Can this eye be out of focus???

melissa6631

I took this picture of my daughter yesterday but the one eye is out of focus. I am kicking myself because I think it's a pretty good picture other wise.

Scott_Quier

This image was taken with the EF 50 f/1.8 at f/1.8. Given the size of her face in the image, I'm guessing you were pretty close to her when you took the picture. All of that adds up to a very, very shallow depth of field.

In addition, the focal plane seems to be somewhere between the tip of her nose and her left eye.

So, yes, given those conditions, it's quite easy to understand why one eye seems to be in focus and the other not.

melissa6631

Scott_Quier wrote:

This image was taken with the EF 50 f/1.8 at f/1.8. Given the size of her face in the image, I'm guessing you were pretty close to her when you took the picture. All of that adds up to a very, very shallow depth of field.

In addition, the focal plane seems to be somewhere between the tip of her nose and her left eye.

So, yes, given those conditions, it's quite easy to understand why one eye seems to be in focus and the other not.

I love the sharpness of her left eye. and I want to get more shots like that. I'm not quite sure how else to obtain then other than getting close. I feel if I get farther back, I will lose the detail in her eyelashes etc. So How would i go about getting the detail, keeping her all in focus and still having a nice picture?


Is this photo keepable with only one eye in focus?

Scott_Quier

melissa6631 wrote:

I love the sharpness of her left eye. and I want to get more shots like that. I'm not quite sure how else to obtain then other than getting close. I feel if I get farther back, I will lose the detail in her eyelashes etc. So How would i go about getting the detail, keeping her all in focus and still having a nice picture?

To get a deep Depth of Field (DOF), all you need to do is stop down the lens a bit. Instead of setting your aperture to 1.8, try something like 4.0 or 5.6. Of course, you will need to decrease your shutter speed to compensate, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. You shot your picture at 1/125, so you have lot's of "room" left before you get down to 1/50. If you need to, you can boost your ISO a stop to compensate as well.

melissa6631 wrote:

Is this photo keepable with only one eye in focus?

Uhhh, yeah! This is a very cute shot with lots of personality showing. I would keep it and print it up for display. Nice photo.

Seneca

Angle shots are tricky...be sure and focus between her eyes.

pyrtek

Since it's your daughter, you can reshoot as many times as you want (or
as many times as she'll let you, rather ). Take Scott's excellent advice
next time and you'll easily end up with a winner. Having said that, if you
really want to try to save this picture, I think it's doable by copying
her left eye, flipping it an replacing her right eye with it. Some scaling, some
curves on the replaced eye and a few other minor tweaks and it should look
OK. In the end, though, a reshoot is definitely the way to go. Nothing can
replace a properly photographed, errr, photograph.

~Jan~

That's your daughter? Just bribe her to do that same post and shoot again w/ a higher f/stop. I think she's GORGEOUS!

melissa6631

~Jan~ wrote:

That's your daughter? Just bribe her to do that same post and shoot again w/ a higher f/stop. I think she's GORGEOUS!

Thanks! I think she's gorgeous, too!

I guess I'll try to retake it. To be honest I never even looked at the settings. I was only adjusting stuff so that the flash wouldn't turn on

~Jan~

melissa6631 wrote:

Thanks! I think she's gorgeous, too!

I guess I'll try to retake it. To be honest I never even looked at the settings. I was only adjusting stuff so that the flash wouldn't turn on

What mode were you using? Full auto? Try AV mode. Set your f/stop to 2.5 or so and try again!

evoryware

I didn't think there was anything wrong with having the front-most eye in focus and the rest out...

Scott_Quier

evoryware wrote:

I didn't think there was anything wrong with having the front-most eye in focus and the rest out...

There's not, but it's one of those thing - season to taste. Some don't like, others don't mind.

LiquidAir

Scott_Quier wrote:

There's not, but it's one of those thing - season to taste. Some don't like, others don't mind.

Indeed. I like it in some shots but not others.

I have found that focus with very wide apertures takes lots of practice and some trickery. To get the focus the way I want it I find I need to really think about what parts of the image I want in focus and choose my my focus point carefully to achieve the desired effect. Keep at it; be concious at all times of what aperture you are using and review your images quickly to evaluate how you are doing.

mr peas

I think my glasses are broken.

Wet Oregon

Can this eye be out of focus
Most people look you in the eye---even when glancing at a photograph; so IF the eyes are sharp everything else will appear sharp to the viewer.

In the case of the photograph in question the closest eye to the camera/viewer is sharp so you are almost there.

If you want to continue photographing at f1.8 step back from the subject so you have a little more depth of field.

I endorse what an earlier poster said about decreasing the shutter speed for a 2.8 or f4 aperature...just because you own a 50mm f 1.8 doesn't mean you have take the pictures wide open....

nice looking young daughter who you should re-photograph ASAP

chopsky

It's not necessary to step back. If you want to get that close up shot, just drop it down to around 2.8 like others have been saying and take it again. You obviously want the background out of focus. Whether you go closer at 2.8 or slightly further away at 1.8, it wont make a difference DOF-wise. You'll get some nicer looking bokeh highlights wide open, but on the flipside you'll get some extra sharpness at 2.8 since you're getting closer to the lens's sweetspot.
Im sure she wont mind doing the same pose again. You're lucky it's a girl - they usually love posing. Who knows, maybe next time you'll get an even better pose out of her!
Good luck!