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What percentage of photos are perfectly in focus?
I am finding that a percentage of photos are front focused when doing photo shoots. Even when I stop down to f/3.5 about 10 to 15% are clearly out of focus (100% zoom pixel peeping), especially standing full body shots using phase detect focus. I select the face to focus on and am not tilting the camera significantly and sometimes the camera just totally misses focus. I do not have this problem with contrast detect focus. I have seen some articles where even professional Canon cameras have a percentage that is not 100% perfect focus. Are my expectations off? Can anyone share experiences with their focus precision? Jul 17 23 10:40 am Link Are you focusing on the eye closest to you or focusing on the eye at all? @ F3.5 what shutter speed are you shooting at? are you shooting with a prime or zoom lens? Jul 17 23 02:32 pm Link Retro Wks wrote: Your camera may have the ability for microadjustments to the focus for different focal lengths. If it does, then that should help increase the in focus rate, but will require some trial-and-error testing of adjustment values to find the best setting for the lens+camera body that you are using. Jul 17 23 03:50 pm Link If you are photographing living, breathing creatures - humans or critters - they move. Even if it is just breathing there is movement. If you are hand-holding your camera, you move too. If you use a tripod you can gain stability on your end but you may lose some spontaneity. Perfect focus is likely only possible with a camera on a stout tripod and photographing an inanimate object that is not subject to motion by wind or other forces. Jul 17 23 06:11 pm Link I have the best luck using rear button focus. I thought I might change back to shutter button focus now with mirrorless but I still find rear button works best for me. And as mentioned earlier you may need to calibrate the focus on your individual lenses with each camera body. I've also found it possible to save photos slightly off with the use of Topaz Sharpen AI as a filter with Photoshop. It's amazing its ability to salvage images which in the past I didn't edit due to lack of sharpness. I do find I have to mask most elements of the frame and reduce or remove the sharpening sometimes narrowing down the effects to only the eyes of the subject. But it does do an amazing job of pulling out focus on missed shots. Jul 17 23 06:32 pm Link Znude! wrote: My best results come when I put a hood over the rear LCD screen and focus in Live View. The focus point can be moved to a precise location easily and quickly. Live View autofocus is a bit slower but for portraiture it seems to be more accurate and more flexible in terms of composition. I like to focus to the closest eye. Jul 17 23 06:45 pm Link Thanks folks, I have done plenty of calibration, and subjects are too far away to pick an eye to focus on (full body shots). It is just sometimes the autofocus locks on and is completely off. I tried small area, very small area, and single focus points, and focus on the face. Usually the small area on the face seems to perform best, however, with bright or high contrast background, it sometimes misses focus. Then I came across this blog, and indeed phase detect is not nearly as accurate as contrast detect. I am just curious what people experience in practice. Are all your images tack sharp with static subjects at 100% zoom? https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/0 … -accuracy/ Jul 17 23 07:04 pm Link Sounds like you may be having one of two issue. First, subject movement is a factor. Second, zoom lenses can move, from their own weight, as well as from your own body movements, while focusing. Also F/3.5, is pretty wide open for shooting people. The depth of field can be very inadequate, for the human body, especially in closer proximity. Rick Sep 09 23 07:01 am Link Interestingly, I have been using a different technique and now use the back-focus button and the success rate of photos in focus has increased significantly, where almost all photos are now properly in focus. I like the back-focus button technique as the camera doesn't refocus for every shot. Once in focus the subject often does not move such that refocus is needed. I find this quite interesting. Sep 18 23 11:31 am Link After some recent out of focus shots I decided to grab a older Macbook Air. While newer cameras often offer built in Wi-Fi many older ones don't. You can find these Macbook Airs on line for less than $100. I loaded mine with Linux and use its built in SD card reader to review images. Another idea is to try and shoot more then one image of a pose or subject you like. Tripods are also a good idea. Sep 18 23 01:18 pm Link Retro Wks wrote: What camera and what lens are you using? You mention using f/3.5 (not the most obvious aperture to use). Have you taken into consideration the depth of field of that aperture? Perhaps a smaller aperture, like f/4 or f/5.6 or f/8 would be more appropriate if you expect the entire body to be in focus? Sep 19 23 03:28 am Link |
