, and the OOF will be even greater. (sorry if you cannot understand this im trying my best)

However if you were using a much higher F number such as f4 or f8 for that matter, such a minute (small) change in distance WILL NOT matter and your subject wont be OOF (provided you dont pixel peep). To put it in a another fashion, a higher f number will try to keep more objects or subjects in focus ie from 0.8m to 1.2m away from camera will in focus, anything less than 0.8m or anything more than 1.2m will be OOF, as compared to 0.8m to 0.85m if you were using a very wide aperture.

Hope the TS and other who are asking can understand the above. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

great explanation..! i do understand that at big apertures the zone of focus will get smaller (or shallower DOF).. what i didn't know was the difference can be such small distances apart, like in your example, 0.001m and 0.004m..

however lets say if i compose a shot and just nice the eyes dun have a exact of even nearby AF point (like for the 550d only has 9 AF points), how do i go about overcoming this? manual focus is the way to go?

 

[rongwei82]

So can i say that during the shoot you have to keep on changing your focus point? So your focus point now will keep on changing depends on ur composition?

 

[hotchoco1ate]

great explanation..! i do understand that at big apertures the zone of focus will get smaller (or shallower DOF).. what i didn't know was the difference can be such small distances apart, like in your example, 0.001m and 0.004m..

however lets say if i compose a shot and just nice the eyes dun have a exact of even nearby AF point (like for the 550d only has 9 AF points), how do i go about overcoming this? manual focus is the way to go?

I suggest manual focus if you do know what you're doing. I admit its not easy to master. But it can help greatly if the focus point is not in the region of the focus point. Its basically a hit and miss game. However you'll get better over time so all you need its practice in your "agaration" (guessing).

My way of overcoming is this. I compose the image with the viewfinder. Then i'll find the nearest auto focus point and aim at my subject. Judging by how far off the subject is, i move myself so that i can still get the composition and focus. Obviously this doesnt always work due to space constraint etc..

Okay another way of overcoming is use a smaller f number if you are not shooting in low light. This means that you are trading bokeh for tack sharpness, but i assure you the trade is worth it. No point shooting with a nice bokeh but a OOF subject.

Im using a 500D and i feel 9 focus points is enough for my usage.

So can i say that during the shoot you have to keep on changing your focus point? So your focus point now will keep on changing depends on ur composition?

Refer to what i said above. No composition is that rigid till you die die must use that area for the subject. Be flexible and pre-select a focus point to use, then fine tune ur composition. It takes time to master the quick switching of focus point. If one always uses the centre point, what are the uses for the others?

Another note. If you want to better master ur camera, please do not let the camera choose the focus for you. You'll get better with practice how to use the short cuts in ur camera to change ur focus points.

Happy to Help :sweatsm: