Recomposing, good or not?

I some how or somewhere learn to first focus that part I wanted to be as sharp as possible and then recompose, maybe because my video background where you zoom in 100%, focus and then recompose. Well, not that long ago chatting with some photographers they recommended me not to do so as the image won't be sharp or at its sharpest. Focus and shoot was what they told me to do so. I wonder what techniques you guys use and recommend and what works better for you.

Love to listen to your thoughts and advice...

Alex

I used to do that but I am training myself to stop and, frankly, it is just as fast to reselect the focus points as it is to reframe. My thumb hits the focal points button and then heads straight for the joystick (on the 7D). I click away until it is time to select a new focal point. I notice a much higher keeper rate at open apertures where the DOF is narrow.

Key considerations here: First, the potential problem you have to deal with is your depth of field, that is how much of your view will be in accepatble focus, and then how far you have to swing the camera to recompose, and whether doing that will throw your pre-focused plane out of your acceptable area of focus/depth of field.

The keys for determining your depth of field are your aperture, your closeness to the subject and your focal length. A wide aperture/low f-number, a close subject, and a long focal length all contribute to a "narrow depth of field", meaning that the camera has an increased chance of swinging your focal plane out of the acceptable field.

Many people are happy shooting at a pretty narrow aperture and have no hesitation focusing and recomposing. For each of us, it takes a consideration of the photography you do and a feel of what works for you.

I shoot a lot with off-center points, meaning that it is not a big hassle to focus on a subject using the point that is best positioned for the framing of the subject and only recomposing by a small distance. I wouldn't be so quick if I was just using the center point on, say, a portrait, and then recomposing so that the face was well-framed with the eyes sharply in focus. That's why I use off-center points!

Shooting scenes that are wide/deep and where you want a narrower aperture pretty much makes this a non-issue -- as long as your focus is at a point somewhere in that part of the scene that should turn out good and sharp, you can pretty much take a lot of freedom in recomposing.

I almost always focus and recompose. Like tony said if your recomposing is moving out of the the focal plane, especially for shots with narrow DOF than you may be better off switching the AF point so your not moving the camera so much.

I guess some people see "focus and recompose" as a bad thing?
like chimping. I chimp too....

Heh! Well, not like chimping so much! It's more those who shoot with a narrow depth of field, like portrait shooters, for example (or extreme macro-type closeups). But then, I'm not sure how many people who totally write off recomposing in a blanket way are taking the off center points into consideration. Sometimes you just can't get one close enough to the proper framing...for example if I'm doing a close portrait with my 85L wide open (f/1.2) I would have to be very exacting about where my focus hit and would not want to recompose.

As a joke note, I remember one time at a workshop we were all taking pics at each other and the guy I was about to take a pic of when I recompose (because I focused at his eyes first with center AF point) then when I move a bit down the cam recomposing he though I was pointing to "he's p parts" he started yelling what ta hell are you pointing at! He is a very funny guy, he knew what I was doing but just for the fun of it he said it, Actually I wonder how many other guys or girls might think that way without knowing what we are doing. Yikes! LOL

Thank you Tony and Dave for your comments,

Alex

As Tony alludes to, it isn't outride "bad" to do; but you need to recognize what you're affecting when you do focus/recompose and where it 'will' cause you issues.

Shooting situations where you're using a wider DoF won't be impacted nearly as much, but when you start shooting real narrow apertures this starts to become more of an issue.

Once you start using the outer AF points via manual selection, though, I think you'll find you focus and recompose a bit less anyway....I think it's sort of a natural progression as learning occurs.

The wider the lens, and the more open the aperture, the greater the risk of recomposing.

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See, this is why autofocus is so limited. With manual focus you can focus anywhere in the viewfinder without have to recompose.

maybe a dumb question but what is chimping?

Hmm.. I usually recompose with my 85L on the 5D2 and don't often get out of focus shots, then again, I've been using it for a while now, so 'm used to it's handling,

mckinleypics wrote in post #10962426
maybe a dumb question but what is chimping?

CHeck IMage Preview... but it sounds funny as it is

aah - I don't do that. Maybe I should.

DOF will help to 'cover' some focus-recompose error, but keep in mind the principle of DOF that eye and brain are fooled by sufficiently small Circles of Confusion which fool us to perceive those circles as points. Here is a chart. Notice that in the chart, as the FL goes up, the angular width of the frame inherently limits the number of degrees shift in recomposing, as indicated by 'Out of FOV'! The pink squares indicate where DOF does not compensate adequately for recompose shift error in focus. And this occurs mostly at close focus distance, at about indoor portrait shooting distances.

I focus and recompose all the time. As long as you have a general idea of what your DOF is, it is a very quick and effective technique.