Getting the best focus

Something I have been experiencing lately with some of my portrait shots is that the main body of the model will be in perfect focus but the face isn't. I know the tricks of moving the orientation of the camera around so that you can lock focus on the face and then recompose the picture but this can brun a lot of time when conditions are difficult. What autfocus setting do you guys/girls use when taking portrait or model shots.. I'm currently using the 7 point metering mode (evaluative)..

any suggestions would be great.

Cyrus

350D? First suggestion would be to change the focus point to one that's closer to the face, even if you want to use focus/recompose.

Jon's right. Try minimize the focus/recompose by selecting a focus point as close to the face as possible. Also watch your depth of field. It can be pretty narrow. For example, at 50mm if you are 5 feet away from the subject, your DOF is as follows:

f1.4 ---- .23 ft
f2.0 ---- .33 ft
f2.8 ---- .47 ft
f4.0 ---- .66 ft
f5.6 ---- .94 ft
f8.0 ---- 1.34 ft
f11 ---- 1.94 ft
f16 ---- 2.84 ft

So it may not be so much a focus issue as it is simply a very narrow DOF.

Very interesting, i was just going back through some of my problem shots and some were also taken in portrait mode as I feel that gives some great portrait shots. In light of what you were saying, I think I may have been to far back from the model to use the portrait settings - if I'm understanding your comments correctly, perhaps the depth of field in portrait mode dictates that I need to be no more than 3 metres or so away from the model... would you guys agree?

Cyrus

It's simpler to ignore the exposure settings on the dial that are represented by little pictures. I have never used them and never will.

Learn about exposure settings and all the reasons to choose different apertures and shutter speeds. Then use Av, Tv, or M modes to control your camera's operation. You will, as a result, have much better images once you master these basic skills.

The choices of lens focal length, distance from the subject, aperture setting, etc., all affect the depth of field and apparent sharpness (clarity) of the portions of the image that you want sharp in the final photo. It isn't terribly simple, but experimentation is the key to learning.