How to get sharp focus on the eyes?

Hi, I'm using a Canon T2i with an 85L and 24L II on hand. I was just curious what are some methods that are used to ensure real sharp focused eyes. Thanks for your time.

You have a 24L and 85L and are wondering how to get sharp images.

Well, I think Im gonna go ahead and quit photography outright if they don't give sharp images to begin with

Focus on the eyes, and open em up a stop.

hah I guess I was looking for tips or ideas how to get the best sharp eyes. Do people go to manual focus to do this? I usually use manual focus points right on the eye, but I don't really know any other way.

Don't focus and recompose if you can help it. AF works perfectly fine 135L, 85/1.8

The most important tip is, for your subject not to move and for you not to move, at all, between hitting focus and tripping the shutter.

Be vewy vewy still

Here's a sample of my doggeh. It's my first time shooting a portrait for a friend of mine so I'm just worried

Image not showing. Bad link, probably.

Focus and snap the shutter in one pull. If they are sitting still, Im sure you won't have a problem making it sharp enough.

If you have the 85L, stop it down a bit to sharpen it up. Not sure where the sweet spot is, but Im sure an 85L @ 2.8 is gonna be plenty sharp.

I see the dogee now.

to get eyes sharp just make sure your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the action.

i focus on the eye nearest to me and keep hitting the focus button until its really locked on. I use my tamron lens so its noisy enough to hear when it stops moving lol. fire a shot and chimp to make sure its on the eye and not the eye brow or eye lashes (when shooting wide opened like f1.4)

bohdank wrote in post #11291091
Don't focus and recompose if you can help it. AF works perfectly fine 135L, 85/1.8

The most important tip is, for your subject not to move and for you not to move, at all, between hitting focus and tripping the shutter.

Be vewy vewy still

aren't you a bit limited in composition with Canon's lack of focus points if you don't "Focus and Recompose"?

It's one thing to use the center FP and move the framing to push the subject completely to one side and using an outer point and slightly recomposing. The latter, I tend to frame loosely anyway so it can accomodate different cropping later on, so I rarely recompose or, if I do, it is very minor.

also don't forget your focal plane. with shallow DOF, it won't take much of a head tilt to get at least one soft eye and that can ruin an image. if your subject is not aligned straight on (which is common since straight on can be a bit meh for portrait shots at times), you'll need to pick a spot in between to focus on. I often choose the bridge of the nose since its usually within the front end of my DOF even wide open. this way, no matter the angle (unless its a hot from the side when you won't see one eye anyway) you'll have both eyes in focus. I'm not a real portrait shooter but this seems to work for me. here's a couple of my son using this technique so you can somewhat see what I mean (and I still didn't quite get it right in the first)