When do you use all of your autofocus points?

[Josh66]

What points and AF mode (one shot, servo, etc) do you guys reccomend i should use because the will be coming at me at about a 45 degree angle.

AF point - use the one that is closest to what you want to focus on.

Mode - for what you're doing, one of the servo modes would be best. Definitely NOT one-shot, you want something that is going to track the subject.

 

[Garbz]

Considering that even in modern reportage style weddings the subject is pretty well centre frame in all the shots why does anyone need more than the centre focus point

That's a large generalisation. Any wedding photography who centres the subject in all of their shots isn't one worth hiring in my option. I mean weddings are the one thing where there are no rules and on this very forum I have seen every possible style and expression of the photographic art in wedding photos, and of these they definitely did not all have the subject in the centre.

 

[kkamin]

Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

Thanks for the link. Very illuminating.

In the example he gives with the model, where the camera is tilted up to focus on the eye then swung back down to compose the shot, what if the photographer stood up to her eye height instead of tilting up? I think that would be helpful if you are in a single point focus situation.

 

[Josh66]

Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

Thanks for the link. Very illuminating.

In the example he gives with the model, where the camera is tilted up to focus on the eye then swung back down to compose the shot, what if the photographer stood up to her eye height instead of tilting up? I think that would be helpful if you are in a single point focus situation.

You would still get the same problem...basically. I think it would make you front focus instead of backfocus though, since the second "recomposed" orientation would be farther away (instead of closer, like the example).
(Above assums the camera is on a tripod, raised to the models eye level and only tilting)
-EDIT- But, it wouldn't be as bad as the example, since 2/3 of the DOF is behind the focus point. Front focusing would 'miss less' than back focusing. -EDIT-

If you raised the center column, focused, then lowered it (never actually tilting the camera), I think that would work. In the time it would take to do all of that, the model may have moved though... Trying to do that hand-held, it would be pretty hard to ensure that the camera-to-subject distance stayed consistent.
In theory, it would work. In practice, it would be hard to pull off.

 

[Garbz]

In practice I will still come back to the kind of photography matters.

An 85mm f/1.2 will take a photo such that the eyes are in focus, but the nose and ears are a blur. Focus and recompose if you must, but there are electrical aids for this in many cameras