My son

[Photo_Mama2]

This is my youngest son. Just doing some practice. I used PSE 11 for edit. C&C please

 

[amolitor]

The focus appears to be on his arm, and not on his eyes?

This is a rather sweet photograph, otherwise, and I like what you've done with the skin tones. That very light look is quite popular these days, because it's flattering and really makes the skin look like a little kid's skin. The framing is arguably a bit tight, but I like it, it brings attention where you want it.

 

[Photo_Mama2]

Thank you... Yes now that It has been brought to my attention I see what you mean about the focus... I cant seem to get that right... It seems im always out of focus on the eyes... any tips on how to get better at this? I have a t4i

 

[amolitor]

Set the camera to single point focus, rather than some advanced multi-point thing.

Now when it's focusing, it'll probably illuminate one (1) dot in the viewfinder to tell you WHAT it is focusing on. You can probably move the dot around, to pick different focus points.

Now learn how to "lock" focus. It might be "hold the shutter button halfway down" and it might be "press this other button" and it might be "first monkey around in the menus a bunch and set it so that the such-and-such button is the lock focus button, and THEN press that button"

Now the process is:

- place the right viewfinder down on the eyes
- press the shutter button down halfway to get the camera to focus there
- do whatever you need to do to "lock" focus (which might just be "don't let go of the shutter button"!)
- reframe the photograph as you like, trying to maintain the same distance to the subject as you were when you focused
- click

The whole process should take just a breath, or less: focus-lock-slide-click.

 

[JacaRanda]

Hi Photo_Mama2. Another thing that may help is to configure your camera to use back button focus. Here is a video I hope explains and shows it well. I have a different model camera, but can tell you it has simplified both focus locking and recomposing.

 

[cenote]

When doing people shots, I have learned to manual focus quicker with my t3i. I use the digital zoom quickly to zoom in 10x or so on the face, focus, than take the shot. Seems to be a better method for me.