C&C for better focusing techniques?

[wet]

I want to get feedbacks on focusing techniques to achieve shallow DOF for portrait pictures still achieve good effect.

1. When playing with very shallow DOF, where is the best place to focus? I always focus on the eye that is the closes to me, what would you do in this situation?
2. In general, will you be bothered by portrait that only one of her eyes is in focus, her nose, eyebrows & everything else is not in focus (pic #1) or picture #2 where is his whole face is more in focus.
3. Am I cropping them to tight?

Thanks a bunch.

#1. 85mm f/1.6

#2. 85mm f/2.8 (background is overexposed because he is standing behind the window, not sure how to save the background)

 

[BuZzZeRkEr]

Always make sure at least one eye is in focus...

about the second picture....no salvaging that background, but it would be very easy to cut out the background completely and super impose him into a more interesting background....I'd try that route

 

[Randall Ellis]

Always make sure at least one eye is in focus...

Agreed. They eyes are the most important thing to have in focus - most people will not even notice if other parts of the face are soft, and even if they do, it will not matter in most cases. Think about how you look at a portrait. Where does your eye go first? Where does it go from there? When I look at these my eye goes right to the eyes, then it travels around the face lightly with the eyes acting as an anchor. If there is some other aspect that pulls your eye from the subject's eye, you should consider how to minimize it's pull - the main point of a portrait is the subject.

- Randy

 

[SushiWarrior]

I would say up the F stop until both yes are in focus. Unless you are taking the pic from an extreme angle or something, one OOF makes it slightly confusing and offsetting IMO. Just lower the DOF until both are in focus.