Working on getting eyes in sharp focus

itsaduck

I've had a hard time with it with my new 40D (and my old rebel, maybe it's me). Oh, and I'm always trying to catch a 4, 3, 2, 1 year old so maybe I should find some more serene subjects. Anyway, here are two of today's attempts.
#1 Her screen left eye still looks a little fuzzy. (oh, and don't mind the hair, she's a twister)



#2


Any insight welcome. I'm shooting with a 40D, EF28-135mm, 1/60, f5.6, and a 580EX bounced off the ceiling. I'm new to the 40D so any thoughts on that are also appreciated.

Cheers-

Swartzy

Increase
your DOF to at least f/7.1 which in turn you may need to add +1/3 EV flash.....shoot in Manual mode and try ISO 640 to 800...up your shutter speed to 1/80 to 1/100....don't worry about the noise...get the exposure correct by riding the flash EV....once that's accomplished you'll have both eyes in focus and can simply run the image through noise ninja/neat image/remove noise filter, CS3.

Also....it looks as though there is a tad bit of camera/subject shake....IS is on? and up your shutter speed..you'll see a big difference.

CarnalSigh

Itsaduck.....Don't feel lonely.....my 40D (with the same lens that u use) behaves (focus-wise) totally different than my xti. It is taking me some time to adjust to that, as well as some of the features I'm not accustomed to relying on. But slowly they are coming around.

With the xti u can slide up and capture an eye with a red dot, then reframe your shot and the eye will be in focus. You can't do that with the 40D. You get a blurry eye.

One thing I can tell u tho...in that first shot, unless you are using a little deeper depth of field, your camera will lock onto that strand of hair in front of her eye instead of the eye. Hopefully in the 60D they will come up with a way for the camera to have some sense and lock onto the eyeball, rather than that little tiny strand of hair in front of it.

Go up to f/7.1, then drop your shutter to around 1/30 with the IS on. That should solve the problem. But if you have camera shake issues, you can leave the shutter at 1/60 and up the flash a tad to get the same result. Contrary to the other poster, I like the ISO u chose. Looks like around 350 to me.

riddim_maker

Hi Alex,
may I ask what kind of focus method you're using?
I'm usually photographing birds and wildlife in the AI servo mode
and I've come to realize that it also works great for kids and pets,
since neither can sit still for too long.
The 40D has great tracking capabilities in this mode.

itsaduck

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try and shoot some similar shots this evening (they are kind of used to me doing this right before bed so it's something of a routine) and I'll post the results.

These were actually shot at ISO 800. Do you think I should go up from there or keep it the same? Also, as for the mode (AI Servo), I truthfully don't know. I'll go back and look but if it wasn't shot like that, I'll give it a try.

I'm going to try shooting some still life today to practice focusing with the 40D before I attempt the moving parts again.

Again, thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

Cheers-

evoryware

I'd shoot 1/125 - 1/200 w/ that lens. Did you check the focus points after you shot? I don't think any of them are on her eye on the first picture, if they are it may have caught the hair hanging in front of it. In the second picture it looks like it's on her eye, but 1/60 on that lens can be a lil slow.
Why did you shoot ISO 800 w/ flash? Were you trying to get the background light in?

itsaduck

Why did you shoot ISO 800 w/ flash? Were you trying to get the background light in?

Honestly, because this is so early in my 40D experience I'm embarrassed to say I didn't check the ISO. I was too busy figuring out what the d**n thing was focusing on. I shot earlier in the evening w/o the flash and I added it on the second round b/c it was darker outside. Plus, it took me an hour or so of fiddling with it (just now) to figure out how to change the shutter speed on the camera to begin with.

So when I do the next one tonight (tho it's cloudier today), I'll see if I can remember everything.

Cheers & thanks for the help.

evoryware

No problem. Reason I asked is because at that range to the subject, you can ISO 100/200/400 with little issue. Upping the ISO may help capture more ambient light, but it all depends on what you are trying to do with the shot.
In any case with flash, a faster shutter speed may have greatly helped these. Also making sure one of the points is on one of the eyes.