Do you focus and recompose for portraits?

[lance70]

I was wondering what focus technique everyone uses for portraits? Do you focus and recompose your shot or move your focus point? Maybe both depending on what aperture you use? Thanks

 

[Braineack]

yes. I like to use the center focal point to achieve focus on the eyes. If I didn't recompose the composition/framing would be awful.

this is same for f/1.4 or f/11

 

[JonA_CT]

I try to use the appropriate focusing point for portraits...if it's available. Since it's often not on my D600, I end up focusing and recomposing a bit.

 

[lance70]

yes. I like to use the center focal point to achieve focus on the eyes. If I didn't recompose the composition/framing would be awful.

this is same for f/1.4 or f/11

I agree, that's the method I use but usually I'm indoors and have strobes firing and camera set around f8, wasn't sure for people shooting wide open if they would still get a tack sharp focus on the eyes after recomposing.

 

[dunfly]

I don't do portraits a lot but lately I have been trying to move the focus point to where I want it rather than recomposing. Focus accuracy seems to be a little better that way.

 

[480sparky]

I combine JonA_CTs method with back-button focus.

 

[adamhiram]

When I shot with a D5100, I often had to focus and recompose since it only had 11 focus points and only the center one was cross-type. This worked pretty well most of the time, but also resulted in a lot of soft focus when shooting wide open. Since upgrading to a D500 last year, which has 153 focus points, and all of the selectable ones cross-type, I move the focus point and get much more consistent and sharper results.

 

[tirediron]

I combine JonA_CTs method with back-button focus.

^^This.

 

[Braineack]

I use BBF as well, so that helps, and you just get better at it over time -- not moving the camera in or out, just rotating it enough to get your shot.

 

[jcdeboever]

On film I use the center, lock it, recompose. Digital, I was doing the same but recently, on my Fujifilm, the face / eye detection works excellent. I don't know if that is cheating but I don't care as long as the results are there. I still don't trust it for some reason, even though it hasn't failed me.

 

[Braineack]

that's one of the features i'd like to get from the newer Nikon AF modules. the d4, d810/850, d750, d500 all have that.

 

[Overread]

I typically don't recompose shots.

Imagine that the focus plane of your photo is like a sheet of paper parallel to the front of the lens. The thickness of the paper is the depth of field. Now the focus of the camera moves that plane of focus back and forth in the scene until its where you desire or where the AF detects the contrast difference in the scene to lock onto.

Now this is important because once the focus is set if you then recompose you change the angle of teh camera and lens relative to the scene. What can happen then is that perfect focus plane on the original subject can have the depth of field slip off that point. This issue is clearly more apparent when using wider apertures and thus smaller depths of field; whilst with a smaller aperture (bigger f number) you get a bit more leeway as your depth of field (paper) is greater (thicker).


My approach is to shoot using whichever AF point is best for the scene based on the situation and composition. For a static portrait you can often have time to freely pick which AF point you want to use. However if you are in a situation where you can't focus on the point you want in focus using a dedicated AF point then you've a few options

1) Manual focus - tricky on many modern DSLRs as the viewfinder image isn't best designed for it and many lens focusing systems are also designed more with AF than with MF in mind (which means more movement of the focal plan for less of a turn on the focus wheel). Live view and magnified view can be a big help if you're on a stable support and have time to use it

2) Focus and recompose - you risk the focal plane moving off the subject, but otherwise this can be a quick and simple method

3) Focus on the point using AF as normal then shoot the shot wider than you need to, with a view to cropping in editing to achieve the desired composition. (note despite many peoples claims - this is not a crime )



Note - AF always goes for the closest point it can focus upon under all currently active sensors. So if you've got them all active all will be used, whilst if you've only got one then the camera will work to find that closest point of contrast difference only under that sensor (note it might use other sensors to help with that process, but only the one selected really matters in so far as the photographer is concerned)

 

[TCampbell]

You've got to be careful regarding the combination of depth of field with "focus & recompose" techniques... and how much you move the frame.

Suppose you've got a fairly decent depth of field... enough to get a group of people all in focus. Well then focus & re-compose at will... your depth of field will take care of it.

But suppose you've got a really shallow depth of field... your subject's "eyes" are in optimal focus... but possibly you notice that even their nose or ears are not quite as tack sharp. NOW you've got to be careful. A small adjustment will alter your focus plane and the subject's eyes are no longer in that plane of tack-sharp focus.

Modern lenses have loads of extra elements in them to correct for all sorts of optical issues and one of their jobs is to attempt to "flatten" the plane of focus (it would otherwise be moderately spherical). They usually do a pretty decent job... but not a perfect job.

Here's a graphic that I drew up to illustrate the risk of focus & recompose.

In this drawing, the camera is in the exact center of the blue circle. I was careful to draw a perfectly round circle (it's not an ellipse). The perimeter of the blue circle represents the focus distance. Everything on that circle is the identical distance from the camera.

Notice the subject (and I drew a small thin line to denote the approximate position of our subject's eyes) is at the distance for perfect focus.

I've done a gradient color on the rectangles (and made them slightly transparent) so you can see the depth of field... from good/acceptable (green) to poor/unacceptable (red).

There are TWO of these colored rectangles.

#1 The one located over our subject is the rectangle that we used to establish "focus".
#2 The one located at the top of our graphic is the one we use for "composition" (the one we plan to use when we take the shot).

After we focus on the eyes... we re-point the camera so that our subject will be at the right side of the frame (e.g. "rule of thirds" composition).

Although the eyes were at the perfect focus distance in depth-of-field rectangle #1... that subject's eyes will clearly NOT be in acceptable focus in rectangle #2.

This is because we used a shallow depth of field. If you took this shot at f/8... or f/11... this probably wouldn't matter. But if you're shooting this at f/2... or f/1.4... you may not be happy with the result.

 

[SquarePeg]

I don't focus/recompose. It just doesn't work as well for me as getting the focus point right on the eye to begin with. If I have to shoot a little wide then crop later, I'm ok with that. It results in better focus for me. I think focusing technique is very subjective and if you find something that consistently works for you then go with it. I gave up on focus/recompose after a lot more misses than hits. I think because I end up shifting my weight a lot (ants in the pants).

 

[Vtec44]

I shoot at f1.4-f1.6 98.78% of the time so I can't really focus and recompose. If the subject is outside of my focus points in the view finder, I just use live view. For moving subjects, I almost always use the center focus point. On film cameras, I typically manual focus so there's really no need for focus and recompose.