How to focus the eyes with only 3 focus points.

[mrstevejobs]

Hello, i am new at this forum as i have liked what i've seen in here

Well, i have bought a 50mm 1.8 AF-S some time ago and i have some questions about taking portrait pictures, as i come from the landscape world.

My camera, Nikon D40X (yeah, not a pro one... ) has only 3 focus points. So when i want to take a shot of a face i usually choose one focusing at one of their eyes and then i move a bit the camera to get the frame i like.
Ok, but you know, i like to take it with 1.4 of aperture and a simple hand move can make their eyes to be unfocused.

What should i do?
Take the shoot in manual mode? If i do like it, how do i know that their eyes are well focused?

I am sure this can be some stupid questions but well, if you could help me with them...
Thanks.

 

[bhee321]

set the focus setting to AF-S. Select the center point as your focus point. Place focus point on subjects eyes. Half click the shutter to focus on eyes. While holding the shutter half down, recompose the shot. Then take the picture.

 

[Tomasko]

http://visual-vacations.com/Photography/focus-recompose_sucks.htm

OP, don't shoot with such wide open aperture and choose the AF point, which is the closest to the eyes.

 

[mrstevejobs]

set the focus setting to AF-S. Select the center point as your focus point. Place focus point on subjects eyes. Half click the shutter to focus on eyes. While holding the shutter half down, recompose the shot. Then take the picture.

As i said before, with 1.4 of aperture that method seems not to be very accurate.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

How come that you are shooting portraits with that aperture? Are you able to get an overall sharp face and features, or are you going for something else...I can't imagine myself doing it...

 

[dakkon76]

Agree with GeorgieGirl. Your focus is probably fine, but your DOF is so thin that everything is looking soft. Try the same shot at f/2 or higher and see what you get. Creepy as it sounds, I practiced with my 50mm f/1.4 on my girls' dolls... so I could get an idea of which aperture worked best for doing portraits. They don't mind if you blind them repeatedly...

And forget manual focus on a live subject if you're at f/1.4 ... that will be even tougher than trying to get the AF point to lock.

 

[jake337]

Choose a smaller aperture to extend your depth of field or make sure your subjects eyes are the are perpendicular vertically and horizontally to your cameras sensor plane.

If you want your background to remain OOF as it is at f1.4, make sure your subject to background distance increases as your aperture gets smaller.

 

[jake337]

Agree with GeorgieGirl. Your focus is probably fine, but your DOF is so thin that everything is looking soft. Try the same shot at f/2 or higher and see what you get. Creepy as it sounds, I practiced with my 50mm f/1.4 on my girls' dolls... so I could get an idea of which aperture worked best for doing portraits. They don't mind if you blind them repeatedly...

And forget manual focus on a live subject if you're at f/1.4 ... that will be even tougher than trying to get the AF point to lock.

Manual focus can work great, sometimes better than AF depending on the camera's ability to focus at apertures wider than F2.8.

With my d90, in liveview, it has face assist( I think its called that). When manual focusing in liveview it will lock onto the face, then you can digitally zoom in and it zooms in on the face highlighted.
If your cams on a tripod, and your live view can digitally zoom, you can use this to zoom in on the eyes for focus once you have your composition set up. But I'm not sure what the D40x liveview can do.

Doesn't work so well without a tripod though IMO.

 

[kundalini]

set the focus setting to AF-S. Select the center point as your focus point. Place focus point on subjects eyes. Half click the shutter to focus on eyes. While holding the shutter half down, recompose the shot. Then take the picture.

With one caveat. The distance from your focal point to the sensor must remain the same. Any deviation will render an out of focus image, even if ever so slightly. Add to that the razor thin DoF at f/1.4, the task will be very difficult.

As other suggested...... practice, practice, practice. Stopping down the lens would be my first suggestion until you get a handle on the technique. You know.... the crawl before you run sorta thing.

 

[mrstevejobs]

Ok thanks guys.
So you recommend me to take the portrait pictures with f2 or higher right?

So is it so weird to shoot portraits at 1.4?

 

[jake337]

Ok thanks guys.
So you recommend me to take the portrait pictures with f2 or higher right?

So is it so weird to shoot portraits at 1.4?

What would your reasoning be to shoot at 1.4? Theres nothing "wrong" with it. I do it all the time, but I find myself wishing I hadn't shot so wide open when reviewing my photos. For the same reason as you posted, I'll only get one eye in focus. i personally need to start closing my aperture and finding angles that push the background far off into the distance.

Many pro's say the stay between f2.8 and f8 for portraits to get the entire face/hair in crisp focus.

 

[mrstevejobs]

Ok thanks guys.
So you recommend me to take the portrait pictures with f2 or higher right?

So is it so weird to shoot portraits at 1.4?

What would your reasoning be to shoot at 1.4? Theres nothing "wrong" with it. I do it all the time, but I find myself wishing I hadn't shot so wide open when reviewing my photos. For the same reason as you posted, I'll only get one eye in focus. i personally need to start closing my aperture and finding angles that push the background far off into the distance.

Many pro's say the stay between f2.8 and f8 for portraits to get the entire face/hair in crisp focus.

Well, my goal was to blur the background and part of the face (hair, hears...) the more i could. That's why i used 1.4.
But yeah, as you said, sometimes if you don't take the shoot from a perpendicular way you can find out that one eye is focused and the other not. (apart from the eye focusing problem for certain frames)

I am starting with portraits and i don't know a lot about it yet, but as far as i have seen, many photographers use small apertures (or in some cases big zooms) in order to blur the background.
With a 50mm over a 1.5x sensor and f8 i dont think i could get the same effect.

 

[jake337]

Ok thanks guys.
So you recommend me to take the portrait pictures with f2 or higher right?

So is it so weird to shoot portraits at 1.4?

What would your reasoning be to shoot at 1.4? Theres nothing "wrong" with it. I do it all the time, but I find myself wishing I hadn't shot so wide open when reviewing my photos. For the same reason as you posted, I'll only get one eye in focus. i personally need to start closing my aperture and finding angles that push the background far off into the distance.

Many pro's say the stay between f2.8 and f8 for portraits to get the entire face/hair in crisp focus.

Well, my goal was to blur the background and part of the face (hair, hears...) the more i could. That's why i used 1.4.
But yeah, as you said, sometimes if you don't take the shoot from a perpendicular way you can find out that one eye is focused and the other not. (apart from the eye focusing problem for certain frames)

I am starting with portraits and i don't know a lot about it yet, but as far as i have seen, many photographers use small apertures (or in some cases big zooms) in order to blur the background.
With a 50mm over a 1.5x sensor and f8 i dont think i could get the same effect.

You would need a whole lot of distance between your subject and your background. That is just one way. You can also use lighting, composition, leading lines, etc. I'm not that great in those aspects so maybe someone with more experience could give examples.

 

[Arkanjel Imaging]

These arent on-the-fly shots. Why not just focus manually?

 

[DiskoJoe]

get a better motor