Challnegeing Focus: focusing manually

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

Since getting into architectural photography and learning more about perceptive control I have applied all what I leaned to portrait photography and that has lead to one interesting problem. Very often I am placing my subject far from the focus spots. More so I am using manual focus lenses such as the 90mm ts-e. How do I focus my lens manually to get the subject in perfect focus.

The picture below illustrates this problem. The subject was too high above the center focus point (the top is not very accurate). I tired to focus manually ans end up with the second pictures which is far from acceptable. How to approach this challenge??
 

[Frank Doorhof]

For normal lenses I focus on the closest eye and recompose and take the shot.
For T&S I'm working with a WLF and have to do it manually.
The CO5 is a great tool when it will be able to work with the Leaf Aptus backs for me because it shows you with a green area which parts of the shots are in focus.

It's all getting used to, the first time I used the T&S I believe 90% were out of focus now 10% is out of focus.

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

For normal lenses I focus on the closest eye and recompose and take the shot.
For T&S I'm working with a WLF and have to do it manually.
The CO5 is a great tool when it will be able to work with the Leaf Aptus backs for me because it shows you with a green area which parts of the shots are in focus.

It's all getting used to, the first time I used the T&S I believe 90% were out of focus now 10% is out of focus.

Thanks for the fast reply Frank!


What is "WLF"?

As for recomposing, that is what I end up doing though not without introducing composition errors.

[Frank Doorhof]

WLF=Waste Level Finder

I don't have problems with the recomposing but I have to add I've been doing it forever.

[evgeny]

The CO5 is a great tool when it will be able to work with the Leaf Aptus backs for me because it shows you with a green area which parts of the shots are in focus.

Frank, do you see the green when you shoot tethered, or it's in postprocessing? Is Aptus 65 back can show green in CO5? If not, what is necessary?

[Dick Roadnight]

Since getting into architectural photography and learning more about perceptive control I have applied all what I leaned to portrait photography and that has lead to one interesting problem. Very often I am placing my subject far from the focus spots. More so I am using manual focus lenses such as the 90mm ts-e. How do I focus my lens manually to get the subject in perfect focus.

Hi, Abdul

The picture below illustrates this problem. The subject was too high above the center focus point (the top is not very accurate). I tired to focus manually ans end up with the second pictures which is far from acceptable. How to approach this challenge??

This (focus and re-compose) is precisely (or mostly) what the new focusing tech on the Hasselblad H4D is for... it measures how far you re-compose, and adjusts the focus distance accordingly.

[Jeremy Payne]

How about Live View? ... like the ATM machine, I can't imagine life anymore without zoom-assisted manual focus using Live View ... and the focus point - at least on my D700 - can be moved anywhere on the screen.

[Frank Doorhof]

the green is seen in tethered mode, but it's not yet possible to tether an aptus.

[JoeKitchen]

www.slrdaren.com

This is a company that makes custom focusing screens similar to what we use to get in older film SLRs for modern DSLRs.

[BernardLanguillier]

How about Live View? ... like the ATM machine, I can't imagine life anymore without zoom-assisted manual focus using Live View ... and the focus point - at least on my D700 - can be moved anywhere on the screen.

Yep, if the subject doesn't move, then live view is the obvious answer.

Cheers,
Bernard

[feppe]

If you shoot wide open and want accurate focus, focus and recompose will result in OOF pictures, especially with MF. This is because the plane of focus is... a plane, not (part of) a hemisphere. Either use manual focus or Live View (if available).

You may get away with recomposing with some subjects, especially if the recomposing is minor. Also, if you stop down and/or don't need tack sharp pics, you'll do fine with recompose.

[Wayne Fox]

How about Live View? ... like the ATM machine, I can't imagine life anymore without zoom-assisted manual focus using Live View ... and the focus point - at least on my D700 - can be moved anywhere on the screen.

awfully slow when doing portrait work.  Impossible with younger subjects.

[Juanito]

For normal lenses I focus on the closest eye and recompose and take the shot.
For T&S I'm working with a WLF and have to do it manually.
The CO5 is a great tool when it will be able to work with the Leaf Aptus backs for me because it shows you with a green area which parts of the shots are in focus.

What is CO5?

Got it now. Capture One. (I use Leaf Capture.)

John

[wolfnowl]

T&S - Tilt & Shift
WLF - Waist Level Finder
CO5 - Capture One, version 5

Mike.

[FlashDB]

Since getting into architectural photography and learning more about perceptive control I have applied all what I leaned to portrait photography and that has lead to one interesting problem. Very often I am placing my subject far from the focus spots. More so I am using manual focus lenses such as the 90mm ts-e. How do I focus my lens manually to get the subject in perfect focus.

The picture below illustrates this problem. The subject was too high above the center focus point (the top is not very accurate). I tired to focus manually ans end up with the second pictures which is far from acceptable. How to approach this challenge??

Hi Aljabri

Hasselblad claims to have solved this recompose issue with their new H4D camera http://www.hasselblad.com/promotions/apl.aspx
If your getting into architectural photography they have a nice T&S solution as well http://www.hasselblad.com/products/h-system/hts-15.aspx

The H4D is yet to come and I'm looking forward to try it!
I had a chance to try HTS myself and it's extremely easy to use, for sure on my wish list for Christmas  

Cheers

David

[Jeremy Payne]

...

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

WLF=Waste Level Finder

I don't have problems with the recomposing but I have to add I've been doing it forever.

Pardon me, but I think I forgot to mention that I am using a 35mm DSLR (5dMKII). I don't think there are any available WLF for DSLR, correct?

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

This (focus and re-compose) is precisely (or mostly) what the new focusing tech on the Hasselblad H4D is for... it measures how far you re-compose, and adjusts the focus distance accordingly.

Your Hasselblad is H3D, it doesn't have that feature correct? How are you currently focusing such portraits?

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

If you shoot wide open and want accurate focus, focus and recompose will result in OOF pictures, especially with MF. This is because the plane of focus is... a plane, not (part of) a hemisphere. Either use manual focus or Live View (if available).

You may get away with recomposing with some subjects, especially if the recomposing is minor. Also, if you stop down and/or don't need tack sharp pics, you'll do fine with recompose.

yeah it easy to do that when working with f8, but the trouble starts at f4 and above.

awfully slow when doing portrait work.  Impossible with younger subjects.

and as Jeremy points out that method is impossible with moving subjects. I am not kidding when I tell you that while using the live view function at x10 to focus the subject, you could see the subject going and coming in and out of focus because of slight head movement.

[Dick Roadnight]

This (focus and re-compose) is precisely (or mostly) what the new focusing tech on the Hasselblad H4D is for... it measures how far you re-compose, and adjusts the focus distance accordingly.

Your Hasselblad is H3D, it doesn't have that feature correct? How are you currently focusing such portraits?

No ... this feature will be introduced with the H4D-60, scheduled for release 15th January, 2010. (I have the option to upgrade).